Description

Ossuary is a book for devotees of bones ancient and modern, drawn from the author's decades of research and teaching experience. A sequence of essays introduces bone itself and how it works, the structure and mechanics of animal skeletons, and how ancient bones survive the millennia and yield insights into past animals and the people that they encountered. There are essays on ancient human ancestors and on the particular challenges of working with human remains, and a look at contemporary concerns over extinction and the introduction of new species. The book is technical only where necessary, with plenty of explanation of specialist terms, and there are suggestions for further reading as well as detailed sources for those who want them. Moments of humour and anecdote aim to make Ossuary both informative and enjoyable.