Skulls

Today was rather bittersweet as it was our last day of excavation.  It concluded what has been a terrific and unimaginably informative couple of weeks.  As with all other excavation days, we started with lab work which consisted of cleaning bones.  There was only one other student besides myself that spent the whole time in the necropolis (the others split time between the city and the necropolis).  Since we have become much more proficient at cleaning and identifying bones, our supervisor trusted us to clean two skulls.  They were both of children and very fragile.  Children's bones never preserve as well as adult because they are not as big and strong.  It was very difficult and required a lot of patience, but in the end I made a lot of progress.  In the hours I spent on it, I clean off most of the soil, but some other ambitious student will have to finish the task later on.  It was a great culmination to a week full of learning and excitement.  Here are some pictures...

Before:

During:

After:

In the dirt that was caked on the skull there was a part of a mandible (lower jaw).  Here is a picture:

On the right are two baby teeth and on the left you can see a tooth that has not yet come in.  From this we were able to age it and it comes out to between 4 and 5 years old.  Cleaning the skull was difficult, but very rewarding.  It was definitely one of my favorite things that I did over the course of the excavation.

Best,

Adam