An Osteological Analysis and Social Investigation of the Cremation Rite at the Cemeteries of Elsham and Cleatham, North Lincolnshire: PhD Thesis, University of Sheffield (2011)

In 2008, Kirsty Squires obtained PhD funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to conduct an in-depth assessment of the Elsham and Cleatham cremated bone assemblages at the University of Sheffield. This programme of research was designed to address four primary aims. The first aim of this project involved constructing a demographic profile of the Elsham burial population. This was achieved through a full osteological analysis of the cremated and unburned bone assemblages. The secondary aim of the project was to gain an understanding of the identity of the individuals buried at this site through an examination of the artefactual evidence and cemetery organisation. Here, information about the grave- and pyre-goods, cinerary urns, animal remains, and spatial distribution of burials at the site were analysed alongside the demographic attributes of the burial population. The third aim of this research was to explore the efficiency of the cremation process through a macroscopic examination of the burned bone alongside more technical forms of analysis, including histomorphometry and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The final and overarching aim of this doctoral project was to produce and disseminate a dataset detailing the cremated and unburned bone from the Elsham cemetery. The results of Kirsty Squires' doctoral research were published in 2012 and 2013 in the Archaeological Journal. This digital resource contains the data that were collected and discussed in these articles. The following dataset includes a full catalogue of the cremated bone and skeletal remains from the inhumation burials from this cemetery. This resource also contains a database of the burial co-ordinates from this site. The cremated and unburned bone, cinerary urns, and grave- and pyre-goods from both cemeteries are currently housed in North Lincolnshire Museum.

2008年，柯斯蒂·斯夸尔斯（Kirsty Squires）获艺术与人文研究委员会（Arts and Humanities Research Council）博士资助，于谢菲尔德大学（University of Sheffield）开展埃尔舍姆（Elsham）与克利瑟姆（Cleatham）火化骨骼组合（cremated bone assemblages）的深度评估研究。本研究项目设定了四项核心目标：其一，构建埃尔舍姆墓葬人群的人口学特征档案，通过对火化与未烧蚀骨骼组合开展全面骨学分析（osteological analysis）完成该目标；其二，通过人工制品证据（artefactual evidence）与墓地布局（cemetery organisation）分析，明确该遗址墓葬个体的身份信息，本次分析涵盖该遗址墓葬的墓中随葬品、火葬柴堆随葬品、骨灰瓮（cinerary urns）、动物遗存以及墓葬空间分布信息，并结合墓葬人群的人口学特征展开；其三，通过对烧蚀骨骼的宏观观察（macroscopic examination），结合组织形态计量学（histomorphometry）与傅里叶变换红外（FTIR）光谱分析等技术手段，探究火葬流程的效率；其四，作为本博士项目的最终核心目标，构建并发布一套数据集，详细收录埃尔舍姆墓地出土的火化与未烧蚀骨骼遗存。柯斯蒂·斯夸尔斯的博士研究成果于2012年与2013年发表于《考古学期刊》（Archaeological Journal），本数字资源即收录了上述两篇论文中采集并讨论的全部数据。本数据集完整收录埃尔舍姆墓地土葬墓葬（inhumation burials）出土的火化骨骼与人体骨骼遗存完整目录，同时包含该遗址的墓葬坐标数据库。上述两处墓地出土的火化与未烧蚀骨骼、骨灰瓮以及墓中与火葬柴堆随葬品，目前均收藏于北林肯郡博物馆（North Lincolnshire Museum）。