Forensic anthropology and mortuary archaeologyin Lithuania

摘要

Forensic anthropology (in Lithuania, as everywhere in Eastern Europe, tradition-ally considered as a narrower field – forensic osteology) has a long history, experience beinggained both during exhumations of mass killings during the Second World War and the sub-sequent totalitarian regime, investigations of historical mass graves, identification of histori-cal personalities and routine forensic work. Experts of this field (usually a branch of forensicmedicine) routinely are solving "technical" questions of crime investigation, particularlyidentification of (usually dead) individuals. Practical implementation of the mission of foren-sic anthropology is not an easy task due to interdisciplinary character of the field. On onehand, physical anthropology has in its disposition numerous scientifically tested methods,however, their practical value in particular legal processes is limited. Reasons for these dis-crepancies can be related both to insufficient understanding of possibilities and limitations offorensic anthropology and archaeology by officials representing legal institutions that per-form investigations, and sometimes too "academic" research, that is conducted at anthropo-logical laboratories, when methods developed are not completely relevant to practical needs.Besides of answering to direct questions (number of individuals, sex, age, stature, populationaffinity, individual traits, evidence of violence), important humanitarian aspects – the indi-vidual's right for identity, the right of the relatives to know the fate of their beloved ones –should not be neglected. Practical use of other identification methods faces difficulties oftheir own (e.g. odontology – lack of regular dental registration system and compatible data-base). Two examples of forensic anthropological work of mass graves, even when the resultswere much influenced by the questions raised by investigators, can serve as an illustration ofthe above-mentioned issues.