Sunday 22 January 2012

Bone


H.I. and me took advantage of the sunny weather today to go for a walk along the river here in Bath. On the other side of the weir, a small trench had been dug, and the little pile of earth contained loads of interesting detritus, including this human finger (or toe - I haven't decided which yet) bone.

It is obviously very old, but I would have to have it tested to find out exactly how old. There is a good, dark patina on it, and my feelings are that it is no younger than late medieval.

In amongst the rest of the earth were other objects which should have given me a clue, but - putting my Sherlock hat on - in fact, they could only muddy the waters, so to speak. There was a piece of glass which was the broken base to a late medieval or 17th century 'onion flask' wine bottle, some terracotta pieces, animal bones and quite a lot of fresh-water shells. It was the shells which gave me the clue about how uncertain I can be about the date of this bone.

There has been much work done in the area of Pulteney Bridge in the last 300 years, and most of it involved dredging some of the river bed up to make way for the bridge itself, as well as later weir improvements.

For thousands of years, people have used this stretch of the Avon to dump all sorts of things, and these things will have included corpses, both natural and murdered. The mud at the bottom of this river is rich indeed, and who knows what else lies undiscovered - thrown from Roman and Medieval bridges.

I found an almost identical bone at Ephesus once, but left it there. This one I have kept.

17 comments:

  1. Ph my goodness me Tom - it's revolting.

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  2. I've just gone down to the river again and collected the piece of glass, plus a piece of shell. The glass is really pretty - covered in iridescence - I'll post those up tomorrow. When I came back, I found a huge drunk lying against the front door, but he moved politely.

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  3. It looks wooden...are you sure that it isn't?? As one who sees human bones any given day of the week (in surgery)...that sure doesn't look like any I've seen. Not saying that it's NOT an old bone. Just saying....hmmm.

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    1. It's been buried in mineral-rich, wet earth for who knows how long.

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  4. you didn't lose a toe, did ya? You and that bone must be about the same age. And, there was all that broken glass about. hmmm????

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  5. It looks a bit like a petrified dog biscuit .... but, I like a bit of the macabre. Were there many bones or just the one ? It conjures up all sorts of stories as to why there is a solitary metacarpal or metatarsal !!

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    1. I am sure that all this stuff was dredged out of the river bank, which is why it's all so mixed up.

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  6. An old Muslim correctional centre perhaps? What crime would one have to have committed, in order to have just one finger cut off?

    I like it....you could keep it in your pocket and make up endless stories.

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    1. I'm detecting a pattern in your train of thought, Cro. I've started to make up the stories already, just to see if any hold water.

      I've put up a picture of the other bits now, and you see what I mean about fresh-water shells.

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  7. Actually, going on a dig is on my Bucket List. But I'm afraid it will be the one that is not accomplished. But I could spend hours dusting the sand off a small tooth of something ancient.

    The only things you find in these parts are horse shoes from when the area was farm land.

    envious

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    1. If you wander around various U.S. plains, you will find flint arrowheads from the Natives, but there is no way of telling if they are 100 years old, or 1000 years old - they are identical.

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  8. I'm having problems viewing the comments on your blog recently, but suddenly it works again ... hm

    I am fascinated by your finds. I was once in London on the millenium bridge when I saw people picking up things on the shore of the Thames. So I went down there as well and did my own collecting. I have some bits of ceramic, some bone, and something that I am sure is petrified goat poop. Bet you can't beat that!

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