Forensic Archaeology. The Argentinian Way

The death of a human being has material and immaterial consequences. Among the former, one of the most important involves making special arrangements to dispose of the corpse, since decomposition starts upon death and, from a sanitary point of view, decomposing bodies should not be kept inside the dwelling. This need to take corpses away from dwelling places gave rise to mortuary practices that still live on today, the earliest ones recorded being those of the hominines from the archaeological sites of Skhul and Qafzeh, more than 100,000 years old (Tillier 2009). In addition to their origin associated with the materiality of a decomposing corpse, mortuary practices also have an emotional and ritual component. But besides these conscious and deliberate consequences, the death of a human being bears unconscious and involuntary consequences. The development of forensic archaeology (understood as the application of archaeological principles, methods and techniques in a legal context) in Argentina is associated with a tragedy. During the last military dictatorship (1976?1983), between 10,000 and 30,000 people, depending on the source, were victims of enforced disappearance. The concept of the disappeared could not disguise the material and immaterial consequences of the military regime. It was precisely these consequences that led to the creation of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (Equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense ? EAAF), the starting point of forensic archaeology in Argentina. Fil: Fondebrider, Luis Bernardo. Equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense; Argentina Fil: Scheinsohn, Vivian Gabriela. Secretaría de Cultura de la Nación. Dirección Nacional de Cultura y Museos. Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina