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Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “Dead Men Tell Tales,” an examination of what happens to our bodies after we die and the stories our corpses then tell, with Rhys Williams, forensic anthropologist and assistant professor in forensic science at Loyola University Maryland.
Ever wondered what happens after an unidentified body has been found in the woods and police have been summoned? Have you been curious about what can be discovered through the inspection and autopsy of decayed human remains?
You can get answers to even your grisliest questions when Profs and Pints brings forensic anthropologist Rhys Williams to Baltimore’s Guilford Hall. A specialist in burial location and digital imaging, Dr. Williams has worked with international forensic and archaeological teams to find and analyze both crime evidence and artifacts bound for museums. The Grim Reaper himself would be impressed by his knowledge of death scenes and what happens to our bodies when we die.
(This talk will feature topics and images some viewers may find disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.)
Dr. Williams will start by giving you a crash course on human decomposition, discussing the factors that determine how a body decomposes and at what speed.
You’ll learn how temperature and insect life play a big role—the warmer the environment, the more insects and the faster the rate of decay. How a body progresses through the stages of bloating, decay, and skeletonization also involves many other environmental and personal factors, though. They include the clothing on the body, rainfall, the presence of scavengers, soil pH, and microbiology. Whether a body is buried, and at what depth, determines how these factors come into play.
You’ll also learn how once a body has decomposed the exposed bones tell their own story, holding vast amounts of information revealing who the deceased once was. Examining the form, function, morphology and development of bone sheds light on sex, age, stature, and a wealth of medical and cultural history.
Dr. Williams will discuss how the analytical methods he describes can be applied to a body found in the woods, an archaeological burial, a mass grave, or in the process of identifying disaster victims.
As a class exercise, we’ll examine a forensic case together, looking at methods used in constructing the biological profile of an unidentified body. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Doors open at 5. Talk begins at 6:30.)
Image: A mummified corpse in the crypt of the parish church of St. Thomas am Blasenstein in Austria. (Photo by Otto Normalverbraucher / Wikimedia Commons.)