423419     วิทยากระดูก     Osteology

การเจริญของกระดูก ส่วนประกอบ โครงสร้าง และสัณฐานวิทยาปกติของระบบโครงร่าง

(Development, composition, structures and normal morphology of the skeletal system.)

(423419 มหาวิทยาลัยเกษตรศาสตร์)

From PacificID's Dog Burial Field Guide.

Dogs are such an important source of evidence for past human life.  Not just as “man’s best friend” and all that but because of the insight they give into domestication, into evolutionary processes, as proxies for stable isotope studies of human diet, and so forth.  So, pretty great to see PacificID is putting out a field guide to dog burials and in situ dog remains in archaeology, complete with snazzy laminated ID card. The book itself is also printed on waterproof paper.  There are also downloadable diagrams (PDF) for recording dog burials.  The author, Dr. Susan Crockford, is an authority on the evolution of dogs and other domestication and evolution issues, and on dog osteology.  This looks like excellent value for money.

a surgical procedure which replaces one half of the joint with an artificial surface and leaves the other part in its natural (pre-operative) state. This class of procedure is most commonly performed on the hip after a subcapital (just below the head) fracture the neck of the femur. The procedure is performed by removing the head of the femur and replacing it with a metal or composite prosthesis. The most commonly used prosthesis designs are the Austin Moore prosthesis and the Thompson Prosthesis.

Orthropod. 2002. Hemiarthroplasty of the Hip. Retrieved October 12, 2009 from http://www.eorthopod.com/public/patient_education/6500/hemiarthroplasty_of_the_hip.html

Osteogenesis Imperfecta, OA or Brittle Bone disease

Etiology

• Osteogenesis Imperfecta is subdivided into 6 clinical types

• genetic mutation collagen compromising bone formation and development

• autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance

• mutation in Type 1 collagen gene, however, type 4 has no detectable mutation

• Causes bone fragility and low bone mass

• results in moderate to severe increase in fragility of long bones and vertebral bodies

• Elevated collagen type I N-telopeptide levels in urine (indicative of increased osseous hyperplasia due to fracture healing)

                   Clinical Presentation

                          Presentation/Fractures Pathologic Minimal Trauma

                         Note: May be suspect child abuse (prior to diagnosis)

                     Type 1

• symptoms are mild

• normal of near normal height

• blue sclera (visible sign in the eye, indicative of collagen dysfunction)

                            Type 2

• typically lethal in the perinatal period

                           Type 3

• progressive deforming osteogenesis imperfecta

• the most severe form in children surviving the neonatal period

• characteristic phenotype

• extreme short stature

• severe spinal, thoracic and extremity deformities

• blue sclera

                           Type 4

• patients presenting with moderate to severe symptoms of osteogenesis imperfecta yet who do not fit into the above descriptions

                          Type 5

• present with moderate to severe symptoms of osteogenesis imperfecta

• have no detectable genetic mutation

                         Type 6

• present with moderate to severe symptoms

• have mineralization defect and present with accumulation of osteoid

• note: osteoid is the organic matrix of protein and polysaccharides, secreted by osteoblasts, that becomes bone after it mineralizes

                             Tx

• Symptoms and Pain management

• Continued care for chronic condition

                            Sources:

1. Bishop, Nicholas, J, Fassier, Francois, Glorieux, Delphine, F, Glorieux, Franis, H, Lalic, Ljiljana, Plotkin, Horacio, Rauch, Frank, Roughley, Peter, Travers, Rose and Ward, Leanne. 2000Type V Osteogenesis Imperfecta: A new form of brittle bone disease. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. 15:1650-1658.

2. Bishop, Nicholas, J, Fassier, Francois, Glorieux, Delphine, F, Glorieux, Franis, H, Lalic, Ljiljana, Plotkin, Horacio, Rauch, Frank, Roughley, Peter, Travers, Rose and Ward, Leanne. 2000Type V Osteogenesis Imperfecta: A new form of brittle bone disease. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. 15:1650-1658.

Under hösten kommer vi att lägga upp gamla nummer av Benbiten som pdf-filer under fliken Benbiten arkiv. Tanken är att numren kommer att finnas tillgängliga med ett års fördröjning. Till och börja med kommer Benbiten nummer 1/ och 2/2006 samt nummer 1/2007.  Fler nummer kommer att fyllas på efter hand.

Enstaka tryckta nummer finns kvar vid intresse, vi tar 25:- + porto för dessa fram till och med 2007, vid intresse kontakta styrelsen.

Mycket nöje

Styrelsen

I’ve begun reading Åsa M Larssons (Ting & Tankar) thesis; Breaking and Making Bodies and Pots: Material and Ritual Practices in Sweden in the Third Millennium BC.

400+ pages makes for a thick and heavy book and academia normally isn’t a light read but this is quite an easy read for an academic work. This is in part due to a good flow and good usage of language and in part due to a good disposition of the book where each chapter has a clear beginning and end and is well marked off. A lot of nice pictures and graphs gives some rest to dreary eyes but are also and more importantly illustrative to the text.

Some first notes; I’m not sure I agree with Asa in naming it a monster (at least not a growling one), at a first glance it’s more of slowly building crescendo of pitted ware data; background information, descriptions and syntheses mixed with some fun facts and good writing. Quite a pleasent read.

I’ve started with the osteological parts of the thesis on which I’ll posts some notes later on, as I read it through a little bit more in detail.

Magnus Reuterdahl

In a recent post, we gave an introduction to the osteology of the forelimb. Now, we’ll round out that series with a consideration of the hind limb. Fortunately, many of the concepts are the same, so we’ll be able to move more quickly.

As you may recall, the forelimb was divided into a pectoral girdle, a big proximal bone (the humerus), two more distal long bones (radius and ulna), and a hand (manus) consisting of some carpals, metacarpals, and phalanges (with some modified into unguals). The same pattern follows for the hind limb, with a pelvic girdle, a big proximal bone (the femur), two more distal long bones (tibia and fibula), and a foot (pes) consisting of some tarsals, metatarsals, and phalanges (again, with some modified into unguals). Easy, isn’t it?

Centrosaurus hind limb (after Brown 1917)

First, let’s take a look at the pelvic girdle. In dinosaurs, as in humans and pretty much every other limbed vertebrate, the pelvis includes three elements on each side: ilium, pubis, and ischium. Looking at the whole structure in side view, the ilium is the top bone, and the latter two are on the bottom. Where the three bones meet, their surfaces form the limb socket, which is called the acetabulum. The ilium is a pretty big, usually flat structure, that anchors the pelvis (and thus the limb) to the vertebral column. Lots of thigh and butt muscles also attach to it. Of the two bottom bones, the pubis is the front (anterior, sometimes called cranial) one. A big deal has been made of its difference in its orientation between ornithischian and saurischian dinosaurs – in ornithischians, most of the bone is directed backwards, and in most saurischians (with the exception of birds and their close allies) the bone is directed forwards. Finally, there is the ischium (which a classically-grounded anatomy professor of mine liked to note is correctly pronounced with a hard “k” sound, rather than the “ish-ee-um” that most folks use). For various reasons (namely, all of the processes and extra bumps render accurate comparison of measurements difficult), we won’t be doing much with the pelvis in the present study. So, let’s move on to the femur.

The femur, just like the humerus, is a single robust bone that articulates with the limb girdle, its head fitting into the acetabulum proximally, and with two other elements distally. Sometimes, there is a little backwards-directed hangy process from the middle of the shaft, called the fourth trochanter.

The tibia and fibula are the developmental homologues of the forelimb’s radius and ulna. Unlike mammals, dinosaurs lack a kneecap (patella) floating over the proximal end of the tibia and distal end of the femur.

Centrosaurus pes (after Brown 1917)

The “foot” is called the pes (Latin for “foot”), and is very slightly differently configured than for the manus. The hind limb’s equivalent of carpals are called tarsals – and unlike the condition up front, the tarsals are actually rather important and frequently ossified elements. In fact, they are so ossified that they usually fuse right on to the tibia and / or fibula. The two major tarsals in ornithischians are the astragalus (capping the tibia) and the calcaneum (capping the fibula, or at least floating in its general vicinity). Because the astragalus is so often fused to the tibia, many authors measure tibia length with the astragalus included.

Instead of metacarpals, we now have metatarsals. The numbering system is the same as for the manus, except they’re abbreviated as “MT.” So, the first (innermost) metatarsal, equivalent to the one associated with our big toe, is MT-I. Phalanges are handled quite similarly, with IV-2 being the second most proximal phalanx on the fourth digit. And once again, the final phalanges are often modified into unguals.

And that’s all there is to know about ornithischian dinosaur limb osteology!

Centrosaurus pes (after Brown 1917)

Forelimb of the horned dinosaur Centrosaurus apertus

Osteology is the study of bones. Recognizing that not everyone here is completely familiar with all of the relevant names and features, this post will cover a brief tutorial of limb osteology and terminology in dinosaurs.

Broadly speaking, anatomists usually divide the skeleton into three sections: cranial (the head); axial (the vertebral column and ribs, although embryological and evolutionary histories mean that parts of the skull are sometimes lumped in here); and appendicular (the limbs). Presently, we’re only interested in the latter.

The appendicular skeleton includes forelimbs and hind limbs. Let’s start at the front in this post, and work back in a subsequent post. But before we start that, we need to introduce one more set of terms: proximal and distal (see image for their context within the forelimb). This just refers to the position along a structure relative to the main part of the body. Proximal is close to the body, and distal is away from it. Considering the humerus (upper arm bone), the elbow is at the distal end and the shoulder is at the proximal end. Within the entire leg, your toes are at the distal end and the thigh bone is at the proximal end.

The forelimb includes the pectoral girdle as well as the limb bones themselves. In dinosaurs, the pectoral girdle includes a scapula, a coracoid and a sternal plate on each side. Humans have scapulae too (most of us know them as “shoulder blades”), but our coracoids have shrunk down to little nubbins (the coracoid processes) that are fused onto the scapulae themselves. We also have clavicles (“collar bones”) as part of our pectoral girdle, but ornithischians lack this bone (although theropods preserve part of it in the furcula, or “wishbone”). In all adult ornithischians, the scapula and coracoid are fused together, and the area where they meet forms the glenoid, or shoulder socket. If the bones are fused, their total combination is then called a “scapulocoracoid.”

The humerus (or “upper arm bone”) fits into the glenoid. It’s a long bone, expanded at both ends for various muscle and bony attachments. Lots of muscles—including the famous deltoids, lats, biceps, triceps, and pectoral muscles—attach here. The “midshaft” of the humerus is exactly that – the point at the middle of bone.

A pair of bones – the ulna and radius – form the forearm. They articulate with the distal end of the humerus. They’re pretty simple, rod-like bones in most cases. The ulna usually has a process (i.e. a sticking-out bit), called the olecranon, at its proximal end for attachment of the triceps muscle.

Finally, we have the hand – more properly called the manus (Latin for “hand,” strangely enough). The manus has carpals (wrist bones), metacarpals (joining the wrist to the digits), and phalanges. Each digit (or finger) is numbered starting at the thumb. The thumb (innermost digit, for ornithischians) is I (note the Roman numeral), the index finger II, middle finger III, ring finger IV, and pinkie V.

The most proximal elements within the manus (just distal to the ulna and radius) are called the carpals. They’re often just cartilage, and even when ossified are rarely preserved (they tend to float away if the skeleton becomes disarticulated). At any rate, they’re usually non-descript little round elements in ornithischians, and we’ll pretend these bones don’t exist for the purposes of our study.

Right manus of the horned dinosaur Centrosaurus (modified after Brown 1917)

Next, we have the metacarpals. If you squeeze the palm of your right hand between the thumb and index finger of your left, these are the bones you’re feeling. The number of metacarpals is variable in many dinosaurs. Humans, and most ornithischians, have five metacarpals (and hence, five fingers in most cases). Most theropods have fewer. “Metacarpal” is often abbreviated as MC. So, the first metacarpal would be MC-I, and so on.

Finally, we come to the phalanges. A single element is most properly called a phalanx (not a “phalange,” although this archaic spelling is not technically incorrect – many older publications use the terminology). The phalanges are numbered by digit (I-V) as well as their position relative to the metacarpals (given by an Arabic numeral). For instance, I-1 is the first phalanx on the first digit, and III-2 is the second phalanx on the third digit. The second-to-last phalanx is sometimes referred to as the “penultimate” phalanx.

The distal-most (terminal) phalanx is often modified into a hoof or claw. These specially modified phalanges are usually called unguals, but they are numbered just the same as regular phalanges. Even if the third and final phalanx on the third digit is a huge claw, it’s still called manual phalanx III-3.

Finally, we should mention the sternal plates. These odd bones (probably equivalent to the sternum, or breast bone, of mammals) are usually floating at the front of the chest wall. The sternals sometimes look like kidney beans (in ceratopsids) or hatchets (in other ornithischians).

It’s a blizzard of terms, but a little practice should help you become completely conversant with all of the parts of the forelimb. In an upcoming post, we’ll tackle the hindlimb. Don’t worry – many of the concepts are the same!

Hueter’s Sign is a method of evaluating fracture healing with the use of osteophony.  A bone is tapped distal to the fracture line, soft tissue remains between the fractured fragments if sound vibration is not heard proximally.

Hoppenfeld, Stanley and Zeide, Michael S. 1993. Orthopaedic dictionary. Retrieved September 1, 2009 from http://books.google.ca/books?id=KZvdy9LPDNgC&pg=PA162&lpg=PA162&dq=Hoffmann’s+pins+and+bone+setting&source=web&ots=qQSLvTxrDR&sig=R-cYaT4T9K36fq-codN8V0oH6ZY&hl=en&ei=hamXSYLfCpWksAPi9YB8&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Hallux valgus osteoarthritis of the big toe joint with angulation of the toe.  Commonly called a bunion, is a structural deformity of the bones and the joint between the foot and big toe, and may be painful. This is most common with women who wear unsuitable footwear.

Chabner, Davi-Ellen. 2007. The Language of Medicine. 8th ed. Saunders Elsevier, Missouri

Åsa M Larsson meddelar att hon skickat sin avhandling till tryckeriet;

Disputationen sker fredagen den 18:e september kl 13 i Geijersalen, Hus 6, Engelska Parken Humanistiskt Centrum, Uppsala.

Läs mer på Ting & Tankar

Internal fixation of fractured bones involves metal pins and plating to secure osseous fragments into the correct anatomical postion preventing fragment displacement during the healing process.

Internal fixation with plate and pins of the fibula.

Normal ankle x-ray image

If untreated callus formation and bone healing will occur however, fragments may not realign in correct anatomical position which may result in loss of mobility of the ankle due to disruption at points of osseous articulation caused by the dislocation.

X-ray image showing dislocated tibia and fibular fracture. If left to heal without surgical realignment the bones would begin to heal along current maligned fracture angles.

Last Wendsday we went to Vastergotland and Lodose museum, the plan were to go to Lodose (Lödöse) museum and then slowly return via the northen parts of Vastergotland to Jonkoping stopping at ancient monuments etc, the weather got a bit bad though so all we did was visiting the museum, which in itself was well worth the trip.

A model scale 1:1 displaying the thickness of the cultural layers

Lodose is small town ca 40 km north of Gothenburg.  Lodose is possible best known for the finds from the medieval town, ca 1/3 of the medieval town has been excavated, the cultural layers are up to 4 m in depth and more than 150000 finds has been registered.  Lodose oldest parts as a town is from the 10^th century, this is not say that there isn’t older phases, it was one of Sweden’s main port and trading cities in the Middle Ages and for a long time the only facing west. Due to changing natural conditions the operations were relocated during the late 1400’s and 1500’s to what came to be Gothenburg and in 1646 and Lödöse lost its town privileges.

The museum is primarily an archaeological museum with a focus on the medieval town Lodose but they also have a nice exhibit on the prehistory in the Gota river valley.  The museum opened in 1965, and the new museum opened in 1994.

I must say I like this museum, is just big  and/or small enough, the premises are fresh and the exhibits interesting. The exhibits are what could be called a bit traditional (which I find positive) but at the same time it feels fresh and up to date, lets call it post pomo pro retro.

I took some pictures of the displays and on some finds

From the medieval exhibit;

A cannon

Swords

Knife sheath made of tree and lead

Make a coin, I did

Medieval shoes

Bone flutes

A funt of tree

As you can see below runic inscriptions can be carved into almost any object. These medieval finds shows that runes were used by all groups in the cities, in other words rune literacy during the Middle Ages are high in the cities. Still we find very few finds of this sort in the country side though this might be due to preservation possibilities. In the deep cultural layers of the medieval towns there is a much better chance for objects of tree or leather to be preserved.

At the back; part of a Besman scale, in front; a measuring tool with a rune inscription.

A thresh tool with a runic inscription

Two calendar stick with a runic inscription

From the prehistoric exhibit;

Antler from a reindeer and a jaw from a polar bear. The finds are dated to ca 13000-10500 BP, in other words from the end of the ice age.

Stone Age axes

Flint micro chips or microliths in displayed as the they were in the elder days

These flint scrapers are either from the late Neolithics or the Bronze Age.

Bronze Age swords

The next display is a 3-D model of the Gota river valley on which is projected how the country has raised itself and the valley has changed over the last 12 000 years, since the last ice age, and how man has taken possession of the landscape. A good presentation that is clear and makes it easy to see the changes, man made as well as natural. I miss one thing though and that is markers that show where today’s societies are. This is shown in the very beginning of the presentation but I feel that the presentation should gain on showing this all the way through.

If you’re in the neighborhood this is a museum you shouldn’t miss, it’s well worth a detour.

Magnus Reuterdahl

Nu har Benbiten 2009/01 skickats och förhoppningsvis redan levererats till er, mycket nöje önska vi i styrelsen!

Om det är så att ni fått tidningen kan detta bero på att

a)      vi har fel adress

b)      du har glömt att betala in medlemsavgiften

c)       något är fel på postgången,

om så kontakta oss på of_nyheter[at]hotmail dot com så skall vi se om vi kan hjälpa till.

Mvh

Osteologiska föreningen genom Magnus Reuterdahl

When an animal is walking around doing whatever that particular animal does for a living, its eyes are usually looking forward, toward the horizon.  The animal needs to see whatever it is that the animal needs to see- predators if you’re a prey animal; prey if you’re a predator- and the best way to do this is to position your head so that you can see in front of you without having to flex or extend too many muscles.  When the animal is positioned in the normal old looking-in-front-of-you position (norma lateralus in anatomy-speak), certain points in the head line up to form a plane which is horizontal to the ground.  These points are the bottom-most point of the eye orbit, called the orbitale, and the top-most point of the external bony auditory meatus, called the porion. So, you draw a line through the left and right porion and orbitale, slice through the skull in a horizontal plane, and you have a plane which is horizontal to the ground.  This plane is called the Frankfort Horizontal Plane, and the first step in most cranial morphometric studies is to put the skull in Frankfort Horizontal. (Some people like to use the horizontal semicircular canals to put the skull into a horizontal plane, but sometimes that requires expensive CT technology, or bones that didn’t survive millennia in the ground or centuries of being slammed around in big specimen drawers in museums.  The Frankfort Horizontal is the cheap and easy way, and in primates, it’s usually pretty accurate.)

There are many reasons why you would want to orient a skull so that it’s in the same horizontal position that it took to during life.  What we’re going to talk about here is the position of the foramen magnum- the big hole at the base of your skull where your spine meets your head.  In most quadrupedal animals, the foramen magnum is at the back of the skull, which makes a certain kind of intuitive sense.  Your eyes have to be at the front of your face so you can see, and if your spinal column is a horizontal line, it makes sense to have it coming out of the back of your head because where else would it be?  Here, look at this Mexican Wolf skull.  The first picture is the bottom of the skull, and you can’t see the foramen magnum.  That’s because it’s at the back of the head, as shown in the second picture.

Mexican Wolf Skull, bottom view

Mexican Wolf Skull, back view

Human Skull

In humans, the foramen magnum is tucked under the head so that the head is right on top of our vertical spinal column.  This movement of the foramen magnum forward and under is actually, in developmental terms, a lack of movement.  All baby apes, including humans, start out with foramina magna in about the same position.  As the rest of the apes develop into adults, their foramina magna migrate toward the back of the head.  But ours stay in the same, baby-like position.

Giraffe

So, is the foramen magnum at the bottom of our heads because we need to balance our head on top of our erect spinal column?  Or might it have to do with something else?  Let’s think about some other animals.  Giraffes are quadrupedal, right?  But they also have really long, erect spines.  So where is their foramen magnum?  Pretty much at the back of the head, as it turns out.  Same with kangaroos, llamas, birds, and some other guys.  So, it might not have as much to do with posture as we thought.

What else might it be?  Maybe it’s the weight of the face.  When you have a heavy face, you need a lot of muscle at the back of your head and neck to balance it and hold it up. The spinal column is basically a fulcrum over which the front and back sides of your head are balanced.  If you move the fulcrum more toward the center of the weight, the weight will be more evenly distributed and you won’t need to use as much muscle to keep your head up.  Sounds pretty good.  The only problem is the gibbon.  Gibbons have a heavier head relative to their body weight than chimps or even humans, yet their foramina magna are more posteriorly positioned than either one.  And, since they’re suspension brachiators, their posture is very upright as well.  And yet, that foramen is still pointing out the back of the head instead of the bottom.

That leaves us with brain size and encephalization.  As the cerebral cortex (the “thinky” parts of the brain) gets bigger and more complicated, it tends to not only get longer and taller, but it changes shape as well.  Alligator brains are basically arranged in a straight line with the forebrain at the front and the hindbrain at the back.  As brains have expanded, the brain curves around so that it forms a reflex angle (greater than 180 degrees).  Now, instead of the hindbrain being behind the forebrain, it’s under it.  Sounds a lot like a certain hole I know…

The jury’s still out on what exactly causes this shift in the position of the foramen magnum, but it’s an important question for paleoanthropologists to ask.  Some of our most famous fossils have been described as bipedal based on the position of the foramen magnum alone- fossils like the Taung Child and Sahelanthropus.  In the case of the Taung Child, we now have lots of corroborating evidence that members of the Child’s species were bipedal, but that’s not the case with Sahelanthropus.  We need to make sure that we know what exactly an anteriorly positioned foramen magnum means before we use it as a defining character of members of our family!

In parting, I leave you with these images of a cat and a macaque.  Both are quadrupedal animals, but the differences in foramen magnum position and brain size (by way of skull size) are striking.

Cat

Macaque

Innan istiden bredde istundran eller mammutstäppen ut sig över Sydskandinavien, därför finner vi ibland rester av den fauna och de djur som levde på denna, majoriteten av fynden kommer från Danmark men det finns också en hel del i Sverige där det nordligaste återfinns i Ramsele (ett mammutfynd). På denna tundra var klimatet kallt och stora områden tjälade, vegetationen bestod mestadels av gräs, örter, mossor, lavar, enstaka träd och dungar. Detta gav ett speciella ekologiska villkor; mycket ljus och lite skugga, ett kallt klimat, nästan humusfri mineraljord och mark som var i ständig rörelse pga. frostens inverkan. Bland växterna fanns trift, korgblommiga växter så som malört, grodblad, starrarter, solvändor, mållor, fjällbjörk, låga videarter och havtorn m fl. Bland djuren finns bevis för mammut, ullhårig noshörning, stäppvisent, ren, myskoxe och jättehjort samt rovdjur som varg, järv, fläckig hyena och grottlejon. Det fanns också gnagare, t ex murmeldjur och sisel.

Fynden

I Danmark finns minst ett 130-tal fyndorter och i Sverige ett 30-tal av mammut, det finns också enstaka fynd av myskoxe, älg och ren.

Det yngsta mammutfyndet i Sverige är från Lockarp utanför Malmö är daterat till 13500 BP och Danmark från ungefär samma tid.

Vad gäller ullhårig noshörning finns inga kända fynd i Sverige. Lunda professorn Sven Nilsson antydde dock på 1800-talet i en föreläsningsserie för kungafamiljen att han hade sådana i sin ägo.

Ett annat djur i megafaunan är Jättehjorten (Megaloceros giganteus), det finns minst sex fynd från Sverige varav det mest praktfulla är fällhornet från Östra Grevie i Skåne; hornet är 1,6 meter långt och väger närmare 40 kg.

Dessa uppgifter är hämtade ur Från mammutstäpp till kohage; Djurens historia i Sverige av R. Liljegren & P. Lagerås från 1993 sedan dess har ytterligare genomgångar av benmaterialen gjorts och kanske också ytterligare något fynd.

För att få mer information om jättekäften från Nottebäcks kyrka har jag sänt ett mail till församlingen för att se om de vet något mer om dess öde.

Magnus Reuterdahl

Vi är glada att rapportera att Benbiten 2009/01 ligger hos tryckeriet och bör kunna skickas ut inom ett par veckor. Numret är fullpackat (34 sid), det blir lite av ett temanummer med tyngdpunkt på samlingar av mänskliga kvarlevor, gravplundring m m. Numret börjar dock med en inledande diskussion om osteologiämnets framtid med utgångspunkt i HSVs utvärdering av arkeologiutbildningarna. Vi hoppas att få in ytterligare kommentarer till höstnummret; 

Innehållsförteckning Benbiten 2009/01

Debatt

Magnus Reuterdahl: En omvärldsanalys kring den osteologiska forskningsmiljön i Sverige 2009.

Med kommentarer av:

 Åsa M. Larsson: Reflektion kring utredningen av osteologiämnet i Sverige.

Leif Jonsson: Kommentar till ”En omvärldsanalys kring den osteologiska forskningsmiljön i Sverige 2009”.

 Martin Rundqvist: Låt oss se det praktiskt.

 Artiklar

Ulrika Persson – Fischier: Vad är meningen med mänskliga kvarlevor? Från Vega-expeditionen 1878 till repatriering vid Etnografiska museet 2008 – och tillbaka igen.

 Anna Sofia Hedberg: En ”indianvän” på ”grafplundring” – Erland Nordenskiölds insamlande av mänskliga kvarlevor.

Kristina Helgesson Kjellin: Kranier i missionärers samlingar: Karl Edvard och Selma Lamans insamling av mänskliga kvarlevor i de båda Kongostaterna under 1900-talets början.

Claes Hallberg: Rasbiologi i Australien. Eric Mjöbergs och Aboriginernas skilda världar.

Se också HSV eller Ting och tankar samt Aarvarchaeology för mer information om den senaste utvecklingen av HSV utvärdering.

Osteologiska föreningen genom Magnus Reuterdahl

Osteologiska föreningen och Historiska museet inbjuder till information kring SHMs digitala föremålsdatabas med inriktning på ben och osteologi.

Historiska museet har de största osteologiska samlingarna i Sverige med över 100 ton ben, ett material med en oerhörd forskningspotential. I samband med mötet kommer Ulf Bodin, It-utvecklare på SHM, presentera museets osteologiska och arkeologiska föremålsdatabas och de nya funktioner som håller på att utvecklas under beteckningen “Mina samlingar”. Dessa funktioner gör det möjligt för bland annat forskare, studenter och yrkesfolk att vara mer delaktiga i samlingarna och få effektivare sätt att själva hantera informationen i databasen. I nuläget kan användaren skapa ett konto och ta en aktivare del och bidra med information kring material.

Läs mer om de nya funktionerna och hur man skapar ett eget konto här.

Efter genomgången kommer en diskussions rund hållas rörande “Mina sidor”, det hela beräknas ta ca en timma.

Måndag den 4 maj kl 17.30 på Historiska Museet

OBS! Begränsat antal platser, medlemmar i Osteologiska Föreningen har förtur, OSA senast den 26 April.

Anmälan via e-post till: of_nyheter[delete this] at hotmail.com

This is cool even if a dog is involved.

Seems this professor of osteology wanted his bones, post mortem, to be displayed as a teaching exemplar and the Smithsonian Institution made it happen, as part of an exhibit on forensic anthropology, which I think of as  related to what I do. I’m almost morally obligated to like it.

I vote more coverage of Paul Rhymer, the taxidermist who put the guy (and his dog) back together to go on view as the exhibit finale. I like to imagine handling those bones with reverence and fascination — the human ones anyway, since they’re the ones I know — and intuiting the way they would be approximated so as to reproduce a posture they could have held in life.

I spend my days probing around the eminences and vicissitudes of bones — their unexpected deviations, hypertrophied attachments, idiosyncratic contours. I work on muscles but bones provide the scaffolding; the shape in which they collaborate tells me where nature has collided with habit — the winged scapula of a sedentary typist, the bumpy knuckle of a longhand writer, the depressed floating rib of someone with an ill-supported lumbar spine.

I don’t know how much of this a skeletal reassembly can preserve, but once the bones are exposed you can see other things, or so I read: the rugged groove of insertion that rises to meet strong thigh muscles, the thick attachment points of repetitive stress in the feet or hands. I have big bumps on the radius under my hardworking thumbs, myself.

I’d have loved to watch that spine going back together. Three articulations for each rib, did you know that? And people think a Rubik’s cube is complicated.

I’ll even forgive him the dog.

För ett tag sedan noterade vi att vår tidskrift Benbiten inte indexerats de sista åren. Då vi tycker det är viktigt att vår tidskrift är sökbar och synlig, både för vår skull och för artikelförfattarnas kontaktade vi tidigare i år Kungliga Biblioteket (LIBRIS) och Vitterhetsakademins bibliotek (VITALIS). I dialog med dessa visade sig detta vara fullt möjligt genom Vitterhetsakademins bibliotek, vi har också kompletterat upp Vitterhetsakademins bibliotek så att alla nummer nu skall finnas tillgängliga i deras samlingar.

Ett flertal nummer har redan indexerats och vi vill tacka Kungliga Biblioteket och Vitterhetsakademin för god kommunikation och för er insats för oss.

Mvh

Osteologiska Föreningens styrelse

Vitterhetsakademiens bibliotek presenterar de böcker som var mest utlånade under år 2008.

1. Ambrosiani, Björn , Fornlämningar och bebyggelse : studier i Attundalands och Södertörns förhistoria. 1964
2. Burström, Mats, Samtidsarkeologi : introduktion till ett forskningsfält. 2007
3. Ordning mot kaos : studier av nordisk förkristen kosmologi. 2004
4. Nordström, Nina, De odödliga. 2007
5. Hyenstrand, Åke, Arns rike bäst utan Arn. 2007

se hela lista här!