Speaker: Christine Lambert

Forensic canines are tremendously effective at detecting the presence of human remains in modern and historic contexts. However, less evidence exists of the ability of historic human remains detection (HHRD) dogs to detect cremated human remains of Pre-contact age, due to the limited opportunities to excavate within highly sensitive and protected sites. Cultural resource management (CRM) projects often encounter buried human cremains during excavation within or adjacent to cultural sites. Archaeologists use several remote sensing methods to locate intact burials, such as ground penetrating radar (GPR) or aerial photography, but these methods cannot identify scattered and fragmented cremains. HHRD dogs from the Institute of Canine Forensics (ICF) can noninvasively detect the scent of human cremains, but pinpointing the exact location of the bone fragments is not always possible. In this study, I invited the ICF to blind search areas positive for human cremains, as confirmed by archaeological site records, excavation during a CRM project, ethnographic accounts, and prior ICF dog alerts from 2020. I investigate how the dogs’ alert behaviors and the handlers’ interpretations of those behaviors can help us visually depict scent patterns in areas containing cremains. Overlapping dog alerts suggest a high likelihood of accurate scent detection, even when archaeologists fail to identify individual bone fragments. Combined with additional lines of evidence, overlapping alerts from multiple dogs and surveys aid in the identification of cremation sites and their general context. Results of this study will allow archaeologists to increase the probability of identifying and avoiding sensitive Native American cremation sites when incorporating forensic canine surveys into CRM project designs.