In 1998, construction workers doing repair work in the basement at 36 Craven Street in London found more than 1200 pieces of bone (human and nonhuman) in a pit that was 1 meter wide and 1 meter deep. Since old human… Read More ›
History
All Saints Day reunites the living with the dead in the Philippines
The Christian holiday of All Saints‘ Day falls on November 1, followed by All Souls’ Day and Day of the Dead on November 2. ‘All Saints Day’ can be traced back to the Roman era and the pagan festival of… Read More ›
Tibetan ritual skull cups
Kapala, Sanskrit for “skull”, are ritual cups used in Buddhist and Hindu Tantric ceremonies as a reminder of the temporary nature of life and the physical existence. Monks recover the crania used to carve kapala from sky burial sites or… Read More ›
The 800 Skulls and Bones of the Martyrs of Otranto on Display
Antonio Primaldo and his 800 companion martyrs, known as the “martyrs of Otranto“, were killed on a hill outside the Italian town by Ottoman Turk invaders. On August 14, 1480 after Ottoman Turks besieged and conquered the village of Otranto,… Read More ›
Tubular sequestrum of a femur
This isn’t part of an ancient weapon or a stake dug out of a vampire burial. This is actually a sequestrum of a femur removed from a private who served during the Civil War. A sequestrum is a piece of… Read More ›
The skull cave of Fiji
When I think about Fiji, clear blue water and golden sands come to mind. I could never imagine that such an exotic location is home could be home to a mass grave. In 2007 near Wailotua Village, on Viti Levu… Read More ›
The mystery of Skeleton Lake in Roopkund, India
Updated Sunday, December 1st, 2013. In 1942, a British forest guard was exploring a remote area of in the Himalayan Mountains in India, called Roopkund, when he made a grisly discovery, a lake surrounded by hundreds of skeletons. Due… Read More ›
The skeleton of William Burke, body snatcher on display
William Burke and William Hare were murderers who went on a 10 month killing spree in 1828, and sold the bodies of their 16 victims to Dr. Robert Knox, an anatomy lecturer, to be dissected at the medical school. Prior… Read More ›
Parisian awe-ssuary – The bone-filled catacombs under the City of Lights
The Catacombs of Paris are a series of underground ossuaries that run for about 280km, or 170 miles. The anonymous bones of the Catacombs are comingled in intricate patterns to form walls, columns, and artistic sculptures. All of the bones from this… Read More ›
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