You examine the remains of a friend’s meal which involved pork ribs, and start informing them about general bone properties and anatomy, fracture patterns in dry and fresh bone, and sternal rib end morphology in relation to age assessment at death. Although your friends may not always welcome the information!
As regular readers will note it has been quiet on this site for the past month or so- this is due to a variety of reasons, though partly down to two reasons in particular.
Firstly I recently had a nasty dental abscess that required surgery, and the unfortunate removal of two molar teeth that I had become rather attached too. Secondly I have been rethinking the aim of this blog, and of the value of a blog in general.
I have always stated that this blog is just an introduction to my interests in the fields of human osteology and archaeology, and as such, I have tried to present a variety of informative scholarly articles, personal thoughts on archaeological matters, guest posts, and an introductory series to human skeletal anatomy. I always try to encourage wider reading with the inclusion of links in text to reliable sites or links to articles and academic texts used in the blog entry.
Whilst the main aims will continue, I will also aim to try and bring in some original content regarding osteological or archaeological matters. As a key part of this future posts will tackle the changing nature of tertiary education in the UK, from political implications to the changing tack of academic institutions regarding departments, fees and student allocations. This also includes the supply and demand of osteological courses compared to the value and market prospects of graduates.
Looking forward to reading about that! These are some important and pressing matters, and it seems (unfortunately) that the field of osteoarchaeology keeps itself quite remote from such reflexive attitudes.
PS: It is indeed one of the funniest things to see the look on the person’s seating next to you face when you start touching the bones-leftovers and elaborate on their anatomy and morphology
Indeed it does seem to! There has been a recent slew of articles in the Guardian newspaper regarding the teaching of archaeology at the University level, and the recent political posturing and effects on University student numbers, definitely worth a read!
Cheers! I’ll give it a look if I find them
Here are a few, enjoy!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2013/jan/05/university-protest-disastrous-neglect-postgraduates
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/forensic-scientists-need-skeletons-to-train–but-theyre-down-to-bare-bones-8439073.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2013/jan/11/non-eu-postgraduate-numbers-fall
http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2013/feb/19/archaeology-funding-student-decline-future
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