Traces of Dissection on Human Skeletal Remains of the First Half of 19th Century from Ostrava, Czech Republic

the discovery of approximately 40 graves dating back to the Early Modern Period. One of the graves, number 841, connected with the last stage of the cemetery’s existence, has provided human bones in a very poor state of preservation. These have been anthropologically analysed and subsequently interpreted as the remains of a woman who died in her young adult life (20–25 years). The skeleton number 841 shows traces of dissection-like intervention in the right parietal bone and squama of the frontal bone, which has proved to be a key factor for subsequent investigations. Based on archaeological findings (the dating and grave inventory), anthropological assessment (sex, age and dissection traces), and written sources (registers of deaths), we have been able to identify this skeleton as the remains of the Ostrava burgher Marianna Máchová (1817–1837), who committed suicide in 1837.