Graveyard Rat: bones

This is King Arthur Pendragon.

He legally changed his name.

He’s a modern druid and a protester at Stonehenge. He hangs out and talks very rationally about his mission. I've seen some documentaries with him in them, and he's a really eloquent, charismatic speaker. This is what he does.

A bunch of eye-catching signs. The last one's a little off- there were no bones at the henge, just cremains.

The petition. He's got a whole binder of signatures with name, country of origin, and religion to show that it's not just an English thing or a druid thing- it's everybody's concern.

He’s been working to increase public access to the stones and the preservation of the human burials at Stonehenge for the past fifteen years. “But!” you say. “There are no human burials at Stonehenge! You’ve messed up a simple archaeological truth.” Bollocks, I say to you. There are human remains at Stonehenge. They’re here. Or rather, they were.


If you're going to mark a gravesite, do it right. (This is not the right way to do it.)

This is an Aubrey hole, first discovered by John Aubrey in 1666 and rediscovered by Robert Newell in the 1920s. These are holes in the ground where human cremains were found. All of the cremains were removed by Hawley, studied, and then reinterred into Aubrey Hole 7… for a while. They were re-removed in 2008, and they’ve been King Arthur’s pet cause since then. The British Museum has them for study, and he’s worried that they won’t give them back. After all, they were supposed to be back by now, but the museum repetitioned for ten more years and got them. It does make sense that they got them- they’re one of the world’s premiere research institutions. If any information can be gleaned from these remains, then they should of course hold them and study them. But the thing is? There’s really not much we can learn from these. Cremains are difficult to analyze. There’s not much you can learn from calcined bone about who a person was. Furthermore, these cremains are all mixed up due to the… not exactly forward-thinking archaeological practices of the 1920s. Any information we could get from them would be tainted. Sure, we might develop better techniques later on, but what’s the point in holding claimed cremains in a museum? After all, these are to the Brits what Native Americans are to Americans. They were here first, and there are some people who can claim them as biological ancestors. Many more can claim them as spiritual ancestors. The people who want the cremains to go back in the Aubrey Holes are fine with having them placed in a sealed container to be dug up later. They’re fine with the museum keeping a sample. All they want is for their ancestors to come home. That’s what the Native Americans wanted back in the 1970s. What they got was NAGPRA. It’s not perfect, but at least it’s something. There's nothing like that here. It's interesting the way they run their sites here. At many current excavations, there are rules that say that amateurs must be allowed to assist and that digging must stop to give public tours of the site. Stonehenge, which is managed by English Heritage, is a living site. There are sheep roaming around and loads of birds.


Seriously, there's a whole flock of them. Those are barrow graves in the background, by the way. More on them in a bit. Here is a video with some narration. Hopefully this is less terrible than my other videos.


This is Petulant Crow. He's a very friendly bird! (I think he's actually a rook, not a crow.)

Honestly, Stonehenge really does a poor job explaining the place’s role as a burial site. The Aubrey Holes are poorly marked- just white painted circles on the ground. A footpath goes right over one of them, and if you don’t have the audio tour (I didn’t, I don’t like the things) and aren’t a mortuary anthropologist or somebody with similar knowledge, you won’t know what they are. The barrow graves, on the other hand, are amazing. They’re these great hillocks in the middle of a field. Like the Aubrey Holes, if you didn’t know what they were, you wouldn’t. Unless, of course, you wandered up there.

See those hills? That's where we're going.

A fence to keep the sheep out. Normally, you can go in.

A barrow grave.

Civilization is right down the lane...

And on the other side of the hill.

A barrow grave, for those who don’t know, is a mass grave that’s basically a hollowed-out hill, sometimes surrounded by a ditch. Once they were filled with grave goods as well, but those were lost to antiquarians in the 18th and 19th centuries. It’s… so different from Stonehenge. You feel like you’re a part of the landscape. The barrows are managed by the National Trust, and they do a beautiful job of presenting them as part of the landscape. There’s a sign, a lovely illustrated unobtrusive sign, and it’s so silent and peaceful. Usually, the barrows are accessible to people; however, every now and then they fence them off to let the grass repair itself. We went when they were closed. A pity; I would rather have liked to climb one. After Stonehenge, we moved on to Bath, where there is a gorgeous Roman temple complex.

The sign! That's new. Not Roman. Not Roman at all.

Left to right: Anna, Kelly, me.

Even though the water here is green, it's very ferrous. Tastes like suckin' on nails.

This is the pediment from the temple to Sulis Minerva. Fun fact: one of the finds here were a bunch of curse tablets. I couldn't get any pictures of them, but they were written backwards on metal and tossed into the water. Mostly they dealt with the theft of clothes while the curser was bathing.

They do a neat reconstruction of the pediment with lights. The first step is putting it all to rights in classic white marble...

And then they paint it up much like it would have been.

There were several burials at the site, and the museum has an entire room devoted to recovered tombstones. I didn’t have time to photograph all of them, but here are some.

This is the tombstone of a scribe- you can tell from the scroll he's holding.

Part of a really cool tombstone with a dog on it that's bringing in a deer.

More fragmentary tombstones.

As you can see, these are pretty elaborate memorials. These are often upper-class Romans, many of them soldiers or religious figures. And then we have this guy.

Even without looking at the sign, I guessed that this was an older adult male skeleton.
The sign told me he was a man in his 50s from Syria. See, I did learn something in forensics. They’ve got him laid out, then his shroud beneath him, and then his stone sarcophagus set in the floor, roughly in the location it was found. A good deal of the stuff he was buried with surrounds him. Now, there’s certainly no public outcry over him. Nobody’s asking for him to be returned to the ground, or for his remains to be repatriated. So what’s the difference between him and the cremains? Is it that we can learn something from his skeleton, more than we could from the cremains? Is it that he’s on display so that the public can see him and learn from his bones? Is it that he’s not an ancestor- he’s not a Celt, or really even a Roman. He’s all the way from Syria.

A few final things to ponder: Who has the right to decide what to do with the graves, grave goods, and bodies beneath? The archaeologists who dig them up? The government? Their descendants? What do you think? How would you feel if it was your remains on display?

In America, we tend to build our places of worship for things like handegg, basketball, and big business.

In England, they built a cathedral for something that actually deserved it.

I want to have my wedding here.

What was that, my friends?

One of the world's most famous Diplodocus casts. This thing's been around since Carnegie.

Science.


See, we could put the spectators along this gallery, the wedding party on the stairs, stick the officiator next to Darwin (we are not moving Darwin) and then the procession can happen right under that dinosaur...

In the Great Hall, you can see some of the museum's selected wonders. These include the game-mounted skull of a fantastic Irish Elk, a beautifully preserved coelacanth, a hybrid tiger, and a glorious dodo skeleton- it's actually complete. Darwin sits in his chair and observes the comings and goings placidly.

Australian megafauna.

Beautiful plesiosaur. Just LOOK at those eyesockets!

Prehistoric turtle thing. I forget the name.

Not the museum's largest coelacanth, but their only dry mount. THE coelacanth type specimen is in the basement. I got to see it.

Mammoth skulls will never fail to impress me.

Oh, Mr. Darwin. Happy almost 201st birthday!

Biiiiiig pigeon!

I legitimately want one of these over my eventual fireplace

After I wandered the main hall for a while in complete shock and awe, a friendly employee steered me into the dinosaur hall. It was so very beautiful. It was dark, like an Egyptian tomb. Tiny prehistoric creatures dotted the marble columns as the interplay of light and shadow between the bones of the great beasts removed me to another world entirely. I... call me sentimental, but it was as close as I think I've ever found to an enchanted space.


Terribly shadowed Apatosaurus

Like some fearsome ancient dragon, half-hidden in the shadows, Triceratops waits.

I'd made a video, but I'm not sure it's any good. I apologize if I sound terribly pretentious and utterly ridiculous- perhaps it'd be better to listen with the sound off. Or, should you listen to the sound, at least have the decency to not tease me about it. Just quietly turn the sound back off and never listen to one of my videos again.

Next time I should think that I'll put a bit of thought into my words. I was just sort of... overcome. By dinosaurs. And science.

The arms of a Deinocherus. This is all we have of this dinosaur. Deinocherus means "terrible hand."


I, uh, kinda freaked out when I saw this thing. More about what it is in the next video. I promise that in the next video I do, I'll actually think about what I'm saying.

They are terribly creative with their mounting- they really maximize the space.

Simply gorgeous Allosaurus.

One of the Chinese stegosaurids.

Gallimimus. I always get this one confused with Struthomimus. I never remember which one's the chicken and which one's the ostrich. (This one's the chicken.)

T. rex head compared to Triceratops.

The Natural History Museum is very famous for its Tyrannosaurus display. They built a life-size, animatronic one a few years ago, and I very much wanted to see it. It was quite wonderful! It was all roary- it was in a defensive, unsure stance and guarding a carcass. It reminded me quite a bit of the way my reptiles behave when they're hunting and I'm watching them.


Here's lookin' at you, kid.

To be fair, I do feel two ways about this thing. Yes, it is quite cool, but the academic in me is not really sure how she feels about audio-animatronics in museums. They had some little animated raptors out in the main hall, and those didn't really have a purpose other than to show that the Velociraptor species weren't actually as big as say, Deinonychus. It kinda felt a little Disney World at times. But on the other hand, it's sooooooooooooooooooooooooo neat! I kinda fangirled over this thing. Then I moved on to the taxidermy animals. Now, I'm a child of the Field Museum, so I was expecting great things. I started with small mammals and was honestly incredibly disappointed. They only had one hall, and all of the specimens were very poorly preserved. The coats had faded and were often matted and tangled, the posing was entirely uninspired, the eyes were typically dull, and the noses looked like utter crap. They had a little sign stating that all their specimens were antiques, but y'know what? So are the Field's, and those are beautiful. And the Victorians were master taxidermists, especially when it came to posing. Google "taxidermy kitten party" to see what I mean. Here's the highlights- note, these were some of the better pieces:

The feet looked almost plastic and you could see the stitching 'round the tail.

See what I mean about the doofy noses? Also, LIGHT DAMAGE. HOLY CRAP. This is a THYLACINE. It's supposed to have STRIPES. And check out the matting on that wallaby.


Bonus points for having a Scottish wildcat. Minus a hundred points for how matted the coat is. Boar-bristle brushes are your FRIENDS.

Later, I found out that the majority of their small animals are at one of their sister museums because of space issues and that they care far more about large mammals because they have the space to display them here, whereas the Tring- their sister museum- doesn't. And wasn't their large mammal presentation fantastic.

Their rhinos are especially well-done.

The visible stitching on the giraffe's neck is TOTALLY ECLIPSED by that magnificent blue whale skeleton.

The elephant mounts are just gorgeous. But what's REALLY cool is that they've got a FEMALE Irish Elk on display next to the familiar male. I've never seen one before!

A rostrum so perfect it makes me weep.


In the back, you can see a fantastic black right whale skeleton. Just look at that arched spine! In the front, Moby Dick.

After the mammals, I went to look at the reptiles and fish. And oh how pleased I was! Their mounts were gorgeous- it's so rare to see actually taxidermied reptiles because of how their skin dries after death.

But just LOOK at this guy!

I've always thought Komodo dragons have a particularly wise look to them.

The fish, however, were the best to see. See, I have this bizarre favorite animal. I've never seen it outside of pictures, however, because it's a deep-sea fish and totally weird-looking.

LOOK YOU GUYS LOOOOOKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

THEY HAD ONE. Granted, it was missing its teeth and its color. But that's to be expected when you bring a deep-sea fish to the surface. They also had some models nearby to show you what one of a different species looked like during life.

This is the female sea devil.

This is the female sea devil after eating.

THEY ACTUALLY ADDED THE SECOND FISH IN HER MOUTH WHICH IS INCREDIBLY SCIENTIFICALLY ACCURATE AS ANGLERFISH HAVE NO THROATS AND THEIR MEALS JUST KIND OF SIT THERE UNTIL THEY ARE DONE.

Then after Fish, I did Birds. What they lack in small mammals, they TOTALLY MAKE UP FOR in Birds. If the hall hadn't been so packed, I would have gotten more pictures. Their peacock display is breathtaking.

Birds of prey are always difficult. Just look at the way that falconet's posed.


I hate swans more than nearly any other animal (paddlefish excluded), but even I had to admit these were beautiful. Clearly the best swans are behind glass.

This was in their case called "Wings." This is a stuffed Eurasian eagle owl that's well over a hundred years old, and it's perfect down to its fluffy feet. WHY couldn't they better curate their small mammals?

Once I was done with birds, I signed up for a tour of their Spirit Collection. The Natural History Museum has seventeen million specimens preserved in spirits of alcohol. Normally, most of them are impossible to see- that's why you sign up for the (free!) tour. I got taken around and got to see Reptile Storage, several specimens captured, labeled, and preserved by Darwin himself, the FIRST preserved coelacanth, a preserved thylacine pup, and the BEST THING EVER, part of a preserved colossal squid and an ENTIRE PRESERVED GIANT SQUID. For somebody who likes octopodes as much as I do, this was a HUGE DEAL. Unfortunately, I couldn't take many pictures due to the risk of fire- they don't allow any electronics down in most of the rooms. But I did get a few pictures (none of that gorgeous squid, unfortunately).

Cephalopod display case!


Closeup on that gorgeous O. vulgaris. That specimen is from 1930, boys and girls.

Reptile storage, before we went in.

That's not a door there, by the way. That's a window. The real doors have airlocks. They're that serious about anything doing damage to their specimens, and who could blame them? They have the biggest type specimen collection in the world, including the Komodo Dragon, several species of shark, and the giant squid. Oh, how I wish I could have taken his picture! After that, I went to go look at some shinies. They had an absolute ton of rocks, minerals, gemstones- you name it, it was there. Here are some of my favorites.