Osteoarchaeology

Osteoarchaeology is basically the study of bones; human and animal. You learn a tremendous amount from studying bones; diet, any diseases or disfigurements, quality of life - anything! Unfortunately in archaeology, bones don't alwyas survive so well. As they are made up of an organic material, only certain types of environements will preseve bone; waterlogged conditions are usually the best. In these situations, sometimes the skin is preserved too; it becomes leathery, and what survives is called a bog body (usually beacuse these bodies are found in bogs!)

Osteoarchaeology may have a few other names - bioarchaeology being the main one - zooarchaeology is specifically the study of anumal remains. While osteoarchaeology is not the same as osteology, osteoarchaeology is a branch of sites. the phrase "bioarchaeology" was first used in the 1970s, and as our techniques and technology has advanced, we are now able to study bones in greater detail, and are able to properly preseve bones too. It is because of this that osteoarchaeology is currently at its peak; although there may be even more technology in the future that allows us to learn even more about skeletal remains.

It's because of how much we can gain from simply looking at the bones that osteoarchaeology interests me so much. You can work out a person's whole life from studying their bones; you can almost bring the person back to life, the more you learn about them. Therefore, I am doing my Masters in MA Osteoarchaeology - not an MSc - which means I'll have less of the sciencey stuff. However, I will still learn how to identify any type of bone, as well as learning about the biology of skeletal remains. What I am hoping to do my dissertation on is based on the analysis of bones in terms of any diseases they might have had during their lifetime. For example, syphilis - a sexually transmitted infectious disease - can be seen easily in skeletal remains, as being a bacterial disease, the skeletal remains usually look as though the disease has 'eaten away' at the bone. My favourite area of archaeology is prehistory, but in terms of skeletal remains, I'd have to say the Medieval period - simply for the amount of battle wounds and diseases!

Please read our blog posts, we have only just set this up, but we will try to write entries as often as possible, and we will try to make them as interesting as possible too! If you would like to learn even more about osteoarchaeology, here are a few books I recommend (some are purely reference books, others are just a good read!)

• The Archaeology of Disease - Charlotte A. Roberts & K. Manchester, 2010
• The Archaeology of Death and Burial - Mike Parker-Pearson, 2003
• The Human Bone Manual - Tim D. White & Pieter A. Folkens, 2005
• Social Archaeology of Funerary Remains - Rebecca Gowland & Christopher Knusel (eds.), 2009
• The Archaeology of Human Bones - Simon Mays, 2010
• Digging Up Bones - Don R. Brothwell, 1981
• The Unkown Warrior: The Archaeology of the Common Soldier - Richard Osgood, 2005

Also check out publications by the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology

Megan