On Friday I gave you this sectioned bit of a critter as the mystery object:
A slightly trickier one than usual, so I wasn’t surprised at the range of suggestions – ranging from a vertebra to a Narwhal tusk. Jack Ashby got in first with a tentative stab at the right answer when he said ‘sawfish maybe?‘ a suggestion supported by Carlos Grau. It is indeed part of the rostrum (beak or nose) of a Continue reading
After last week’s anthropological object, I thought I’d give you a bit of a challenge:
Any idea what this is?
As usual you can put your suggestions, comments and questions below and I’ll do my best to answer. Good luck!
On Friday I gave you this anthropological mystery object to identify, asking you to tell me what it is, where it’s from and what it’s made of:
Well, OdenedO worked out that it is a skirt (or apron) and Sam Kelly and Julie Doyle both correctly suggested that it was African in origin. Jake and Julie Doyle suggested that it could be ivory and Sam Kelly specified that it could be Hippopotamus teeth (although this suggestion was discarded in favour of horn).
So a bit of a group effort, but you pretty much got there – it’s an African (Ethiopian in fact) skirt/apron made using ivory, probably Hippopotamus incisors. That’s my current preferred hypothesis based on the photo – but I need to check the specimen myself to be entirely sure.
Ivory (teeth as a workable material) is an interesting area for us in the museum trade, since most kinds are controlled by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). This means that objects made of certain types of ivory need to have licenses for import and export, or for any commercial use, unless they can be shown to have been made before 1st June 1947.
There are various characteristics that can help identify different ivories – the best known being the presence of Schreger lines in Elephant ivory:
But there are other clues that can indicate which species an ivory has come from – unfortunately I don’t have time or the appropriate images to go into detail here, so I will pull together a post on identifying ivory as soon as I can. For now, here’s a link to a useful pdf article on this very topic.
Back to the skirt/apron – anthropology isn’t my area of expertise, but to the best of my knowledge this sort of attire is largely an indicator of status rather than a practical piece of clothing. In other African cultures beaded aprons are given to young women when they marry, so this may fulfil a similar purpose. I will try to track down some more on this – I think it may be included in one of the Horniman’s planned exhibitions in the next couple of years, so there may be a lot more information forthcoming. I’ll keep you posted.
This week I’m going to give you a break from skulls, here’s an Anthropological mystery object for you to identify (as suggested by Emilia, who is one of our excellent Conservators):
Any idea what it is, where it’s from and what it’s made of?
As usual you can leave your suggestions, observations and questions in the comments section below and I’ll do my best to respond. Good luck!
On Friday I gave you this little feller to identify:
As with the previous mystery object, Jake managed to spot what kind of animal it belonged to in no time with Jamie Revell and Dave Godfrey in agreement. It is indeed an Continue reading
This week I’m sticking with small skulls. Rather different to the last one – any idea what it might have belonged to?
As always, you can click on the image for a larger sized version that may help. Speaking of help I will also do my best to answer any questions you may have – just put your comments below. Good luck!
On Friday I gave you this mammal skull to identify:
It proved more difficult than I thought it would, although Jake immediately spotted that it was a Continue reading
After a few weeks away from the Horniman’s store, I’m finally back amongst the collections and working with the skulls. That means that this week I can give you a nice mammal skull to identify:
Any idea what this skull belonged to?
As usual you can put your questions, observations and suggestions in the comments section below. Good luck!
Happy New Year!
On Friday I gave you these two bones to compare, asking whether you thought they were from the same species.
There were some excellent responses with useful observations reflecting some of the difficulties faced when trying to identify postcrania. Unlike skulls which are composed of several bones forming a composite structure, including highly diagnostic elements (teeth for example), postcrania tend to be a bit more limited in the number of diagnostic characters visible. That said, the shape of the articulation points, the grooves and crests from tendons and ligaments, the scars from muscle attachments and the holes from nerves and blood vessels can all provide clues as to what a bone belonged to.
Size can also provide a clue, but as pointed out by Debi Linton:
…there’s a size differential, that could nevertheless be intraspecific variation…
This is a valid point – size can vary within a species for all sorts of reasons, the most obvious being the age or sex of the animal. However, in this instance the size difference is accompanied by quite a substantial set of differences in shape that go beyond what you would expect to find within a species. So well done to Dave Godfrey, Jamie Revell and Jake for making that deductive leap! That said, Debi also deserves congratulations for identifying the differences and then exercising caution in the light of insufficient information – it may be unsatisfying to say I’m not sure, but it’s often the only truly correct answer available.
That said, I’m a little surprised that nobody worked out what these femurs were from. The bottom one (B) has a small area of damage on the proximal end (the end nearest the body), which shows a honey-comb structure in the bone beneath. Jake also spotted that the angle at which these femurs would articulate with the hip would be unlike a deer – or other mammal in fact. These are the femurs of two species of bird – very big birds for that.
Any idea which species?
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 29,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj Mahal, it would take about 4 days for that many people to see it.
In 2010, there were 121 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 192 posts. There were 137 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 118mb. That’s about 3 pictures per week.
The busiest day of the year was March 26th with 2,158 views. The most popular post that day was Friday mystery object #36.
The top referring sites in 2010 were twitter.com, facebook.com, Google Reader, iconfactory.com, and mail.live.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for zygoma, king kong, zygoma paolo, classical conditioning cartoon, and conclusions.
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Friday mystery object #36 March 2010
47 comments
Back from extinction March 2010
3 comments and 1 Like on WordPress.com,
Friday mystery object #53 July 2010
74 comments
Friday mystery object #52 July 2010
50 comments
What is science? September 2009
3 comments
Zygoma 