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Though the article does say that the body will be re buried, it does not specify that it will be in the same place. Are we to understand that they are just movi
by abakker 11y ago
Though the article does say that the body will be re buried, it does not specify that it will be in the same place. Are we to understand that they are just moving the bodies out of the way to build a convention center?
Real question: what will we learn from examining this body from 300 years ago? My understanding is that we have plenty of artifacts and knowledge left from that time period. Are we primarily interested in her cause of death? her diet?
- diodorus 11y agoBioarcheaologists have been finding out all sorts of new stuff recently using forensic tools to analyze human remains. One of my favorite blogs along these lines is Kristina Killgrove's "Powered by Osteons" which discusses her research into lead levels in the bones of ancient Romans, among other interesting things: http://www.poweredbyosteons.org http://www.poweredbyosteons.org From a more specifically historical point of view, it's true that we know quite a lot about 17th century material culture (especially of France) due to probate records from wills, and the survival of many pieces in museums, etc. But it's still interesting to see the divergence between textual records of burials and belongings and how they actually played out in practice, especially because most museum pieces are completely decontextualized from the original context (i.e., we might have some cork-soled shoes that survive in other collections, but these ones are still on the feet of the wearer).
- abakker 11y agoThanks for that reply!