[tykescribe]

This is research for fiction. If a newborn child (born alive then smothered) was buried secretly in the local cemetery, 20 years later would there still be bones to exhume?
The baby was wrapped in a blanket
Buried hours after death
There was no coffin.
The secret grave is now covered with brambles, what sort of soil brambles grow in, I do not know.
The depth of the grave was about a foot to two feet.

Thank you!

[boredINmind]

Bones are very tough and hard to break down, and if this were someone 20-40 years, I would say that there would definitely be SOMETHING left, but it would just depend on the conditions. It would depend on how wet the soil is, how "healthy" it is based on the amount of microbes, and how small the bones were. A healthy adult (after adolescence and before menopause) has fairly thick, strong bones. But an infant is born with several bones that have not undergone calcification, therefore they are still made up of cartilage.

Small infant bones are mainly composed of cartilage, therefore, I would infer that there wouldn't hardly be anything left over 20 years if anything at all.

[Xrayman]

The long bones would remain and the skull/mandible as well, the epiphyses (ends of the long bones) and many smaller bones such as phalages and the metatarsals (fingers and foot bones would probably be missing/unpreserved due to the non-ossification.

[tykescribe]

Thank-you, that's amazingly helpful

[Fr_Chuck]

There also could be possiblely, bits of clothing, the snaps from clothings and some other items.