Research in Action: Public - University of Calgary

It’s all in the bones.
As a consulting forensic anthropologist, Dr. Anne Katzenberg uses her study of bones for everything from
identifying skeletal remains to help bringing closure to distressed families who have lost a relative, to
unlocking the secrets of past civilizations.
Through her human osteology research, Katzenberg, professor in the Department of Archaeology at the
University of Calgary, learns everything she can from what’s left of people from the past — usually bones,
teeth and occasionally with mummies, hair and soft tissue that can be reconstructed.
The Alberta Medical Examiner calls in Katzenberg several times a year to identify sex, age and height of skeletal
remains, and through her measurements of the skull and face, ethnicity.
“My work is of value when the remains are in an advanced state of decomposition, when fingerprints and dental
records are not available,” says Katzenberg. “Through my analysis, I can help rule out certain individuals who
are missing faster than DNA results can be obtained to confirm identity.”
Katzenberg also shares her expertise through workshops with search and rescue groups where she describes
evidence that may be found in the field and how to protect its integrity. She teaches how to differentiate human
bones from animal bones and fosters an understanding of how these skills can be applied.
Past people tell their stories
Through her research, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC),
Katzenberg looks at how past civilizations lived and adapted to change, including diseases, warfare, climate
change and degradation of the environment. She specializes in analyzing the protein that is preserved in
prehistoric bones to determine what people ate. She can tell if people ate domesticated plants and animals
or whether they were hunter-gatherers. The research helps identify community and cultural behaviours and
social organizations.
Currently Katzenberg is collaborating with an international multidisciplinary team investigating cultural dynamics
among the Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers of the Lake Baikal region of Siberia, Russia.
www.baikal.arts.ualberta.ca
http://www.fp.ucalgary.ca/bioanth/
“In contrast to forensic anthropologists portrayed on TV shows
like CSI, only a few of my cases have been crimes. More often
they are old burials that have eroded to the surface and
suicides carried out in remote places. Most of my work takes
place in the morgue, not at ‘the scene’. So, there is less of
the ‘crime scene’ and more of the investigation of ‘who is this
person?’”
Dr. Anne Katzenberg, Department of Archaeology, U of C.
University of Calgary Research in Action 18