Abstract

MALGOSA, A. et al. Forensic anthropology serving justice and history: the Spanish Civil War mass graves. Cuad. med. forense [online]. 2010, vol.16, n.1-2, pp.65-79. ISSN 1988-611X.

Forensic Anthropology seeks both to identify the individual, such as determining the cause and circumstances of death. In this sense, forensic anthropology is essential for recovery remains of missing persons who were buried in mass graves during the Spanish Civil War and Franco's dictatorship, for subsequent return to their families. This paper presents the results of work done at the grave of Gurb, where Republican soldiers were buried; four families of Gavà had applied for exhumation of their relatives buried in it. The multidisciplinary work carried out allowed us: 1) to retrieve all available ante mortem information regarding the pit and the missing persons, 2) to recover the remains of 13 individuals buried in the grave by archaeological methods and forensic-anthropological guidelines, and 3) to analyze their remains in the laboratory through anthropological, forensics, molecular and craniofacial superimposition techniques. The results allowed both the identification of the four wanted persons, such as determining the causes and circumstances of his death, in all cases due to battle related trauma, specifically firearm injuries.

Keywords : DNA; Morphology; Craniofacial duplication; Civil War.

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