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THE ROLE OF 14C DATING IN THE IDENTIFICATION OF MISSING PERSONS IN CYPRUS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2023

Gianluca Quarta Open the ORCID record for Gianluca Quarta [Opens in a new window] ,
Theodora Eleftheriou ,
Istenc Engin ,
Lucio Maruccio ,
Marisa D’Elia  and
Lucio Calcagnile
Gianluca Quarta*
Affiliation:
CEDAD-Centre of Applied Physics, Dating and Diagnostics, Department of Mathematics and Physics “Ennio de Giorgi”, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy
Theodora Eleftheriou
Affiliation:
CMP Anthropological Laboratory, Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP), PO Box 21642, Nicosia 1590, Cyprus
Istenc Engin
Affiliation:
CMP Anthropological Laboratory, Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP), PO Box 21642, Nicosia 1590, Cyprus
Lucio Maruccio
Affiliation:
CEDAD-Centre of Applied Physics, Dating and Diagnostics, Department of Mathematics and Physics “Ennio de Giorgi”, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy
Marisa D’Elia
Affiliation:
CEDAD-Centre of Applied Physics, Dating and Diagnostics, Department of Mathematics and Physics “Ennio de Giorgi”, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy
Lucio Calcagnile
Affiliation:
CEDAD-Centre of Applied Physics, Dating and Diagnostics, Department of Mathematics and Physics “Ennio de Giorgi”, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy
*
*Corresponding author. Email: gianluca.quarta@unisalento.it
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Abstract

The Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP) is a bicommunal committee with the mandate to locate and identify the skeletal remains of 2002 persons who were reported missing during the inter-communal fighting of 1963–64, as well as the events of July and August 1974. During the periods of conflict, several archaeological sites and old cemeteries were used as primary burial sites, among several other types of burials, as they were easily accessed by the persons involved in the interment and little effort was needed to conceal the bodies. The relatively large post-mortem interval and the generally poor post-mortem preservation of the skeletal remains poses an additional challenge in the forensic examination process and the identification of the remains, particularly in the absence of a context or other associated artifacts/evidence. Between 2016 and 2020, the CMP has been collaborating with CEDAD to clarify the relevancy of several cases by using radiocarbon dating. The CMP submitted 139 cases to CEDAD out of which 112 were determined as not linked to the 1963–64 and 1974 events and then not relevant for the CMP project. For the remaining samples radiocarbon dating was used to determine death age.

Keywords

bomb peak datingforensicshuman remains identificationradiocarbon
Type
Conference Paper
Information
Radiocarbon , First View , pp. 1 - 11
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of University of Arizona

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Footnotes

Selected Papers from the 24th Radiocarbon and 10th Radiocarbon & Archaeology International Conferences, Zurich, Switzerland, 11–16 Sept. 2022

References

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