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Meeting April 2008
Two human skulls and several samples of human hair adorned the front table as
Mr Francis Thornton gave the final lecture in our 2007-08 series, on
"Waking the dead". He introduced us to the science of palaeo-pathology - the
examination of bones unearthed in excavation to determine age and sex of the
dead person, signs of disease and of methods used to effect recovery.
His introduction covered the way tissues and bone interact and he showed many slides
from the specialist collection in Edinburgh, showing, for example, skull trepanning, incorrect straightening of broken limbs and bones broken or penetrated by weapons. It was such a vast subject, as Mr Thornton freely admitted, that it could not be adequately covered in a one hour lecture. |