Human Bones

We visited Birmingham University to learn about human bones and what archaeologists can learn about people that lived long ago from bones that are found on excavations.

First we looked at the main bones and how to recognise them and how to figure out whether a skeleton is that of a man or a woman.

We also found out that some animal bones can look like human bones (the paw of a bear looked like a human hand except that it had claws).

Some bones show signs of disease or deformation and others may have breaks that have healed or have signs of damage that may indicate how the person died. We learned how to tell the age of a person from their bones and teeth and also how it is possible to date the bones using chemical analysis.

Many thanks to Martin for telling us all about bones - we found it very interesting and won't be scared by any skeletons we happen to find this Haloween!

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