Foreword

The manner in which biological anthropology approaches the analysis of anatomized skeletal remains—remains that exhibit evidence of medical intervention such as autopsies, dissections, and amputations—has changed significantly. Over the last decade, there has been a proliferation of reports and publications discussing skeletal remains recovered from historic contexts that exhibit evidence of medical intervention, with over a dozen journal articles and book chapters as well as two full length edited volumes. Examples have been reported on and discussed from Great Britain, Poland, France, Western Europe, Canada, and the US. This research can generally be placed into two, often overlapping,