Post mortem anthropology and trauma analysis

Skeletal trauma remains one of the most challenging issues in forensic anthropology. Whether one is looking at skeletal remains or even well preserved cadavers, forensic anthropology and osteology may be the key disciplines by which to define the weapon used to produce a lesion or date a bone callus. If we omit radiology, which is a forensic discipline per se, the tools with which novel research is being performed are still macroscopic and stereoscopic observation, decalcified and non-decalcified thin section microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy with edx. The following paragraphs represent a brief summary of these events and the status quo, with particular focus on timing.