XClose

Institute of Archaeology

Home
Menu

Bone Laboratory

Zooarchaeology and Human Osteology are areas in which the Institute of Archaeology has historic strengths, with comprehensive osteological comparative collections.

UCL Institute of Archaeology Bone Lab

The zooarchaeology and human remains laboratories are some of the most heavily used practical teaching rooms in the Institute of Archaeology and contain over 5000 specimens.

Most of the skeletal collection has been prepared from modern animals and is organised by anatomical element. The bird, fish and small mammal collections are stored separately as complete disarticulated skeletons.

The electronic training resource, Boneview, provides interactive content of zooarchaeological forms, with sections on dental development and ageing, bone modification, bone fusion and palaeopathology.

The facility was refurbished in 2007 and new storage racking installed providing students with easy-access to the reference material and an additional research lab opened in 2018. In addition the department has a digital X-ray cabinet, cameras, microscopes, calipers and osteometric boards for recording archaeological material.  The collection contains examples of pathology and taphonomy, identification atlases, related software and forensic cast material.

Enquries: Sandra Bond