Day 14 - My first look at the bones from the 2009 excavations

Just in case you don’t know, I’m a human bone expert. I am a physical anthropologist and an archaeologist that specializes in archaeological human skeletons (in the US oftentimes known as a bioarchaeologist). So as a human skeletal biologist, my job on archaeological excavations is to dig burials out of the ground with care and record them to the best of my ability; then, take the bones back to the lab and study them. This means trying to find out how old the person was when they died, does the skeleton exhibit male or female characteristics, did they experience any health-related problems or pathological conditions during life, and sometimes, an estimation of how tall they were around the time of death.

Some people might call it glorified grave robbing, and that’s fine. I call it answering questions as to what life might have been in the past.

During the 2009 excavations, two intact burials were exhumed. I proceeded to unpack and clean the first burial. I noticed the bones of the legs were very small, short, and not fully developed. This told me that this individual was likely between 5-10 years of age at death. I then took a quick peak at the teeth, and sure enough, this individual was likely 4-8 years of age at death, mean 6 years.