Organisation, méthodes et recherches en archéologie criminalistique à l'Institut de recherche criminelle de la gendarmerie nationale. À propos de 20 ans d'expérience

Since its creation, the Institute of Forensic Research of the National Gendarmerie (IRCGN) was organised to address the numerous cases of buried bodies. For 20 years, the Department of Anthropology-Thanatology-Odontology (Dept. ATO) of IRCGN, the most important French laboratory for forensic anthropology, has developed its field methodologies, based particularly on the Anglo-Saxon experience. It is also engaged in important programs for training and research. Indeed, the National Gendarmerie is currently the only institution to have formalised forensic archaeology, allowing protocols for the treatment of cases from the scene of the crime (excavation of clandestine graves) to the laboratory. This contribution is thus the occasion to detail all of the activities of forensic archaeology at the Dept. ATO of IRCGN, to point out the deep links that exist with forensic anthropology and to present some basic methodological principles.