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In 2013, two years into her doctoral studies on forensic jewelry, Maria Maclennan found herself in a mortuary for the first time. It was in Namibia, and she was there to help identify the victims of a plane crash that had killed everyone on board.
2013年，玛丽亚·麦克伦南攻读法医珠宝学博士学位两年后，她第一次来到了太平间。那是在纳米比亚，她在那里帮助确定一起空难遇难者的身份，空难导致机上所有人丧生。
It was the first time she had put her theoretical skills into practice, examining pieces of jewelry found in the wreckage and using her knowledge of designs, materials and the industry to provide investigators with leads.
这是她第一次将理论付诸实践，她仔细检查了在残骸中发现的珠宝，并利用她的设计、材料和珠宝行业知识为调查人员提供线索。
Since then she has helped identify the victims of many catastrophes, including building collapses, natural disasters and a terrorist attack.
从那场空难之后，她帮助确认了许多灾难中遇难者的身份，这些灾难包括建筑物倒塌、自然灾害和恐怖袭击。
And while the situations can be harrowing -- sometimes, she said, the jewelry was all but fused to human remains -- she has approached the job as a professional: "You're wearing your forensic gloves and it's all very methodical and detached and disembodied from the person, the human being."
虽然现场情况可能令人悲痛----她说，有时珠宝几乎与人体残骸融为一体----但她以专业的态度对待这项工作："你戴着法医手套，一切工作都要有条不紊，不带任何感情，与这个人、与人本身脱离了关系。"
But there is a part of the process that she finds emotionally difficult. "It's at the end, the returning, when you give the belongings back to the family, which really strikes me," she said. "You look at the piece as a sort of a proxy or representation of the individual. Especially, I think, in the absence of the human body."
但是这个过程中有一个环节让她觉得在情感上很难接受。"就是在最后，归还的环节，当你把遗物归还给家属时，真的会让我内心受到震动。"她说，"你把这件珠宝看作是一个人的一种替身或代表。尤其是，我认为，在没有尸体的情况下。"
Dr. Maclennan now is a member of a disaster victim identification team for Blake Emergency Services, based in Cheshire, England. The primary tools of victim identification are DNA, fingerprints and dental records, Dr. Maclennan says.
麦克伦南博士现在是位于英国柴郡的布莱克紧急服务公司遇难者身份鉴定小组的成员。麦克伦南博士说，受害者身份鉴定的主要工具是DNA、指纹和牙科记录。
And while jewelry alone is not enough to make a scientific forensic identification, it does have a useful place as what she calls a "secondary identifier."
虽然仅靠珠宝本身不足以进行科学的法医鉴定，但珠宝确实有它的用处，麦克伦南博士将其称为"辅助鉴定物"。
"Jewelry is robust," she said. "It can survive a lot of trauma, and sadly it can outlast the human body."
"珠宝很坚固，"她说，"它能承受很多伤害，而且令人悲伤的是，珠宝能比人体留存更久。"
In addition to obvious connections such as names or dates engraved on wedding rings, "there could be a physical clue or characteristic on the jewelry that tells us when it was made or purchased, or who it was made by or who it was purchased by," she said.
她说，除了婚戒上刻着的姓名或日期等明显与身份有联系的标志之外，"珠宝也可能有物理线索或者说特征，告诉我们它是什么时候被制作或被购买的，或者是谁制作的，是谁购买的"。
She also noted that jewelry sometimes could be a repository for DNA, pulling off her own chunky silver-ring set with a large citrine and showing it to a visitor.
她还指出，珠宝有时可以作为DNA储存库，她摘下自己戴的一个很大的银戒指，上面镶嵌着一大颗黄水晶，指给访客看。
"If you look through the stone from the front, you can see all kinds of gunk on the back," she said. "The jewelry industry is always telling us to clean our jewelry, but from a forensic perspective, if we don't, it can be a very good vessel for DNA."
"如果你从前面透过水晶看，你可以看到背面有各种各样的黏黏的东西，"她说，"珠宝行业总是告诉我们要清洁珠宝，但从法医的角度来看，如果我们不清洁，珠宝就可以成为非常好的储存DNA的容器。"
