Just a quick post:
The Eastbourne Ancestors Project made it on BBC South East News yesterday lunch time and evening. It was great fun filming with the team, you can watch it here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-18062674
And its 15 minutes in on this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01h8yp3/South_East_Today_14_05_2012/
Tags: Eastbourne Ancestors Project, Eastbourne Museums Service, Heritage Lottery Fund, Osteoarchaeology, Skeletons
I mentioned in my last post that I collected a woodpecker at the weekend.
I got a call from a friend who works at a local vets to say that a woodpecker that had been brought in had died and did I want it. It’s not everyday you come across a dead woodpecker so of course I said yes.
The bird was in great condition (apart from being dead) and the plumage was amazing!
This particular bird is a male Great spotted woodpecker. They are year long residents of England and Wales and are often found in wooded areas as well as gardens and parks. More information can be found on the RSPB website: www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/greatspottedwoodpecker/index.aspx
The design of the bird was incredible, the beak is huge and thick and the talons are long and hooked for grasping tree bark.
As this bird had been dead a few days and the weather was terrible I decided not to pluck the feathers out. I buried the woodpecker in a large pot of soil with woodlice, worms and other insects and placed the pot in a sunny place in the garden. I ‘fox proofed’ the pot by placing a tub over the container and stood a large potted tree on top of this. I’ll check back in a years time…
Tags: Greater spotted woodpecker, reference collection, zooarchaeology
A chicken isn’t just for eating…well, it is but I’ll get to that in a bit.
I’ve had a few bone projects on the go since my last post and this time round I remembered to take some snaps!
I grew up with chickens, in actual fact they make rather good pets and follow you around the garden making wonderful noises, quite social birds. If you have a large garden then chickens may be the thing for you, if you have a smaller space bantams are just as nice, (bantam = smaller fowl). However if you have neighbours you might want to check the sex of your chickens before purchase as cockerels make a racket (and they don’t lay eggs).
The chickens I grew up with were ‘free range hens’, they had the run of the garden until they discovered Mum’s fruit canes and the veg patch…a run was made for them so they had plenty of space and they were safe from the local foxes too. The eggs from these hens were fantastic, nothing like you get in the supermarket, they were a rich deep yellow/orange and tasted amazing. These hens were kept specifically for egg laying only.
A couple of months ago my other half and I decided to get a chicken for eating from our local shop.
I washed out the chicken and cut the ties holding the legs together as the meat cooks better this way. I then cooked the chicken and made a nice roast dinner, I managed to pick all the meat from the carcass so that nothing was wasted.
Recently I’ve been working on assemblages with a lot of bird remains and after attending the recent PZG conference which had a session focusing on bird remains, I decided to start producing a bird reference collection. I already have a female blackbird on the go and I picked up a male woodpecker this weekend too.
As the carcass was still fully articulated I began by placing the whole thing in a bowl of warm water which I changed daily to remove the grease from cooking. After a week of this I began adding biological washing powder to the warm water, this helps to break down the proteins, ligaments and cartilage in the skeleton. I carried out this process for two weeks and began teasing the ligaments and cartilage away from the bones, some came away easily, others needed soaking for longer. This process is known as maceration which I’ve mentioned in my other posts before, however this experiment didn’t smell like all the others. My previous work with mammal maceration was an incredibly smelly and unpleasant process, the chicken project didn’t smell bad at all and I managed to keep it in the kitchen! My theory for this is that it was a carcass used for food consumption rather than a week old road kill carcass.
When changing the water for my chicken, I used a sieve to catch all of the small bones like phalanges, as these are easily missed and get washed down the plug hole. I’m sure I missed a few, but being my first bird experiment I’ll know for next time (I have 3 pheasants in the freezer).
The bones have come out quite clean, although a bit of grease remains, so I’ll wipe them down with hydrogen peroxide solution or make a paste of bicarb of soda to clean them up. I decided to thread the vertebrae as they were so delicate, I did manage to lose one as it turns out this chicken is quite young and the remains were very fragile. As this bird is quite young, not all the epiphysis are fused onto the shafts so it’s not a great reference skeleton next time I’ll have to get hold of a complete adult bird to get the best results.
Tags: animal, assemblage, Bantam, Biological Washing Powder, Birds, Bones, carcass, Chicken, food, free range hens, Maceration, PZG Conference 2012, Vertebrea
Being an osteoarchaeologist, I study a variety of bones from varying species (including human remains) in the archaeological record.
There are a range of animal bones that are discovered at archaeological sites in the UK, and I find it interesting to try and tell the story of a site from the bones along with other artefacts that have been excavated.
To do this I have started to collect my own reference collection of animal skeletons so that I can compare them to the archaeological samples. I only use animals that I’ve bought from a butchers for consumption, or roadkill specimens. I’m also experimenting to find the best method of skeletal preparation, having already blogged about maceration and the odours that go hand in hand with this process previously. Although maceration is quick, the cons. are the smell and that it works best in the summer months. I prefer the burial method as it has no smell, but it takes a long time to get results. With animals I’ve bought from the butcher I can process them by cooking, and then use a basic maceration changing the water daily for a week or so to losen the cartilage. I have a cooked chicken sitting in a bucket of water at the moment…I didn’t waste the meat.
Because of the lack of space where I currently live, I’m only taking on small birds and mammals, nothing bigger than a rabbit or a blackbird. When I eventually get a place to call my own I intend to set up a proper workshop to start preparing bigger specimens like deer, goose and foxes.
A few days ago, a friend gave me parts from two animal carcasses (cow and sheep) that she had collected from her local butcher, who was preparing the animals for meat consumption. Over the weekend I began processing these bones for my collection.
I decided to document the event and write about it on my blog. If you are squeamish avoid looking at the photos.
Cow & Sheep skeletal prep. March 10th 2012
I had left the pieces of vertebrae for a few days in a plastic bag, and they had begun to smell slightly. Not a nasty smell, but not nice, I’m not bothered by this kind of thing, but I do notice it. It doesn’t take long for carcasses to start decomposing if they are not stored in the correct environment. It’s a natural process, and means the proteins are starting to break down and decay.
First I had to find a good location. As I currently live in rented accommodation in quite a residential area, I didn’t think my neighbours would appreciate the smell of rotting animal parts over the summer. I have several ‘pots o’ death’ in the garden already, but I don’t have a space big enough to disguise chunks of cow and sheep.
Pots o’ death are garden plant pots in which I bury my collection to be processed naturally. Sometime’s I’ll leave the dead animals exposed for a while to attract insects (smelly, and often interests the local foxes), in others I’ll bury and plant bushes and shrubs in the pots (not smelly). This summer I’m hoping to excavate a few to see if there are any differences in decomposition between the varying methods. As I mentioned previously in my post, I collect these animals from the butchers, or as road kill.
The solution to my burial location dilema…my parents garden! More importantly they have a well established compost bin, complete with thousands of worms and insects, in direct sunlight. Perfect.
The compost bin was quite full, so I dug out a few bucket loads to make some space.
On Saturday I had also collected two onion nets from a local greengrocer, she asked why I needed them and so I explained. Afterwards, I think she regretted asking and looked at me like I was a loon.
I checked over the specimens, making sure the ribs and vertebrae were in good condition. I then bagged them separately in the two onion nets; cow vertebrae/ribs in one, sheep vertebrae/ribs/sacrum in the other.
The nets were strong, and had small holes to allow the insects and bacteria entry to the specimens, but the holes were not large enough to allow any of the bone to pass through. All being well the nets should survive through until next year intact, while the specimens would have broken down to leave exposed bone.
I then buried these in the compost bin, and poured the compost I had taken out, back ontop of these remains. To deter any foxes I placed a heavy herb planter ontop of the compost bin lid to squash everything back into place, filling the voids around the nets.
I plan to revisit the compost bin in a year to 18 months time to check on the remains and the rate of decomposition. Being in a sunny position really helps the decay rate as the insect/bacteria productivity is higher than in the shade, and this increases the breakdown of natural organic matter.
Tags: Animal Bones, carcass, Cow, decomposition, experimental archaeology, insects, processing, reference collections, Sheep
Yesterday I was reading through my lovely copy of the Lewes Viva (March 20012 volume 66. Page 21. My Lewes Interview by Alex Leith and photo by Katie Moorman) and came across an interview given by Edwina Livesey, the brains behind the Battle of Lewes Research Group.
Edwina talks about the Battle of Lewes Conference on Saturday 14th April at the Town Hall (make sure you all have your tickets booked, it’s going to be good!). And also talks about a specialist projector production at Lewes Castle on the evening of the 14th April that is not to be missed!
My research is mentioned (1264 war graves), and I’m working on producing an archaeological map of Sussex from the 13th Century to see if I can plot the extent of the Battle through artefacts, and whether I can tell what life was like for the ‘Joe Bloggs’ of the
Here is the interview, which I have shortened to focus on the Battle of Lewes info and the Performing Arts production advert:
Tags: Archaeology, Battle of Lewes, Battle of Lewes Conference, Battle of Lewes Research Group, Bones, Castle, entertainment, environment, Lewes, Medieval, research, science, vacation
I can now tell you all about Eastbourne’s 2012 summer excavation as it’s been released to the press!
Check out the Past Horizons website link for the dig: http://www.pasthorizons.com/worldprojects/Details.asp?ID=2789
This is the second year that Jo Seaman, Eastbourne’s Museum Officer, has organised a community excavation. Last year the site was Grange Gardens (see my earlier posts for details). I’m currently writing up the animal bone report from this excavation for publication.
Here is a press cutting from last year taken from Eastbourne’s County Council newsletter (if you look closely, you can see me at the far end of the trench in the black t-shirt, next to Ruth in red!):
This years dig is going to be fantastic! It’s a new site called Pococks, on the Rodmill Estate. The aim is to try and locate the lost Medieval Manor House and the dig will run from the 14th July to the 12th August as part of the Festival of British Archaeology.
Volunteers are encouraged to apply as there are limited places each day. No experience is necessary, and training will be given, this is what’s great about a community excavation! If you want to book dates, or have queries then email Jo at localhistory@eastbourne.gov.uk or phone on 01323 415396.
I will be digging on this site too, and will give demonstrations on how to identify animal/human bone in an archaeological context as well as what’s involved with the post-ex stages from an osteoarchaeologists perspective.
Hope to see you there!
Tags: Animal Bones, archaeological context, book dates, british archaeology, Community Excavation, dig, Eastbourne, Eastbourne Museum Service, environment, Festival of British Archaeology, Grange Gardens, human bones, Medieval Manor House, Past Horizons, Pococks, research, Rodmill Estate, science, Volunteers
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