Written in Bone Exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

This past summer in late August, I took a trip to Washington DC to do 3 things: visit my grandparents in Silver Springs, bake a souffle (a la Julie and Julia) for my aunt who recently had a plate and several screws implanted in her arm, and spend hours upon hours in the “Written in Bone” exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. The exhibit displays wonderful examples of the human skeleton and presents information, gathered from recent excavations, on the historic, 17th century, settlements of Jamestown, Virginia and St. Mary’s City, Maryland. Warning: the following entry contains several episodes of what I affectionately term “HyperNerd” and “SuperGeekFreakout” moments but, hey, I love what I do! (I should trademark those…)

James Fort was settled in the early 17th century (1604) by 100 men and boys and later joined by women. The location of this fort was unknown until recently when it was uncovered in 1994. Since that date, several burials have been located, a few of which have been excavated, and the lay out of the Fort is now coming to light. Interestingly, a few journals of colonists have survived and, in the hands of skilled scientists, the information from these journals have been pieced together with the excavation records and biological profiles (age/sex/disease) of skeletons to paint a detailed history of life for these early colonists.

The exhibit presents many skeletons and cases to the visitors and may, therefore, take an individual several hours to walk through (that is, if their interest level is as high as mine)- but a few sections of the exhibit stuck in my mind as particularly interesting. I have always been interested in pathology of any sort (and injury for that matter) and given that both pathology and injury can manifest in bone and tell a tale hundreds of years later makes me thrilled to call myself an aspiring forensic anthropologist or bioarchaeologist. Thus, naturally, the sections of this exhibit that excited me the most were those concerned with pathology, injury, and any abnormal modification to bone, along with how these markers can tell scientists about history without even using words.

One of these sections was that of an infant skeleton (aka the Calvert Child), from the St. Mary’s City excavation, and determining the baby’s possible cause of death. The infant’s bone markers suggested malnutrition as well as vitamin deficiency (presenting as weakened bones and improper mineralization) and it was hypothesized that the child suffered from rickets. Further investigation revealed that the infant was buried during the springtime, suggesting it was born in the winter when it was most likely swaddled for warmth, which also reduces the contact between sunlight and infant skin, reducing vitamin D in the body, reducing proper calcium which, combined with the malnutrition common in a recently settled colony, would very likely result in rickets! Deep breath- that was exciting. But, really- WHOA! How awesome is it that they figured that out by looking at pollen and bones? Pretty cool, I’d say.

A few other exciting details was this one section where occupation was discussed. Now, in my current classes we have discussed that bone markers are seldom useful in determining occupation (IE: when, on TV’s “Bones“, Temperance Brennan decides that an individual was a tennis player within 30 seconds of seeing the skeleton due to some anomaly with the shoulder joint to which Booth replies “Now how do you get a pretty tennis player out of that yuck?”… Well, I’m sorry to say that really isn’t too realistic- but it’s still a great show!! Watch it!). However, there happen to be some pretty awesome occupational (or perhaps social) skeletal markers from this colonial exhibit!! My favorite example is the black smith. It was discussed that the blacksmiths of the town may have been the skeletons recovered with abnormal bone growth on the medial sides of their proximal femoral shafts (that’s fancy talk- it’s their inner thighs). Black smiths are known for hammering metal on their thighs in order to alter it into a desired shape. This hammering could have disrupted the bone and caused it to grow abnormally- almost to make a padding for the kind of work they preformed. I suppose it’s a difficult thing to confirm and it’s been a while since I’ve been to the exhibit. But that’s pretty awesome, too, right?

There is also the ever famous image of the skulls with holes in their smiles. This is a more obvious marker than the blacksmith marker, and indicates the men who enjoyed quite a many smokes with their pipes. These smoking pipes were used so often that they wore a hole in the bite of their users. Check out this picture I found through a Google search for “17th Century Colonial Pipe Smokers.” The photo is of a specimen from the museum that they uploaded onto their site. You can also see some of my favorite cases by clicking here! These are all files where the analysis of skeletal remains helped scientists uncover some great information about some of the first colonists!

I could go on and on about this exhibit until my fingers fall off from typing and any reader’s eyes may pop out into their coffee mug. I loved it. The mixture of bioarchaeology, forensic files, physical anthropology lessons, and a slew of awesome specimens open the eyes of visitors and allow them to see what life was like three hundred years ago when our country was first settled (by ‘outsiders,’ mind you, as Native Americans have been kicking butt on this continent for much much longer, plus they played a huge role in these settlers lives as well- but you’ll have to go to the exhibit to see how!!) This entry may be a ramble of excitement (and may need some heavy editing for that matter) but I hope you have enjoyed reading the tales of 17th Century Chesapeake Settlers from the eyes of a nerdy and enthusiastic student (HyperNerd/SuperGeek… what have you). I can’t wait to go back and visit again!!!

Comments please!