A modern, documented human skeletal collection from Greece

The University of Athens Human Skeletal Reference Collection has been created recently and consists of 225 skeletons. The Athens Collection is housed at the Department of Animal and Human Physiology, at the University of Athens, Greece. Documentation that includes age, sex, occupation, and cause of death exists for almost all of the remains in the collection. The remains belong to individuals who lived mainly in the second half of the twentieth century and come from cemeteries in the area of Athens. The demographic composition of the collection, and a description of the documentary and supporting data are presented. This recently established modern collection is of high value for palaeopathologists, skeletal biologists and forensic anthropologists. The importance of such collections for teaching and research is discussed. (C) 2007 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.