Stable isotopic analysis identifies unknown casualties of war

Providing medical care, housing, food and a safe place are what many would list as humanitarian activities in response to armed conflict and catastrophes. Less often listed is the rendering of forensic science aid. But managing the dead with dignity, identifying them and providing answers to loved ones and communities are the aims of Humanitarian Forensic Action (HFA). Coined by the International Committee of the Red Cross, HFA was the subject of a 2017 special issue of Forensic Science International that illustrated the global and multi-disciplinary work done to provide aid after armed conflict, maritime shipwreck, infection disease epidemic, natural disaster, and more.

The second world war saw perhaps the first comprehensive use of forensic disciplines to investigate wartime mass killing, though investigators and researchers now use forensic science to evaluate conflicts and combatants dating from antiquity to modern day. Stable isotope analysis of dental material – a modern staple of human remains identification work – has recently revealed that the local combatants historians thought were involved in the fall of the ancient Greek city of Himera likely played no role.