In the mid-19th century William Hicks, the mayor of Bodmin, in Cornwall, hosted a dinner party. As the story goes, rather than entertaining his guests with music or poetry, he chose to prank his guests with a fake seance…. Read More ›
Paleopathology
Did long-term corseting really cause women to meet an early demise?
H/T: Dr. Kristina Killgrove’s article “Here’s How Corsets Deformed The Skeletons Of Victorian Women” on Forbes. For centuries people have deformed their skeletons to mold different parts of their bodies to what is considered an ideal shape in their culture. Long-term corseting,… Read More ›
Archaeologists found an Aztec skull rack that once held tens of thousands of human heads
On Thursday, August 20th archaeologists from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) announced they unearthed a masonry platform and 35 skulls in the Templo Mayor complex, in what is now Mexico City. They believe the skulls and platform… Read More ›
A pharaonic murder mystery that was solved with forensic analysis
Forensic analyses of two Egyptian mummies published in the British Medical Journal in 2012 may have answered questions scholars had about the outcome of an ancient conspiracy against Pharaoh Ramesses III and the identity of a contorted mummy believed to… Read More ›
The incorruptible corpse of a murderer
A church in the small village of Kampehl in Brandenburg, Germany displays the mummified remains of a knight who died in the early 18th century. It’s not unusual for European churches to show the bodies and body parts of saints… Read More ›
The ‘Rembrandts of anatomical preparation’ who turned skeletons into art
In the 17th and 18th centuries, makers of osteological specimens built fanciful displays with skeletons standing in landscapes made with embalmed human organs, skeletons dangling hearts on a string like a yo-yo, or specimens playing instruments while sitting on a… Read More ›
Posed-Mortems: The unique displays of people who donated their whole bodies to science
In a display case in the South Cloisters at University College London sits the “Auto-Icon” of Jeremy Bentham. Jeremy Bentham (February 15, 1748-June 6, 1832) was a philosopher associated with Utilitarianism-something I had to look up. He was also a… Read More ›
The horrific disease that causes jaw bones to glow in the dark and rot away
The earliest matches were unsafe to manufacture and almost as dangerous to light. In 1805 a French chemist invented a self-igniting, chemical match that was a piece of wood that was treated with a mixture of potassium chlorate, sulfur, sugar,… Read More ›
The skull of a medieval martyr used to make medicinal powders
In the Cathedral of Otranto are five large display cases that contain the bones of the “martyrs of Otranto.” The skulls face the cathedral’s visitors and are mixed with long bones and bones of the pelvis. In one of the… Read More ›
A game of thrones written in bones: The skeletal collection from the Battle of Towton
The Battle of Towton took place on Palm Sunday in 1461 and was one of the grisliest battles of the Wars of the Roses (1455-1487). That conflict was so bloody that it’s estimated that tens of thousands of soldiers were massacred. In… Read More ›
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