Hey, I was wondering if anyone knew of any decent studies undertaken to examine the forensic results from a weapon wound? I'm intending to do such a test for my dissertation, and am having trouble finding something more original. So any information you guys might have would be great. I thought this would be on e of the best resources to turn to.

Also, any suggestions would be great. Essentially it would be testing the weapons upon a pig carcass, and then examining the bones for distinctive damage, which could then be matched to past and future human remains as evidence of a wound from such a weapon.

Check out the last post in this ARMA Forum discussion.

http://www.thearma.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24657

There are links to facebook posts of weapons tested on pig carcasses, they probably have the information you're looking for.

"Blood Red Roses" has extensive forensic tables and notes. Essential reading. See also the RA-Leeds involvement in the forensic study of Richard III's remains.

While it's not up to today's standards, the work on the finds from the battle of visby in 1361 ( I think) has some interesting remains. There was a fair bit of detail on various skeletons showing extensive wound damage. I can't think of the actual name of the books..but I'm sure someone will chip in with them. I may be wrong..but I *think* the books are available somewhere on-line.

Your proposed work brings to mind this:

Jason E. Lewis, "Identifying sword marks on bone: criteria for distinguishing between cut marks made by different classes of bladed weapons", Journal of Archaeological Science 35(7), 2001-2008 (2008).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2008.01.016

I don't think that the choice of bladed weapons used here was the best possible; why include fantasy weapons? It would be interesting to have some polearms included.

Thanks guys this is all incredibly helpful information and reading.

Timo, I was considering polearms, since I feel they are a key part of the later medieval battlefield, but relatively ignored by scientific study. Obviously swords, axes and bows have been studied intensively.