Hiérarchie et fiabilité des liaisons ostéologiques (par symétrie et par contiguïté articulaire) dans l'étude des sépultures anciennes

The experimental study of refitting individual bones by osteoscopic approach includes 20 bilaterally symmetrical pairs and 14 contiguous articulations. More than 800 tests, each one based upon 70 bones, were done. The occurrence of three hierarchies was established: the first implies the type of refitting (bilaterally symmetrical bones are much better recognised than contiguity articulations); the second demonstrates that the performance of recognising refitted bones depends on the type of bones involved; the last relates to the degree of osteological knowledge. These results will provide a strategy to follow during future digging excavations when referencing topographic data. The accuracy of studies applied to metrical, morphometrical and chromatic approaches is also evaluated. The implications brought by refitting single bones in the counting of individuals buried are analysed: new formulae are proposed that allow us to estimate errors in the refitting of individual bones.