300088 UE Archaeometry: Preparation, preservation and restoration of human skeletal remains (2008S)

The course is intended for students who are interested in human osteology, in particular in (pre)historic Anthropology or Paleoanthropology. The course include fundamental aspects of preparing, preserving and restoring human skeletal remains (most of them handed over from actual excavations carried out by the Bundesdenkmalamt or other archaeological institutions), and subsequent fabrication of a protocol. They will be confronted with the methods of systematic description and analysis, including assessment of age at death and sex. Moreover they have the opportunity to study pathological changes and alterations, and to become more familiar in reconstructing an osteobiography (as live history became recorded in morphology, microstructure and chemistry of bone). Different methods of histological-cross sections and specialized computer applications are taught or demonstrated as well.