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Posts

March 05, 2013

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6:10 PM | Gnarly Mummy Head Reveals Medieval Science
A skullcap and brain of a man from the 1200s shows how much more advanced medieval medicine was than thought.
Archaeology
Archeology
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9:21 AM | Antiquarian Jaunt in Northern Wales
Here’s a guest entry from my friend Professor Howard Williams of the University of Chester. He was my charming guide on an antiquarian road trip Sunday. I met Martin at his luxurious guest accommodation on the main campus of the University of Chester and we got into my trusty VW. We left Chester, heading around…
Aardvarchaeology
Archeology
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3:32 AM | Bones - Season 8, Episode 17 (Review)
The Survivor in the Soap Episode Summary Saroyan and Viziri are planning to knock off for a romantic dinner together when an FBI agent brings in a barrel found at a hazardous waste disposal facility.  When he cracks the lid, a skeletonized arm comes into view.  Booth and Brennan, who are at home having dinner and arguing about where to take a vacation, get the call and come in to work on the body in the barrel. From the distance between the lunate and the third distal phalanx, […]
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Anthropology | Archeology

March 03, 2013

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3:19 PM | One woman's trash...
My mother-in-law is currently in Yangon, Burma (formerly known as Rangoon, Myanmar), travelling the world through UVa's Semester at Sea this spring.  She posted this picture of trash on the street: Look a bit more closely, and you can see... There are numerous sets of dental impressions.  Apparently she stumbled across the dental school's cast-offs.  (Get it, cast-offs?) I hope she picked some up for me.  Curious as to the prevalence of shovel-shaped incisors in […]
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Anthropology | Archeology

March 02, 2013

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7:07 AM | Archaeology Is Not A Strong Brand
My Linnaeus University colleague and trätobroder (debate adversary) of many years, Cornelius Holtorf, published a book in 2007 under the title Archaeology is a Brand. That is certainly a possible way of looking at it. But preparing a talk on internet archaeology, I made a little discovery. Look at what this brand appears to be…
Aardvarchaeology
Archeology

February 28, 2013

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6:30 PM | Roman Bioarchaeology Carnival XXVI
New Finds Graeco-Roman Tombs from Alexandria (via Ahram Online) 14 Feb - Collection of Graeco-Roman Tombs Uncovered in Alexandria (Ahram Online).  These tombs may be the ones described by Strabo when he visited Alexandria in 30 BC, but they likely were for the general populace rather than the rich.  Unfortunately, it seems no skeletons or grave goods remain. 20 Feb - Treasure-Filled Warrior's Grave Found in Russia (LiveScience).  On the periphery of the Roman world, a […]
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Anthropology | Archeology
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3:10 PM | Have Archaeologists Found Cleopatra’s Half-Sister?
Finding the bones of celebrity skeletons is a popular pursuit among some archaeologists, and has been for centuries. The remains of King Arthur were written to have been recovered in 1190 at Glastonbury Abbey, and were given a more appropriate tomb in 1278 by Edward I. In the mid-17th century, the tomb of a Merovingian … Continue reading »
Bones Don't Lie
Archeology | Anthropology

February 27, 2013

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5:30 PM | Ancient Shoes Turn Up in Egypt Temple
The shoes were stuffed into a jar 2,000 years ago, never to be found -- until now.
Archaeology
Archeology
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4:04 AM | Bones - Season 8, Episode 17 (Review)
The Fact in the Fiction Episode Summary A former investment banker-turned-farmer stumbles across a dead body while aerating his field to grow kale.  The bones are heavily scavenged by coyotes, based on the three-cornered puncture marks, but presence of Nicrophorous americanus and its larvae give Hodgins time of death of 5 days ago.  Flattened anterior and posterior aspects of the femoral neck lead Brennan to suggest the victim was an Hispanic male. At the diner, Brennan is […]
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Anthropology | Archeology

February 26, 2013

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12:00 PM | Pearly Whites and Golden Spoons: Teeth and Status
In Western cultures, teeth can be a clear indication of status. Often the lower classes have poorer health care and decreased access to proper dental care. While orthodontic treatment is becoming more affordable, having crooked teeth was a potential indicator of lower status. Further, dental whitening and other processes to improve their can be costly … Continue reading »

Dawson, H. & Brown, K. (2013). Exploring the relationship between dental wear and status in late medieval subadults from England, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 150 (3) 433-441. DOI:

Cucina, A. & Tiesler, V. (2003). Dental caries and antemortem tooth loss in the Northern Peten area, Mexico: A biocultural perspective on social status differences among the Classic Maya, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 122 (1) 1-10. DOI:

Bones Don't Lie
Archeology | Anthropology
Citation

February 24, 2013

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9:33 PM | Presenting Anthropology - Weeks 7&8 (Readings)
Audio Challenge Margaret Mead takes to the radio Anthropologists have not specifically embraced audio media through the years. We have a picture of ethnographers tape-recording (and now digitally recording) their interlocuters, but past presentations of these data were often made in print rather than attempting to incorporate the glorious variation in intonation, cadence, and meaning of language around the world. Jane Goodall stands as an exception; her pant-hooting at nearly every […]
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Anthropology | Archeology

February 22, 2013

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11:00 AM | Warrior Burials
Interpreting burial status is a difficult thing, however some burials are clearly different from their peers. Often the warrior designation is given to adult males burials found with large amounts of weaponry and exotic goods. This doesn’t necessarily indicate a warrior status or that they themselves fought in battle. In some cultures there are obvious … Continue reading »
Bones Don't Lie
Archeology | Anthropology

February 21, 2013

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2:30 PM | Treasure-Filled Warrior's Grave Found in Russia
No summary available for this post.
Archaeology
Archeology

February 19, 2013

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8:51 PM | Presenting Anthropology - Weeks 5&6 (Discussion)
For the last two weeks, we've been talking about presenting anthropological information in print, both in terms of news media and in terms of posters/brochures/flyers/etc.  I probably shouldn't hold off on blogging about our discussion until the end of the unit, though, as now I can't seem to find my notes from last week... We talked a great deal last week about dealing with the media and about how we might approach different audiences.  That is, an audience of colleagues at a […]
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Anthropology | Archeology
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12:00 PM | Symbolic Skull Scrapings: Trephination in Hungary
As discussed in an earlier post explaining the various types of this cranial modification, trephination occurs all around the world in a variety of time periods. Trephination is the removal of pieces of cranial bones from a living individual without penetrating into the soft tissue. Throughout history it has been done using a variety of tools, … Continue reading »

Bereczki, Z., Molnár, E., Marcsik, A. & Pálfi, G. (2013). Rare Types of Trephination from Hungary Shed New Light on Possible Cross-cultural Connections in the Carpathian Basin, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, DOI:

Bones Don't Lie
Archeology | Anthropology
Citation
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3:30 AM | Bones - Season 8, Episode 16 (Review)
The Friend in Need Episode Summary A homeless man brings a locked suitcase to a pawn shop, trying to sell it.  As he pries open the lock, he reveals the contents: a giant mass of blood, bone, and decomposing human flesh.  The suitcase is transported to the Jeffersonian, where Brennan immediately identifies the victim as male based on the 90-degree gonion (sic) angle (where the mandibular body intersects with the ascending ramus, Brennan says, like no one on the team has ever taken […]
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Anthropology | Archeology

February 18, 2013

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8:42 PM | Re-Used Picture Stone Paper On-Line
My paper on the re-use of Late Iron Age picture stones during that same period (mainly in late male graves) has been published in English and Swedish parallel versions of Gotländskt Arkiv 2012. That’s the annual of the Gotland County Museum. Have a look! Questions and comments are most welcome.
Aardvarchaeology
Archeology
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7:05 PM | Equid Consumption in the Palaeolithic
A few weeks ago I began writing about horse burgers with the intention of discussing prehistoric eating habits in Britain. I, however, got sidetracked and ended up with a rather philosophical piece on how equid meat appears to represent British…Read more ›

Holmes, J., Atkinson, T., Fiona Darbyshire, D., Horne, D., Joordens, J., Roberts, M., Sinka, K. & Whittaker, J. (2010). Middle Pleistocene climate and hydrological environment at the Boxgrove hominin site (West Sussex, UK) from ostracod records, Quaternary Science Reviews, 29 (13-14) 1515-1527. DOI:

Bones and Skulls
Archeology | Anthropology
Citation

February 16, 2013

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1:08 PM | Recent Archaeomags
Current Archaeology #276 (March) has a feature on excavations for a new container port that’s being built at Stanford Wharf near the mouth of the Thames. The Iron Age and Roman Period archaeology proved quite lovely, with waterlogged salt-making sites, remains of a boat house, loads of pottery, even waste from garum fish-sauce making. But…
Aardvarchaeology
Archeology

February 15, 2013

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10:30 AM | Geyser Cam Finds Bubble Traps
A camera custom-built to withstand heat and steam revealed that Russia's Kamchatka geysers aren't fed by long, narrow tubes, as once thought.
Archaeology
Archeology
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7:29 AM | Huge Fireball Explodes Over Russia
A huge fireball shattered the morning skies over Russia's Urals region generating a series of powerful sonic booms, blowing out windows and causing widespread panic. ->
Archaeology
Archeology

February 14, 2013

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10:00 PM | Nuclear Blast Sensors Double as Scientific Tools
The systems used to flag nuclear weapons tests can also track whales and warn of tidal waves.
Archaeology
Archeology
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7:38 PM | Osteological 3D Scanning/Printing Update
For the past month or so, UWF grad student Colin Bean and I have been tooling around with my MakerBot Replicator 2.0.  I'm most interested in printing bones -- namely, pathological ones that we don't have in our osteology collection here -- so Colin's done some 3D modelling of bone and I've printed a variety of test cases. When we were getting started, we were mostly printing other people's models.  So we have the MakerBot printing a whole hand (about 75% complete in this […]
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Anthropology | Archeology
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3:24 PM | Vestfold Barrows and Mead-Halls
The Midgardsenteret visitors’ centre at Borre invited me to give a talk about my Östergötland elite settlement project. This went well, with a sizeable and appreciative audience last night. One gentleman explained that they had all learned Swedish from watching kids’ TV when they were little. Today I went on a royal Late Iron Age…
Aardvarchaeology
Archeology
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12:43 PM | Happy Valentine’s Day!
Happy Valentine’s Day! In celebration of the holiday, I am republishing an earlier post on love. This was fairly controversial, but I still think it is a great analogy for interpreting the past. Can you excavate love? No. But we can make pretty good inferences! This was originally published on October 25, 2011. In archaeology, we … Continue reading »
Bones Don't Lie
Archeology | Anthropology
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8:00 AM | DNews: Predicting News in the Future
Predicting the future is science fiction no more! Could it be that an Israeli university, along with one of the world's biggest multinational corporations,
Archaeology
Archeology
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8:00 AM | DNews: Top 3 Animal Videos This Week
A handicapped pig cruising in a K'Nex Wheelchair! A moth driving a small robot! And the rescue of an adorable bottlenose dolphin! Check out our top 3 animal
Archaeology
Archeology

February 13, 2013

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1:35 PM | Spring 2013 Society for Archaeological Sciences Bulletin
This quarter’s bulletin for the Society of Archaeological Sciences in now available for free download online! In this issue, I discuss color on bones. You may remember that I have talked about bones of unusual color in a previous post. This article expands that discussion and examines three archaeological samples that revealed coloring on human … Continue reading »
Bones Don't Lie
Archeology | Anthropology
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4:15 AM | Bones - Season 8, Episode 15 (Review)
The Shot in the Dark Episode Summary Brennan and the Jeffersonian team are investigating a body found on the rocks under the New River Gorge Bridge.  The slanted temporal bone, prominent nasal spine, and ectocranial suture closure suggest the individual was male and in his late 30s or early 40s.  Numerous fractures are consistent with a fall from a great height.  Based on insect activity, Hodgins places time of death at 5 to 6 days prior.  Saroyan plans to take samples […]
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Anthropology | Archeology
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12:30 AM | Simmering Solar Views from SDO: Photos
It's time to celebrate three years of the mind-blowing views NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory has given us.
Archaeology
Archeology
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