快猫短视频

When mass disaster strikes, the priority is to save lives. But when the emergency services have done all they can, someone has to recover human remains for the victims鈥� families and for legal and forensic purposes. This is where anthropologist Richard Gould comes in. He is a leader in a new field that is bringing the tools of anthropology and archaeology to the investigation of disasters. He tells Lucy Middleton about his often distressing work in the aftermath of 9/11, hurricane Katrina and other tragedies

What do 鈥渄isaster archaeologists鈥� like you do?

We clear up the human remains and physical effects left behind following a disaster after everyone else has gone home, so the victims can be identified, giving closure for their loved ones and also for forensic and legal purposes. We bag up all of the remains and record exactly where, when and how they were found. This is really important for the court proceedings that inevitably follow a disaster. Disaster archaeology is an outgrowth of archaeology, the historical science in which we use physical evidence to find out about the past. But the past doesn鈥檛 have to be thousands of years ago, it can be yesterday.

How did you get into it?

My wife worked at the United Nations building at the time of 9/11; she saw a lot of what happened that day. Three weeks later, I went down to ground zero and found fragmented human remains all over the place. Lower Manhattan was covered in grey ashy stuff we call 鈥渒itty litter鈥�, and amidst it I saw things like pieces of human scapula. No one had prepared me for this. I knew something had to be done. There were going to be many people wanting identification of their lost relatives, and if recovery teams were only looking inside ground zero then a great number were going to be missed. It was difficult: I wanted to use my skills to help but I didn鈥檛 want to attract attention to what I was seeing.

What did you do?

I made a real pest of myself. I faxed a report to the medical examiner鈥檚 and mayor鈥檚 offices, and the police and fire departments. The mayor鈥檚 office understood but the officials had already dispatched power-washing teams. Of course their priority was to restore normality to people鈥檚 lives. They were very apologetic as they could see that this would destroy much evidence, which it did. However, at the end of February 2002 we were invited by the medical examiner鈥檚 office to do a trial excavation outside ground zero to see if our skills would be useful. This was the starting point for our volunteer and training group, .

Are they still recovering remains today?

They finally stopped work at ground zero a few weeks ago. But yes, four-and-a-half years later they were still finding human remains in great numbers. And much of it was just where we said it would be, way outside ground zero. Paper containing human bloodstains was found in Brooklyn 鈥� that鈥檚 several miles from Manhattan. I鈥檓 afraid they may keep finding this material for years. Workmen are likely to stumble across it, as it gets into unexpected places. Remains have even been found underground in pipes. This is the kind of thing we try to prevent from happening. Just short of 3000 lives were lost in 9/11, and around 1100 to 1200 people remain unidentified or not located. I strongly suspect that many remains were blown outside ground zero and have not yet been recovered. They may never be.

鈥淔or years, people may keep finding material from 9/11鈥�

What other disasters have you worked in?

After the fire at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island, in 2003, in which 100 people died, the governor鈥檚 office deployed our team to clean up the site. There were lots of charred and fragmented human remains left behind, along with other personal effects, that we collected in buckets and gave to the forensics people. It was pretty ugly. If we hadn鈥檛 cleared up, members of the public would have started finding human remains, and things like wedding rings and bracelets which they would either have kept or sold as souvenirs on eBay 鈥� it does happen. And lawyers would have tried to seize evidence from the site. They tried but they didn鈥檛 get it. We cleaned that place like you wouldn鈥檛 believe.

I also worked for the federal after hurricane Katrina for three weeks, helping to recover and identify storm victims and bodies from cemeteries. The water table is really high in that part of the country so many coffins were displaced and were just floating around. DMORT recovered all 762 of them, and we also identified 1067 storm victims.

How do you train to be prepared for disasters?

We try to recreate different situations to test our methods. For example, we once dressed a 90-pound sheep cadaver in a vest bomb and put it in a police car and blew it up. We then did a full recovery of sheep bits. We found hundreds of pieces incredible distances 鈥� up to 150 metres 鈥� outside the crime scene, so it was like ground zero on a smaller scale. In an exercise next month, team members will try to locate some assorted clothing and personal artefacts we buried underground last November in Scituate, Rhode Island, by carrying out a remote-sensing survey of the area. And we鈥檝e buried three pigs in a location in central Massachusetts intended as proxies for bodies 鈥� they will serve as the focus for an exercise next year.

What kind of archaeological skills do you bring to a disaster scene?

We use a number of field methods such as surveying, excavation, site recording, sieving and DNA collection. We鈥檙e well practised in preserving remains as we find them and in examining stratified deposits that reflect changes though time. We have laser surveying instruments, ground-penetrating radar and other state-of-the-art tools.

The crucial thing is the way we apply our skills. The great mantra of emergency services is 鈥渆xpect the unexpected鈥�, which is second nature for us since we are always encountering unique situations in the field. Furthermore, archaeologists are used to working as a team, and this kind of work should never be done without team support.

How do you cope psychologically with the work?

That is a really big issue. We make sure people never work alone at one of these scenes. We also make arrangements for counsellors to be present. We are very careful with how we treat human remains: our job is to do this with respect. It is a tough thing to deal with and it is not for everyone. I never know how I will feel about the next disaster. Disaster archaeology is incredibly rewarding, but it is stressful. One day I may have to stop.

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