Truncation
Definition
The cutting of a grave margin by heavy machinery during disturbance. Truncation leaves long bones severed mid-shaft at the grave edge and is the clearest physical marker that a primary grave has been robbed.
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...
- Tertiary grave
- A burial produced by a second relocation of remains already in a secondary grave. Rare, but documented at Srebrenica; the skeletal inventory...
Explained in
- Mass Grave Typology and FormationThe cutting of a grave margin by heavy machinery during disturbance. Truncation leaves long bones severed mid-shaft at the grave edge and is the clearest physi...