He’s worked on everything from identifying some of the original settlers of Jamestown, 重新埋葬77号航班的遗体. Few people in the world could claim to have the experience Doug Owsley Ph.D. 在法医人类学中取得了什么成就. Whilst it was clear during his presentation to 国立历史BTT365 (NHA) students on the 20th July that the study of human physiology has been his raison d’etre for over the past 30 years, there was clearly something unique about his work which has made him a strong leader in his field, 被授予2011年杰斐逊公共服务奖. It was the quest to track down the origin of his guiding zeals which resulted in me sitting down with Dr. 在最近清空的福克斯克罗夫特礼堂. Just a few minutes ago the auditorium had been booming with excited bursts of applause. 现在，沉默给了Dr. 奥斯利有一种沉着的感觉, a sense which was unlike the palpable excitement he expended whilst giving a presentation on Jamestown earlier that day. 自然, 鉴于他的冷漠, I couldn’t resist asking how he initially got into this fascinating field of study. His answer would be simultaneously enthralling and shocking: “a thundercloud, a horse and a cliff”.
It would be the unlikely collision of these three confounding forces within the picturesque grass plains of Lusk, 怀俄明首次引进了一名青少年医生. 奥斯利来到了迷人的生物解剖学世界. 他回忆道, “it was a few months after a storm which sent the neighbour’s horse down a cliff leaving only its bones. 然后，我自己把这些碎片重新组装起来, 为了理解为什么坠落导致了它不幸的死亡。”. 从那里，博士. Owsley’s schooling career would be defined by a visceral fascination with the biological sciences, attending both the University of Wyoming and the University of Tennessee. It was at the University of Tennessee where he would soon be introduced to the forensic sciences granting him the ability to work alongside law officials. One of the first significant cases he solved was the 1991 positive identification of the first Jeffrey Dahmer victim, 18岁的史蒂文·希克斯. Dr. 然后，奥斯利将继续识别无数其他个体, even going as far as recreating CGI likenesses to be distributed for community crowdsourcing. Understandably, cases such as Dahmer’s are distressing, and given that oftentimes Dr. Owsley is called at trials to “speak for those who cannot speak for themselves” he uses his downtime wisely to relax through gardening on his country farm. 尽管经常会受到压力的影响. Owsley has been adamant throughout his career about representing victims fairly in court. 他的行为背后有双重原因. 首先, it is to make sure that the victim’s family feel like they have been given closure, 其次，它是为博士. Owsley’s own satisfaction knowing that he has brought justice closer to those who have not yet received it.
自从90年代开始从事法医工作以来. Owsley has continued to cooperate alongside law officials on a number of other high profile cases, including identifying remains from the 1993 Waco Siege as well as those recovered from Flight 77 at the Pentagon, with the latter earning him the commendation of the Commander’s Award for Civilian Service. 当然，处理这些棘手的案件给了Dr. Owsley the experience in transferring those forensics skills “to the field of history”. 作为一名人类学家研究生. Owsley would eventually find himself being pulled by both the Smithsonian Institute and Preservation Virginia to help identify bodies newly exhumed from Jamestown’s forgotten ruins. 到达詹姆斯敦后，立即震惊的是. 奥斯利是被埋葬的人数, indicating that early colonial life was marred by extremely high mortality rates. 而挖掘出的每具尸体肯定会引起人们的兴趣, one of the more fascinating finds was the body of Captain Bartholomew Osnold, 第一个在附近的科德角登陆的欧洲人. He was identified due to a good mixture of historical records as well as items which could be correlated with him. 博士, Owsley解释, the correlation between records and items is crucial to historians and anthropologists alike because only each piece of new consistent supporting evidence supporting previous claims “would further validate an identification”. 人类学家，包括Dr. Owsley examined during the identification process regarding Captain Osnold included the coffin itself, 最重要的是, 里面有一根手杖，应该是他的. It was this alongside carbon dating as well as lead concentration testing which led to a confirmed identification for the late Captain. Whilst Captain Bartholomew Osnold’s identification was undoubtedly captivating, 也许更令人吃惊的是发现了两具棺材, 里面分别有一男一女的尸体. 这一发现的惊人之处在于. Owsley started looking at anthropological clues to indicate whether the couple were either English or Colonists; he found that the couple was neither. 有趣的是，这些尸体都是非洲人后裔. 而奴隶从1619年就被输入詹姆斯敦, the burial inside coffins instead of a simple shroud suggests that these people were of high social standing. 如果他们有这么高的地位, this would be an unprecedented discovery which could alter parts of the narrative concerning early African settlement in the Americas. 当博士. 奥斯利还在调查这个案子, he stated that it was discoveries such as this which “makes his day worthwhile because it affords us the opportunity to learn about the many nuances in historical people’s personal lives to draw inferences about societies at the time” . 同样的，我和Dr. 奥斯利让我得出了类似的结论. The lives of ordinary individuals may be overshadowed by the larger more significant icons and movements in history. 然而，个人的历史也一样, if not more important in granting us a more personal connection to the past.