Tertiary Grave
Definition
A burial produced by a second relocation of remains already in a secondary grave. Rare, but documented at Srebrenica; the skeletal inventory is highly fragmented by this stage.
- Formation
- Second relocation from an existing secondary grave
- Frequency
- Rare
- Documented case
- Srebrenica
- Skeletal condition
- Highly fragmented
Common questions
Why would remains be moved a second time?+
In documented mass-atrocity cases, perpetrators relocated remains from primary to secondary and then tertiary graves to hinder discovery or disrupt identification efforts as investigations closed in on earlier burial sites.
Why is a tertiary grave harder to work with than a primary one?+
Each relocation with heavy machinery scatters and breaks bones further, so recovery teams face commingled, fragmented remains that require far more painstaking sorting and DNA-based identification than an undisturbed primary burial.
Related terms
- Execution Site
- The location where killings took place, distinct from the burial site in cases where bodies were transported for concealment. The spatial gap...
- Mechanical Digging Signature
- The characteristic shape, size, and wall profile left by excavation machinery rather than manual digging. Bucket-tooth marks, stepped profiles, and oversize dimensions...
- Primary Grave
- The original burial site, typically close to the location of death. Bodies are deposited in anatomical order with minimal post-depositional disturbance of...
- Secondary Grave
- A grave formed when remains from a primary site are mechanically excavated and reburied elsewhere. Identified by truncated skeletons at the primary...
- Truncation
- The cutting of a grave margin by heavy machinery during disturbance. Truncation leaves long bones severed mid-shaft at the grave edge and...