Them and os (or, what does a research osteologist do?)
November 26, 2007 About my museum job, Archaeology, Centre for Human BioarchaeologyThis week, Tania Kausmally, a research osteologist, describes the work that she and her colleagues do. Beware, there are lots of bones involved: forewarned is fore-armed.
Sorry, that was meant to be humerus.
OK, over to Tania
People have strange jobs in museums and working at the Centre for Human Bioarchaeology (CHB) must surely rank as one of the most peculiar. It is certainly a case of mixed reactions when at social events the inevitable question “so what do you do?” pops up and the answer includes the words “skeleton” and “human”…..We look after more than 17000 human skeletons from the Roman, Medieval and Post medieval times! All the skeletons are from rescue excavations in London from the continuous redevelopment of the city. Through generous funding from the Wellcome Trust, the Centre was established in 2003 in order to open up the collection to researchers worldwide. We spent three years recording skeletons onto a database and this is now on-line (www.museumoflondon.org.uk/chb).The ‘skeleton’ curatorial staff include; Bill, Jelena and myself. We are responsible for the day to day running of the Centre and securing its future to ensure that the archive becomes widely known to as many people from as many different fields as possible. Working days are never the same and with a multitude of tasks each day it’s never dull! The curation of 17000 skeletons is an enormous task particularly ensuring the database is up dated, and the “rotunda” store is in good order. The rotunda is ‘home’ to all the skeletons and is a giant jig-saw puzzle of boxes which need to be accessible and movable to create more and more space for the ever expanding occupancy…
The database provides very detailed information about each skeleton including age, gender, measurements, dentition, & diseases and researchers can download this information from our website. Researchers may choose solely to use this on-line data or expand their research and visit the Centre. Database information and any other research on the archive are regularly updated. Just this year we have had 35 researchers visiting the Centre and as curators it is our job to assist researchers, ensure that the skeletal remains are treated ethically and make certain they handle them correctly, thereby limiting the damage on this unique archive.
Public and educational programmes run throughout the year and these are always very popular and not surprisingly the public are intrigued and mostly delighted to come “face to face” with their ancestors. They are genuinely surprised at how much can be learnt from the skeletons and the information they reveal about how they lived. Most intriguing is “that’s what we look like inside”! Many of the diseases we see in the skeletons are recognised by visitors who are fascinated to learn what these actually look like, such as the very visible bone changes in osteoarthritis and what may happen to the skeleton if we become too fat. Children’s days have also proved a great success such as “Murder in the Archive” a challenging forensic exercise prompting questions such as “how do you get the skeleton out of the body?”…. perhaps not such a trivial question after all ….. And if a tooth dissolves in coca cola how long would a skeleton take to dissolve?!
In July 2008 the Wellcome Trust in collaboration with the CHB will have an exhibition featuring 25 skeletons excavated from London, all archived here at the Museum of London and each telling a story from the past. Literally from the skeletons the people of London past will reveal the vibrant history of London.
When not mixing with the 17000 Romans, monks, Georgians & Victorians in the archive, or assisting researchers; taking part in public open days; writing papers; repatriation programmes; proposing exhibitions; being interviewed for the television; or venturing off site to an excavation we actively work on raising funds to sustain the Centre for the future. The Centre is still growing and we are trying to build a solid foundation for research and education involving human skeletal remains. No two days are ever the same and as more people know about the potential of the archive and Centre’s facilities the busier we will become. We will certainly continue to promote our work through conferences and published papers and continue to engage people in the rich and exciting information that can be yielded from the bare bones…
See photos from the CHB on our Flickr pages: http://www.flickr.com/photos/museumoflondonhumanbioarchaeology/