Anthrop. Anz. 69/4, pp. 439–460 Article J. Biol. Clinic. Anthrop. published online September 2012 www.schweizerbart.de 0003-5548/12/0213 $ 5.50  2012 E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart, Germany DOI: 10.1127/0003-5548/2012/0213 The temperature of cremation and its effect on the micro- structure of the human rib compact bone Karol´ ına Absolonov´ a 1 , Miluˇ se Dobis´ ıkov´ a 2 , Michal Beran 3 , Jarmila Zocov´ a 4 , and Petr Velem´ ınsk´ y 2 1 Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Praha, Czech Republic karolina.absolonova@seznam.cz 2 Department of Anthropology, National Museum, Praha, Czech Republic 3 Institute of Legal Medicine, 2 nd Faculty of Medicine and Faculty Hospital Na Bulovce in Prague, Charles University, Praha, Czech Republic 4 Retired person, formerly employed in Faculty of Science, Charles University, Czech Repub- lic With 5 figures and 8 tables Summary: The presented study deals with the effect of the cremation temperature on the microstructure and morphology of the human compact bone. The biological material con- sisted of samples from ribs of recent Central European origin belonging to individuals of known age, sex and cause of death. Each bone sample was divided into several sections. One section remained unburned and the rest were burned at 700, 800 and 1000 °C. A few samples were burned also at the temperature of 600 °C. The undecalcified unstained ground cross- sections were made from burned and unburned bones; photographed and analysed using the SigmaScan Pro 5 programme. During burning, both the macroscopic and microscopic dimensions of the bone shrink, including the measures of the individual microstructures. The percentual representation of the area of individual microstructures on the area of the cross- section decreases. The number of individual microstructures per mm 2 of the compact bone cross-section increases. Most microstructural variables demonstrated statistically significant differences at the individual temperatures of cremation. The burned bones showed a large scale of the colours, especially at 700 °C. Key words: histomorphometry, human rib, compact bone, burned bone, cremation tempera- ture. Introduction In the physical or forensic anthropology, osteology and archaeology, we frequently come across burned bones. Their analysis is very difficult as they undergo heat- induced changes on both the macroscopic and microscopic level. Many chemical and physical changes occur in the bones during burning, and it leads to the shrinkage of the bones, changes in histological structure, colour, firmness and other characteris- tics (Table 1). The bones become fragile, deformed and cracked. Shrinkage of burned bones may lead to incorrect conclusions if methods designed for unburned bones are