This book consists of what at first sight is an eclectic set of papers, on topics ranging from nineteenth-century excavations of a Neolithic site on Guernsey to recent burnt remains in Chile. Those two papers in fact encapsulate the main theme of the book, which is recent advances in the analysis of burnt human remains, combining forensic and archaeological evidence in the reconstruction of burial ritual in a wider social context. The case studies and general discussions show how far this kind of research has developed since the 1980s, when Jackie McKinley, the author of the foreword to this book, began her pioneering work on the thousands of early Anglo-Saxon cremated remains from Spong Hill in Norfolk.

An introductory chapter by Thompson reviews the history of research, which is complemented, especially for the non-specialist, by Ubelaker’s update of recent research on the effects of heat on the human body. Apart from a brief conclusion, the remaining chapters each present a specific case study, looking at the application of osteological and scientific analysis of cremated or burnt bone to the interpretation of archaeological or forensic contexts.

Cataroche and Gowland retrieve useful information from ‘two large storage boxes of non-accessioned bones, all disarticulated and fragmentary’ excavated in 1837 (p 23), while Harvig uses CT scanning to differentiate between Bronze and Iron Age burials in Denmark. The chapter by Gonçalves et al on the weight of cremated remains is a comprehensive and thorough examination using Iron Age bones from Tera, in Portugal. Piga et al have used several different techniques to examine the crystal structure of burnt bone and wood from Monte Sirai, Sardinia, to distinguish an apparent shift from cremation to inhumation via an intermediate process of ‘semi-combustion’. Cortesão Silva presents osteological and demographic analysis of Roman period burials from Augusta Emerita, Spain. Most of the cremations had taken place soon after death, on pyres in rectangular pits where the remains were later buried. Kirsty Squires used microscopic analysis of early Anglo-Saxon period cremated bones to differentiate between bones burnt at different temperatures, from which the position of the body on the pyre and the scale of the fire could be reconstructed. Ulguim has studied mounds in southern Brazil, dated to the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries ad, using historical/ ethnographic accounts as well as archaeological evidence. These have interesting resonance with early medieval burial mounds in Europe. The final case study from Chile (by Garrido-Varas and Intriago-Leiva) is of recently, possibly suspiciously, burnt bones. This is the only specifically forensic example, but it is clear from all the studies and their bibliographies that this is a specialism with clear relevance to the present day, and with constructive interaction between those interested in ancient bodies and possible criminal investigation of modern death.

One point to strike the non-specialist reader is how varied the process of burning human bodies can be. ‘Cremation’ conjures up either the modern visit to the crematorium, resulting in a container of powdered bone, or urns full of more ancient fragmented bones and melted artefacts; in either case a finite and probably brief process of burning and deposition. But in fact burning can take place long after death, it can be partial or complete, resulting in complete or very partial deposition, at different times and carried out for a variety of reasons. The kinds of analyses demonstrated in these papers allow the reconstruction of some of this complexity. There is not a simple dichotomy between cremation and inhumation, and burial archaeology needs to allow for complexity of ritual in the past. The other general point is the largely successful attempt to integrate the results of very detailed technical analyses, using an impressive range of different techniques, with the wider archaeological context.

The book is well presented with good illustrations and copious tables. It has one drawback, however, which is a lack of rigorous editing, most apparent in the papers by non- English authors. This is not the fault of those authors, it is probably the result of the minimising of the publisher’s input due to financial pressure, and it is a general problem, not confined to this book. But it does detract from its otherwise scholarly content. Translation is an undervalued art: it is not a simple matter of the mechanical equivalence of words, but also the structure of sentences and grammar and subtle nuance of meaning. Sometimes it would be easier to understand the original than the ‘translated’ text. We would not accept inaccuracy in a mathematical equation or chemical formula; I think we should be equally precise, and therefore unambiguous, in our use of language.

This book is welcome as a significant contribution to our understanding of a key aspect of archaeological and forensic research.