Hi everyone. Just wanted to thank you all for reading this blog. Last week, I hit a record high number of visit to the site in a single day. Close to 30 people logged on to read this thing. I feel pressure now to produce a meaningful and insightful post. Sadly, I doubt that will happen and this blog will continue to just be a rambling chronicle of my time here.
This week was a pretty ordinary week. Just school, school, and more school. Some of the courses are beginning to wrap up as the end of the semester is just a few weeks away. I'll be happy to finish these courses and I'm excited about starting the new ones in January. The osteology course has continued to become more practical. We have been studying how to determine the age of death of neonates, infants, and children. This is accomplished using many different methods. The most common and accurate way to determine age at death is to examine the dentition of the remains. Our teeth erupt at more or less a set age. By comparing which teeth have erupted to those that have not, an accurate age at death can be determined. We also learned methods for estimating the age by using several other bones of the body. In this method we examine the size of the bones along with their developmental stage. Our bones grow and fuse (commonly known as the growth plate) at particular ages, just like dental eruption, and by compiling all the data we can establish an accurate age, typically with in a year or two.
On Friday, we had our first guest lecturer of the year. The talk was about international forensic anthropology. The women, who currently works in the Netherlands as part of the International Criminal Court, presented on her work as a forensic anthropologist analyzing human remains for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia as well as her work in Iraq, Rwanda, and other ICC investigations of genocide and crimes against humanity. The talk was absolutely fascinating. I'm sure the general public would disagree with my feelings towards the lecture as most people would not enjoy 2 hours of talk and images about genocide and mass graves. If you are even the slightest bit interested in how genocide is proven in an international criminal trial from a forensic point of view I highly recommend reading The Bone Woman by Clea Koff. Not only is Clea a friend of mine and an incredible writer, her book goes deeper then what you would see on TV shows such as CSI or Bones. She really examines the emotional impact doing this work has on the lives of those who survived the wars and those who study the remains and speak for those who were killed. Its an emotional read but one I think everyone should pick up. She explains everything much better than I can. I hope one day to be able to join on of the teams that investigates this types of crimes. I know they are currently sending in "fact-finding" teams into Lybia and several other African nations. We will see what happens in the next few months or years but given the chance to do it, I would go. Right now, The Bone Woman is less than $10 on Amazon. Here is a link: The Bone Woman by Clea Koff
I got several messages and comments about the little sneak peek I gave you all last week. I will post a separate entry about the upcoming project and my involvement very soon. As it stands now, the project will take place. I am unsure of the exact route that it will follow, but something will be happening. I will let you all know every soon. Well, I think that is it for this week. I trust that everyone is able to view the slideshows that I have posted. If you are having any issues viewing any content I publish here please let me know and I will attempt to address it as best I can. Weather has been really crappy, so no new photos this week. Hope next week will be better.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Sneak Peek
While I still can't personally tell you what I am involved in, I did find a newspaper article that gives you a brief insight into what I am going to be working on. It is still tentative at this point but it is looking promising. I have a meeting next week that will determine the course of the study.
Read more: http://www.examiner.ie/ireland/resignation-offers-hope-that-mummy-may-stay-in-cork-172479.html#ixzz1e0Ud5T3P
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Tuesday, November 01, 2011
Resignation offers hope that mummy may stay in Cork
Tuesday, November 01, 2011
THE case for repatriation of an Egyptian mummy from its current resting place in Cork city has lost one of its most vocal supporters after he stood down as head of Egypt’s Supreme Council for Antiquities.
Zahi Hawass, the world’s foremost authority on ancient Egypt, has previously spoken in favour of returning the mummy to North Africa.
However, he resigned in July, sparking hopes that the ancient remains may be allowed rest in peace as part of the Boole Library Collection at University College Cork (UCC).
In 2002, Mr Hawass was quoted as saying: "This mummy is coming home."
In a newspaper article, Mr Hawass said: "I was in Ireland on a lecture tour in October last year and I had talks with senior staff at UCC. They agreed to let us take Osiris [the mummy’s name] home where he belongs, to the sun and shifting sands of Egypt."
However Mr Hawass’s resignation might work in Ireland’s favour.
Mystery surrounds how the mummy came to UCC.
By 1910, it was illegal to export mummified remains from Egypt, which may explain why there is no record of its delivery to the college.
The mummy is part of a number of artifacts retained by the college from collections amassed when it was Queen’s College Cork (1845 to 1908).
A spokeswoman said the mummy was acquired in the late 19th or very early 20th century by the college and dates to around 305 BC.
The date puts the mummy into the Ptolemaic period, when Egypt was part of a Greek kingdom centred on the eastern Mediterranean.
The college said there is no inscription naming the man but scholarly analysis suggests he would have belonged to the upper echelons of society.
Research conducted by Helen Moloney Davis discovered that the coffin came from Thebes.
The mummy is 1 metre and 69cm long and weighs 24.2kg. X-rays reveal the mummy was a well-built, fully grown male.
The mummy’s coffin dates to around 625 to 600 BC and bears an inscription of a man called Hor whose title was lotus-beater.
However, the mummy itself can be dated back to the Ptolemaic Roman period 305 BC to 500 AD.
Ms Moloney Davis said it is apparent the mummy and the coffin do not belong together.
Ultimately, what becomes of the mummy will depend on the discussions taking place between the Egyptian embassy and UCC.
The Grand Egyptian Museum, also known as the Giza Museum, is planned to contain artifacts of ancient Egypt.
It is scheduled to open in 2013 — and the hunt is on for treasures to fill it up.
It is understood that experts are being drafted in over the coming weeks to assess the mummy and an arrangement will have to be reached with UCC and the Egyptian authorities.
However, he resigned in July, sparking hopes that the ancient remains may be allowed rest in peace as part of the Boole Library Collection at University College Cork (UCC).
In 2002, Mr Hawass was quoted as saying: "This mummy is coming home."
In a newspaper article, Mr Hawass said: "I was in Ireland on a lecture tour in October last year and I had talks with senior staff at UCC. They agreed to let us take Osiris [the mummy’s name] home where he belongs, to the sun and shifting sands of Egypt."
However Mr Hawass’s resignation might work in Ireland’s favour.
Mystery surrounds how the mummy came to UCC.
By 1910, it was illegal to export mummified remains from Egypt, which may explain why there is no record of its delivery to the college.
The mummy is part of a number of artifacts retained by the college from collections amassed when it was Queen’s College Cork (1845 to 1908).
A spokeswoman said the mummy was acquired in the late 19th or very early 20th century by the college and dates to around 305 BC.
The date puts the mummy into the Ptolemaic period, when Egypt was part of a Greek kingdom centred on the eastern Mediterranean.
The college said there is no inscription naming the man but scholarly analysis suggests he would have belonged to the upper echelons of society.
Research conducted by Helen Moloney Davis discovered that the coffin came from Thebes.
The mummy is 1 metre and 69cm long and weighs 24.2kg. X-rays reveal the mummy was a well-built, fully grown male.
The mummy’s coffin dates to around 625 to 600 BC and bears an inscription of a man called Hor whose title was lotus-beater.
However, the mummy itself can be dated back to the Ptolemaic Roman period 305 BC to 500 AD.
Ms Moloney Davis said it is apparent the mummy and the coffin do not belong together.
Ultimately, what becomes of the mummy will depend on the discussions taking place between the Egyptian embassy and UCC.
The Grand Egyptian Museum, also known as the Giza Museum, is planned to contain artifacts of ancient Egypt.
It is scheduled to open in 2013 — and the hunt is on for treasures to fill it up.
It is understood that experts are being drafted in over the coming weeks to assess the mummy and an arrangement will have to be reached with UCC and the Egyptian authorities.
Read more: http://www.examiner.ie/ireland/resignation-offers-hope-that-mummy-may-stay-in-cork-172479.html#ixzz1e0Ud5T3P
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Tuesday, November 01, 2011
8 Down
So two months have come and gone now. Which means I only have 10 months to figure out my Master's project, do said project, and then write a small book about it! Doesn't seem that far off when I think about it. In fact, it's a little bit scary to think that it is that close. Speaking of my Master's project, I will be writing a separate post that will be uploaded shortly explaining everything. Sorry about all the secrecy. Trust me, I want to talk about it. I am just getting a lot of pressure from some very powerful people to keep it very quiet at the moment. I don't want to get on their bad side as it could jeopardize my chance at doing the project. It wouldn't be me if there wasn't some element of controversy involved.
This week was pretty calm. Readings were lighter than usual and lectures were easier. The topics are no longer in the realm of theory and thus the material is much easier to engage with. Topics we are currently discussing include: age and sex, childhood (and its relationship to mortuary practices), and determining the biological sex of a skeleton using various bones of the body. I like the hands on element; I'm good at it.
Friday was our first class field trip! We took a tour around West Cork and viewed several cemeteries that dated from the medieval period to the late 19th century. The weather was less then ideal starting out. It had poured the entire night before and the forecast suggested that it wouldn't let up for the entire day. Luckily, the rain did stop as soon as we left the city center. The wind, however, did not. The wind had the ability to cut through just about everything. Need to invest in a serious wind breaker style jacket. Our locations during the tour were not helping the poor weather. All of the places we visited were right along the southwest coast of Ireland. The wind would pick up the sea water, so even though it wasn't raining, we were still getting wet. It was amazing to see how the cemeteries changed over time. Some burials were very Pagan while others displayed highly Christian themes. Many of these graveyards had the ruins of an old medieval church still partially standing. We also visited the ruins of a late medieval star-shaped fort. It was a little bit of an adventure getting to it which involved a slight bit of trespassing, a fair amount of mud, cattle, and an electric fence. The latter was slightly terrifying. I'm ok with barbed wire but electric fences, in the rain, are a different story.
Towards the end of our trip we stopped for lunch at a cafe/restaurant in a small town. The food was amazing, the dessert even better! The dessert special for the day was Jamesson and Bailey's Creme Burlee and it was one of the best things I have ever had! Our professor surprised us all and picked up the tab for all of our lunches. We are going to have to get him a nice Christmas gift from the class. After lunch we stopped at one last cemetery. This one was just outside of the town where we ate. It was most known for its mass grave dating to the years of the great Irish famine from 1845-1850. It just looked like a large field, but you could see slight depressions where the pits were (top left of picture below). It is unknown exactly how many bodies were buried there, but it is in the order of several hundred. There is a modern memorial erected dedicated to those who lost their lives in the famine (approx 1 million people). You can see the ruins of a church in the upper right of the picture below. It looks like a triangular tree as the remaining structure is fully covered in plant growth.
Well That's it for this week's update. Hopefully I will have good news to share with you all by mid next week and I can stop being so secretive.
This week was pretty calm. Readings were lighter than usual and lectures were easier. The topics are no longer in the realm of theory and thus the material is much easier to engage with. Topics we are currently discussing include: age and sex, childhood (and its relationship to mortuary practices), and determining the biological sex of a skeleton using various bones of the body. I like the hands on element; I'm good at it.
Friday was our first class field trip! We took a tour around West Cork and viewed several cemeteries that dated from the medieval period to the late 19th century. The weather was less then ideal starting out. It had poured the entire night before and the forecast suggested that it wouldn't let up for the entire day. Luckily, the rain did stop as soon as we left the city center. The wind, however, did not. The wind had the ability to cut through just about everything. Need to invest in a serious wind breaker style jacket. Our locations during the tour were not helping the poor weather. All of the places we visited were right along the southwest coast of Ireland. The wind would pick up the sea water, so even though it wasn't raining, we were still getting wet. It was amazing to see how the cemeteries changed over time. Some burials were very Pagan while others displayed highly Christian themes. Many of these graveyards had the ruins of an old medieval church still partially standing. We also visited the ruins of a late medieval star-shaped fort. It was a little bit of an adventure getting to it which involved a slight bit of trespassing, a fair amount of mud, cattle, and an electric fence. The latter was slightly terrifying. I'm ok with barbed wire but electric fences, in the rain, are a different story.
 |
| Medieval cemetery and church in Castlehaven Harbour, Co. Cork, Ireland |
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| Ruined fort in Castletownsend, Co. Cork, Ireland |
Towards the end of our trip we stopped for lunch at a cafe/restaurant in a small town. The food was amazing, the dessert even better! The dessert special for the day was Jamesson and Bailey's Creme Burlee and it was one of the best things I have ever had! Our professor surprised us all and picked up the tab for all of our lunches. We are going to have to get him a nice Christmas gift from the class. After lunch we stopped at one last cemetery. This one was just outside of the town where we ate. It was most known for its mass grave dating to the years of the great Irish famine from 1845-1850. It just looked like a large field, but you could see slight depressions where the pits were (top left of picture below). It is unknown exactly how many bodies were buried there, but it is in the order of several hundred. There is a modern memorial erected dedicated to those who lost their lives in the famine (approx 1 million people). You can see the ruins of a church in the upper right of the picture below. It looks like a triangular tree as the remaining structure is fully covered in plant growth.
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| Abbeystrewry cemetery and famine memorial, Skibbereen, Co. Cork, Ireland |
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