|
Finally we went back to the site to take measurements. These I then incorporated into the computer map with details of the burials relative positioning, nearby upright position, house foundations, etc. This data should be reasonably accurate considering that the precise location of a number of otias were known. When I suggested that other skeletons may be found nearby George informed me that indeed another has been found some years ago whilst digging the foundations for the septic system of the adjacent house (about 15 meters north) these bones were however much deeper, apparently white in colour and well preserved, these were latterly reburied somewhere nearby, this is worth noting should extensive excavations be attempted in this location. Tuesday, 27th of March, 1990. In the morning after a number of hours trying to fit together the last remaining facial bone fragments, I found that the task was almost impossible due to the absence of a number of crucial small fragments. I decided to return to the site to sift the various piles of now thoroughly mixed, excavated material, hoping to find an overlooked fragment and I managed to find a number, however none of the type required. During this work George informed that the children had discovered yet more bones some 15 meters away. These bones proved to be very scattered, coming from the bottom of the trench many had been shoveled up into the piles running along the length of the trench. After some doubt I finally was convinced that these bones were from yet another burial however these remains were even more shallow and seemingly scattered over a wider area. The bones were almost identical in colour, size and state of deterioration as those first discovered and I was tempted to equate them to the missing bones from the first burial, indeed a piece of radius bone seemed to conform closely in size. This would be however a rather miraculous coincidence and I was unable to accept the possibility easily. However another unsuccessful attempt to reconstruct the frontal part of the skull lead me to return once again to the first site and expand the excavation in the remote hope of discovering misplaced bone fragments. I decided to dig under the foundations about 30 to 50 cm beyond (west)the last bones recovered and to my surprise I ran into a number of fragments. These however were not at all what I had hoped to find but proved very interesting none the less. At first I thought I had found the missing humerus bones instead I had recovered a condyle for each femur. Somehow both of these condyles were coincidentally separated from the femur. An examination of the femur shows this recent damage was probably due to a shovel, most importantly the position of these two condyles very close ... |
| Go to Comparative Implementology | go to ATIAHARA.ORG |