Sieve Mesh Recovery
Definition
The recovery of small bones, fragments, and associated material by passing grave fill through wire mesh of 6 mm and 2 mm aperture. Mandatory for the pelvic, cranial, and hand/foot regions where small elements are diagnostically important for biological profile construction.
- Mesh sizes used
- 6 mm and 2 mm aperture
- Material processed
- Grave fill
- Mandatory zones
- Pelvic, cranial, and hand/foot regions
- Purpose
- Recovering small bones and fragments for biological profile construction
Common questions
Why are the pelvic, cranial, and hand/foot regions specifically mandated for sieving, rather than the whole grave?+
Those regions contain the small, diagnostically critical elements, such as hand and foot phalanges, hyoid fragments, and pelvic auricular surface pieces, that are most useful for sex, age, and stature estimation and that are also the easiest to miss with hand excavation alone, so sieving those zones is prioritised even when time or resources limit full-site sieving.
What is lost if grave fill is not sieved at all?+
Small teeth, phalanges, and fragmentary bone pieces get discarded with the backfill soil unnoticed, which can reduce the completeness of the skeletal inventory and remove elements needed for age estimation, trauma analysis, or even DNA sampling from small dense bones like the petrous portion.
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