par Boucherie, Alexandra ;Polet, Caroline ;Lefèvre, Philippe
Référence Spring Forensic Science Symposium - Société Royale de Médecine Légale de Belgique (19 avril 2024: Leuven)
Publication Non publié, 2024-04-19
Communication à un colloque
Résumé : On the 8th of August 1956, the deadliest mining disaster occurred in Belgium at the coalmine of Bois du Cazier in Marcinelle: 262 minors of diverse nationalities (Belgian, Italian, German, Algerian, Greek…) lost their lives in the aftermath of a human error. They were all identified except 17 of them. In October 2021, upon the request of one of the descendants of the unidentified victims, the Disaster Victim Unit of the Belgian Federal Police launched a large operation to exhume the remains of the unknowns and to proceed to their identification. Analyses were carried out by a multidisciplinary team composed of experts in forensic medicine, forensic odontology, forensic anthropology, archaeology, and molecular biology. This communication aims to present the anthropological results. After inventorying the human remains, the biological profile of each individual was assessed. Diagnose Sexuelle Probabiliste on os coxae was used to estimate the biological sex and seven different methods, included cementochronology, were compiled to estimate age-at-death. Stature was assessed using Raxter and Olivier’s equations while the biogeographical origin was evaluated with AncesTrees. The comparison between ante-mortem data (e.g., stature, age, pathologies, and physical particularities) with the post-mortem data allowed to propose an identification for eight individuals, with four of them confirmed later by DNA. Beyond fulfilling this memory duty towards the victims and their families, this mission also gave the opportunity to gather precious information for complementary research projects about peri-mortem traumas and activity-related skeletal changes documenting the harsh working conditions of the miners.

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