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.
- Cause
- Heavy machinery cutting a grave margin during disturbance
- Physical sign
- Long bones severed mid-shaft at the grave edge
- Significance
- Clearest physical marker of primary grave robbing
- Context
- Mass grave typology and formation analysis
Common questions
How does truncation help an investigator distinguish a robbed grave from an undisturbed one?+
Bones severed cleanly mid-shaft at the grave boundary indicate mechanical cutting rather than natural decomposition or animal scavenging, which tends to leave irregular, gnawed, or displaced but not sheared bone ends.
Does truncation always mean the whole grave was emptied?+
No, robbing episodes are often partial, and truncation marks the margin cut by machinery during that specific disturbance. Remains further from the cut edge may still be intact, so excavation typically continues to establish the full extent of loss.
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...