It is very rare to find a graveyard skeleton of which many of the small bones are not missing.

And such bones are usually more or less weathered and friable.
"They did not appear to be bones such as may be bought at an osteological dealer's, for these usually have perforations to admit the macerating fluid to the marrow cavities.

Dealers' bones, too, are very seldom all from the same body; and the small bones of the hand are drilled with holes to enable them to be strung on catgut.
"They were not dissecting-room bones, as there was no trace of red-lead in the openings for the nutrient arteries.
"What the appearances did suggest was that these were parts of a body which had decayed in a very dry atmosphere (in which no adipocere would be formed), and which had been pulled or broken apart.

Also that the ligaments which held the body--or rather skeleton--together were brittle and friable, as suggested by the detached hand, which had probably broken off accidentally.

But the only kind of body that completely answers this description is an Egyptian mummy.