Preconception and perception: The lessons of a 19th century suicide

This paper discusses how and why several experienced human skeletal biologists failed to recognize fatal bullet wounds in the cranium of a 57-year-old male excavated from the crypt beneath Christ Church, Spitalfields, London. The damage to the skull is described and the problems of interpretating historical and archaeological evidence in the light of the effects of the law on the interment of suicides are discussed.