Analyzing and Interpreting Lime Burials from the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939): A Case Study from La Carcavilla Cemetery

Lime and odour: A preliminary investigation into the effect of hydrated lime on the volatiles emitted from human remains

The location of human remains is performed primarily through the aid of cadaver detection dogs, which rely on the malodour produced through decomposition of decaying bodies. Malefactors will attempt to conceal these putrefactive odours through chemical additions such as lime, which is also wrongly believed to accelerate decomposition and prevent the identification of the victim. Despite the frequency of lime in forensic applications, to date no research has been performed to determine its effect on the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released during human decomposition. This research was therefore conducted to ascertain the effects of hydrated lime on the VOC profile of human remains. Two human donors were used in a field trial at the Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research (AFTER): one donor was covered with hydrated lime, and the other had no chemical additions acting as a control. VOC samples were collected over a period of 100 days and analysed using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOFMS). The volatile samples were accompanied by visual observations of how decomposition progressed. The results showed that lime application decreased the rate of decomposition and decreased total carrion insect activity. Lime increased the abundance of VOCs during the fresh and bloat stages of decay, however the abundance of compounds plateaued during active and advanced decomposition and were much lower than those detected from the control donor. Despite this suppression of VOCs, the study found that dimethyl disulfide and dimethyl trisulfide, key sulfur-containing compounds, were still produced in high quantities, and can thus still be used to locate chemically altered human remains. Knowledge of the effects of lime on human decomposition can inform the training of cadaver detection dogs, and ensure a greater chance at locating victims of crimes or mass disasters.

Genetic and phylogeographic evidence for Jewish Holocaust victims at the Sobibór death camp

Six million Jews were killed by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. Archaeological excavations in the area of the death camp in Sobibór, Poland, revealed ten sets of human skeletal remains presumptively assigned to Polish victims of the totalitarian regimes. However, their genetic analyses indicate that the remains are of Ashkenazi Jews murdered as part of the mass extermination of European Jews by the Nazi regime and not of otherwise hypothesised non-Jewish partisan combatants. In accordance with traditional Jewish rite, the remains were reburied in the presence of a Rabbi at the place of their discovery.

Timoteo Mendieta Alcalá and the Pact of Forgetting: trauma analysis of execution victims from a Spanish Civil War mass burial site at Guadalajara, Castilla la Mancha

Fascist dictator Francisco Franco was responsible for the torture, murder and covert burial of 150-200,000 civilians both during and after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). This comprises one of the largest concentrations of mass graves and victims in the world, yet efforts to exhume them have been strenuously blocked by subsequent governments. This research documents the 2017 exhumation of Timoteo Mendieta Alcalá and 27 other individuals executed between July and November 1939, and interred at the cemetery in Guadalajara, Castilla La Mancha. The analysis includes DNA identifications and an assessment of cultural (possessions) and bioarchaeological variables (age/sex, stature, palaeopathology) in order to contextualise studies of ante/peri-mortem trauma, and thus understand the decedents' lives and the manner in which they were treated before and up to the time of their executions. Of the 24 burials in the main grave, 23 (95.8%) showed gunshot trauma (GSW), 7 (29.2%) showed blunt force trauma (BFT) and 1 (4.2%) showed sharp force trauma (SFT). Five of the main group (20.8%) showed healing lesions indicative of often extensive assault in the weeks leading up to their execution; one individual had sustained 27 fractures. GSW patterns are consistent with an organised firing squad, followed by multiple GSW at close range in the back/side of the head. This research elucidates unrecorded aspects of fascist dominion in 1936-9, adds to extant research on pattern and method in global atrocities, and demonstrates the human cost of the Spanish Civil War to those who aim to trivialise it.

Histology and Raman spectroscopy of limed human remains from the Rwandan Genocide

The Murambi Genocide Memorial Centre is one of the major centres in Rwanda that commemorate the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Seventeen months after the genocide, about 1000 excavated human remains were put on display in Murambi Technical School. Repeated efforts were made to desiccate the human remains with lime for educational reasons. The aim of this study was to assess their state of preservation and understand the extent of degradation of the tissue. Limed soft tissue samples from four individuals were examined with light and electron microscopy, and subjected to histological analysis. Raman spectroscopy at 785 nm and 1064 nm provided information about the impact of environmental conditions on the extent of deterioration to these samples, the presence of organics and the conversion of the associated lime from calcium hydroxide to calcium carbonate. While visual degradation of the bodies in Murambi has been reported, this study confirms deterioration at a microscopic and molecular level. Both histology and Raman spectroscopic analysis revealed that the limed bodies in Murambi were deteriorating at the time the samples were collected. The results of this study will inform future decisions regarding the long-term conservation of those human remains.