Minimum number of individuals
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Minimum number of individuals, or MNI, refers to the fewest possible number of people or animals in a skeletal assemblage.
This is often used in forensic anthropology and bioarchaeology to determine an estimate of how many people or animals are present in a cluster of bones — which is useful for a number of reasons. If a mass grave has three people as its MNI it might be called into question as being a mass grave, even though it could have more than three. However, if it contains the remains of no fewer than ten people, that could strengthen a legal case or provide additional context for archaeological excavation.
While there are formulae that can be applied to determining MNI, it is essentially a logic game. If there are three examples of a right humerus, then obviously that implies there were at least three individuals. If those all three happen to be male, and there is a clearly female skull, then that adds one more to the MNI, and so on.
For more information on the applications of determining MNI, refer to bioarchaeology, forensic anthropology, osteology, or zooarchaeology.
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