Skeletons in the Closet - So You Want to Be an Osteoarchaeologist? (1)

Greetings all, after a long break I’m back blogging! Unless of course you caught the preview from last week, then you can skip this first paragraph.

Actually I thought I’d take a break today and fill you in on what I’ve been up to that’s taken me away from here for a while. In case you’re wondering, I really do have skeletons in my closet! True they’re not actual fully articulated ones but a collection of bagged bones, but nevertheless they currently sit at the bottom of my wardrobe.

So just for starters here’s a little mystery bone; see if you can guess the bone and what animal it’s from…

It's a mystery...

In case you’re thinking of cheating and scrolling down to find the answer, I won’t be posting it here. I’ll save it until the next post! Unless of course you stumble on this blog years from now, in which case you would already have it. Obviously.

Moving on, every now and then I get tasked to analyse the osteological remains from archaeological sites to help add to the overall understanding of the area. If I’ve lost you already, basically I look at them ol’ bones! Most of this work comes from CAFG (Cambridge Archaeological Field Group - http://www.cafg.net/) and the latest was a couple of boxes that revealed some interesting finds.

More on that next time though. Yes it’s going to be another two-part blog post having just decided to stretch it out a bit. Might be a bit of a squeeze to fit it all into one post and I like to keep them fairly short so you faithful readers aren’t falling asleep by the time you get to the bottom!

So what will I ramble on about now? Brambles?? Actually, no, I just thought it rhymed well… or maybe a future post perhaps! Anyways, as usual, I digress.

Instead how about a little intro into the wonderful world of osteoarchaeology; where things aren’t as simple as they seem when it comes to species identification.

Baa baa black sheep...

Rule number one: When is a goat not a goat? When it’s a sheep! Goats and sheep are difficult to identify when looking at just their bones as there are only a few indicators in their skeletons to separate them apart. Since rarely do you get pristine skeletons of animals handed to you then you can imagine how hard it could be with just a bag full of bones.

These on the left are of course sheep... erm, not quite sure what species. Black ones I guess, which reminds me of the old nursery rhyme 'baa baa black sheep'. No it's not racism like most people think but rather that black wool was a more valuable commodity than white wool during Medieval times, hence the line "have you got any wool"...

Stylised skull (cos I didn't have a real one!)

Rule number two: Humans are complicated creatures. Yep, when it comes to human remains there’s nothing simple about it. Naturally in dealing with any human bone great care has to be taken and also it does tend to slow up an excavation site somewhat. Not that it’s a bad thing of course; all respect for whoever it may be is applied.

I remember having to wear latex gloves when handling human remains for this very reason, and occasionally because of the fragility of the bones. You also get a sense of the past handling them, an unusual feeling that’s hard to put into words… mystical? That’s why I prefer to stick to the animal side of osteo; less complications and an extensive variety of animals to identify. True there’s millions if not billions of species on the planet, but hey, you gotta start somewhere right?

Obviously I’m only scratching the surface on the field of osteoarchaeology, there’s a whole lot more to explore if you find it as fascinating like I do. Musing on the simplest way to attack the subject, I think I’ll start with the domesticates.

Confused already? It’s the main domesticated species of animals that are most commonly found across the UK. Since we have Wimpole Home Farm here (see, I bet you were wondering how all this was relating to the Wimpole Estate!) then I think it would be most appropriate given the types of animals seen here.

John on a foggy morning

So what am I talking about? Cows, pig and sheep (or is that goats?) are the main domesticated animals and to a lesser extent; horses. Speaking of horses we have some lovely Shire horses on the Home Farm, seven in fact, often seen in the surrounding fields. That’s not counting the forestry horse, John, who’s been hard at work extracting timber for collection (see here for more details).

The rest of these can also be seen at Wimpole; from the piggery on the farm (no not the staff room!) to the parkland in the summer with the rare breed cattle and sheep.

After that little shameless plug, I’ll get to the point. The obvious difference between these species is the size; cattle being the largest of the three, then pigs and sheep at the bottom. Of course size isn’t everything because a small cow can have similar sized bones to a large sheep! It gets even more complicated when you take into account the juveniles and all the varied breeds of each species. Not easy…or is it?

Juveniles are generally simple to separate out in that the bones are usually more porous in touch and often appearance. If you have a long bone (part of a limb; i.e. femur) then either end will likely be unfused or have a crinkled surface not unlike that of an orange (right).

How about the rest then, how to tell the difference between species? Aside from a great deal of learning and experience, the key comes down to the little morphological differences that differ between animals. To illustrate this here are pelvic girdles from two similar animals; the rabbit and the hare:

Both of these look almost identical and it’s almost like playing a game of spot the difference! There are a number of subtle differences at various aspects but the most tell-tale sign is in the socket (acetabulum) where the ball of the femur sits; as shown. Oh and by the way, colour doesn’t come into it if you were thinking of that! The elements can make a huge difference to bones not the least the colour so it kinda gets discounted, sorry.

This ends part one, with a flavour of what it’s like to analyse animal bones and this is the simple version! Just out of interest, if anyone does have any animal bones they would like me to have a look at I’m always open to having a look. Like I say when I analyse bones, I enjoy the challenge of new material so feel free to make me think!!

Seriously though if you have anything then you can get hold of me through the blog or at NT Wimpole Estate.

Medieval ridge and furrow at Wimpole Hall