Update on George!!!

I have to update you on poor old George, my skeleton from my first osteo report...

Well, we managed to find out, from evidence on his skeleton, that he more than likely died from a nasty blow to the head with an axe!!! Poor George!

Close examination of his skull showed scrapping marks to his left parietal bone (left part of upper skull), and a radiating fracture going into his frontal plate. This can be seen in the photo on the left, showing the left side of his skull and face, the scrapping marks seen near the top right of the photo, and the radiating fracture in the middle. This evidence was further confirmed by looking at the post-cranial parts (anything other than the skull) of his skeleton. The left clavicle (collar bone) showed two very slight cuts into the bone, and happened peri-mortem (before the individuals death). The two slight cuts to the bone can be seen in the middle of the clavicle in the photo on the right, on the bottom edge of the bone.

So basically, the evidence from the left side of the skull and the left clavicle, points towards a blow to his head, and maybe a second blow to his neck. The second blow cut of his left mastoid process (a tubercle just behind the ear) and left marks in his left clavicle.

Poor George died in a bad way, not from the disease that was quite chronic as seen from his hip joint, but from a nastly blow to his head and the second blow to his neck probably finished him off.

See....the bones never lie!!!

Ok...so I have been very slack to update my blog since I started it (8 months ago), but my MA is my only, but very big excuse!!!! Things got very busy with my studies, and I sort of lost track of anything other than my MA. But please, dont ever be put off doing a master degree, as its been the best thing ever for me. It is a HUGE amount of work, but if you pick the right subject, it can be totally amazing.

Starting the MA was very personal to me, an accomplishment I never thought I could actually do...but I did and its very nearly complete! Not only will I come out with an MA degree, but I have met some amazing people and now have some amazing friends along the way and I have grown and changed into a completely different person I was this time last year! So I would definitely say this MA has been the best decision I have made in my life thus far!

Anyway...back to the subject of this blog!

I'm at the end of my course now, nearly 12 months have gone by, and I'm currently in the middle of my dissertation. A mammoth 20'000 words...and so far its going well! So hopefully, I will be able to post more insights to the fascinating subject that is osteo...and be able to show what I have learnt in the last 12 months!