The Poulton Research Project

Wikipedia defines osteology as “the scientific study of bones. A subdiscipline of anatomy, osteology is a detailed study of the structure of bones, skeletal elements, teeth, morphology, function, disease, pathology, the process of ossification (from cartilaginous molds), the resistance and hardness of bones (biophysics), etc. Often used by scientists with identification of human remains with regard to age, death, gender, growth, and development in a biocultural context.
It is applied to forensic science, bioanthropology and archeology frequently”

In an archaeological context, this means gaining as much information as possible from any human remains that may be excavated. This website, by a professional osteo-archaeologist, gives a good overview of why we excavate human remains and what type of information can be obtained from them.

The chapel at Poulton is surrounded by a graveyard. As a consequence, we have excavated well over 200 human skeletons during the course of the project. The Poulton team does not have the skills and training to undertake full and complete skeletal examinations but we are capable of producing the basic information of age at death, sex and height at death. The procedures and methodology we use are described in the Project’s Skeleton Manual (PDF, 1.4 MBytes). Once that work is complete, all the skeletal material now goes to Liverpool University for more detailed and specialised analysis. Eventually all the material will be reburied at the Cistercian Monastery at Mount St. Bernard in Leicestershire, England.

Three reports on the human material from Poulton have been published so far:

A formal report by Dr. Charlotte Roberts on the skeleton used in the BBC’s “Meet the Ancestors” programme.

A formal report on the analysis of all the human skeletal material from the 1995 thro' 2002 seasons (PDF, 1.2 Mbytes).

A more accessible article written for the general reader on excavating human remains. It contains some of the same information as the formal report in a little less detail (PDF, 850 Kbytes).

Further Reading

Skeletons in the Cupboard: What a Human Bone Specialist can tell from your Bones. http://www.spoilheap.co.uk/hsrspec.htm.

Digging Up People: Guidelines for Excavation and Processing of Human Skeletal Remains. http://www.spoilheap.co.uk/digbone.htm

Guidance for Best Practice for Treatment of Human Remains Excavated from Christian Burial Grounds in England. English Heritage, Swindon and http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/upload/pdf/16602_HumanRemains1.pdf.

British Association for biological anthropology and osteoarchaeology, http://www.babao.org.uk/.