Cremation weights for an Italian contemporary sample

TL;DR

This study provides cremains weight data for an Italian sample, showing how these weights relate to age, height, and body weight.

Contribution

The first study to supply cremains weights for a middle-aged and elderly Italian population.

Findings

Cremains weight negatively correlates with age at death and positively with height, body weight, and BMI.

Italian data show similarities with Portuguese samples and differences compared to Asian and American samples.

Males show stronger correlations between cremains weight and biological variables.

Abstract

The increased demand for the study of cremated remains, combined with their poor state of preservation, presents anthropologists with highly complex and challenging cases. In this context, cremains weight is considered a stable parameter, not influenced by the fragmentation state of the remains, useful in anthropological investigations. However, few data are available in the literature so far, and no study has been performed on the Italian population. To this purpose, the present study aims to provide cremains weights from a sample of 160 cremations belonging to Italian adult individuals, who were cremated at the Crematorium of Milan (Italy) recently (2012–2014). Mean weights were reported for both sexes, and the relationship with some anthropological and biological variables (i.e., age at death, height, body weight, and body mass index) was evaluated by univariate and multivariate analyses. As expected, the results showed a significant negative relationship with age at death (p‐value: <0.01) and a significant positive relationship with the remaining variables, especially in males (p‐value: <0.01). Comparison with the literature showed a close similarity with Portuguese data and a midway position between Asian and American samples, thus suggesting an intercontinental variation. However, few pieces of information are available so far to understand such variation, and further analyses are needed to identify the factors able to explain the variation observed. This is the first study supplying cremains weights for a middle‐aged and elderly Italian sample. This data could help anthropologists during the evaluation of human cremated remains by complementing or supporting other evidence.

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