Two Sasanian ossuaries from Bushehr, Iran Evidence for exposure of the dead

Since fi rst discovered in the early 19th century, the ossuaries from Bushehr, Persian Gulf, have attracted attention as possible archaeological evidence for ancient Zoroastrian burial practice. Th is practice involved exposing cadavers to birds before the surviving remains were gathered for deposition in an ossuary. In this paper, the human remains recovered from two ossuaries at Bushehr are described. Specifi cally, several bones were missing, others were damaged on their surfaces, were stained, or broken, all of which can be interpreted as resulting from exposure, carrion feeding, as well as being placed in an ossuary. An overall lack of tooth marks on surviving bones and the observed diff erential pattern of limb and torso survival suggest that bones from the ossuaries had been exposed to bird carrion feeding.