Antemortem

Antemortem refers to events, conditions, or injuries that occur before death. The term is derived from Latin ante, meaning before, and mortem, meaning death. In medicine and forensic science, it is used to distinguish changes that developed before death from those that occurred after death (postmortem) or around the time of death (perimortem).

In forensic pathology, antemortem injuries are those that occurred before death and typically show signs of healing, such as bone remodeling, callus formation, or scar tissue, which can be observed during autopsy, radiography, or clinical examination. By contrast, postmortem injuries do not show healing and reflect damage after death, while perimortem injuries occur around the time of death and may display characteristics of fresh bone damage, such as sharp fracture edges and little or no healing.

Assessing whether an injury is antemortem helps determine the cause and manner of death as well as reconstruct life events prior to death. However, timing can be uncertain, and not all antemortem injuries heal fully or leave clear marks, complicating interpretation.

In archaeology and paleopathology, identifying antemortem skeletal marks contributes to understanding trauma patterns, health, and daily life in past populations. Such findings are contrasted with perimortem and postmortem damage caused by burial, handling, or environmental factors, and are used to build a chronological picture of an individual's life history.