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Original poster

With a human skull in the garden?

640 replies

Slippersandacuppa · 07/05/2016 20:45

Because I've never been in this situation before.

We've been tidying up the garden and have piles of rubble all over the place. One of our rickety old fences borders a graveyard (very old belonging to ancient church) and I'm assuming the skull sort of drifted under our fence and has been near the top of the soil for a while. I hope.

I've googled but can't seem to find much info. I'll be contacting the parish council on Monday but wondered if it warrants a call to 101 (or whatever it is) to register it just in case it's not a graveyard wanderer Confused

Anyone had a similar experience?!

OP posts:
Thread gallery
33
QOD · 08/05/2016 20:13

☆~~~☆

That's a bone (and a place mark Wink)

BertieBotts · 08/05/2016 20:09

This thread is fascinating. Keep us updated OP! :)

BitOutOfPractice · 08/05/2016 20:06

What a marvellous marvellous thread. I love the way there's an expert I on everything on MN.

I loved the casual "I'm an archaeologist and ostiologist" comment

RIP YS

SocialDisaster · 08/05/2016 20:05

Poor soldiers.

TheUnsullied · 08/05/2016 19:51

I don't think it's particularly weird to want to keep the skull. I hope not anyway. I have a ewe's skull on display in my living room. Nobody comments that it's weird.

RE the trade of human tissues thing...bone is tissue I think. Just not soft.

SoleBizzz · 08/05/2016 19:41

.

Milliways · 08/05/2016 19:19

We were just in Ypres this week, and our lovely guide told us he attends every funeral they hold for then soldiers still being found by Farmers, 100 years later. Apparently it will be another 100 years to find all the ammunition and remaining bodies that are there.

shinynewusername · 08/05/2016 19:16

I love the thinking of whoever assembled the bone-scaling femur set:

"Right, I want the basics - the ones that crop up constantly. So I'll go Komodo, Sabre Toothed Tiger, Goliath Frog. Yup, that should cover it".

shinynewusername · 08/05/2016 19:13

Better contact the rozzers again, OP - dragons operating in the vicinity.

With a human skull in the garden?
zzzzz · 08/05/2016 19:08

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shinynewusername · 08/05/2016 19:05

Now you're just being frivolous, zzzz - it's obviously a komodo.

zzzzz · 08/05/2016 19:03

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zzzzz · 08/05/2016 19:01

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HookedOnHooking · 08/05/2016 18:59

O u r i a n a

Not PutitansGrin

HookedOnHooking · 08/05/2016 18:58

Puritans! You really are Ruth Gallowy!

Ouriana · 08/05/2016 18:42

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Ouriana · 08/05/2016 18:42

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SilverBirchWithout · 08/05/2016 18:33

Yorick would be a great name for a hipster's baby. Anyone up to suggesting it on the baby names topic?

shinynewusername · 08/05/2016 18:31

So, OP, did you expect to spend your Sunday afternoon fending off complete strangers badgering you on social media to measure skeletal remains? Grin

(Do it, though!)

SilverBirchWithout · 08/05/2016 18:27

People were buried outside of churchyards up to quite recent times.

My GF committed suicide in the late 1950s because he just couldn't cope with his DW's death a couple of years earlier and his profound PTS from WW1 returned. Much to my DM's horror the local church refused to bury him next to his beloved wife, despite the fact he had been an active member of the church for many years. He was buried the other side of the church wall in unconsecrated ground.

OP, Have the drive and trees been there for a very long time? I wonder whether the roots of the trees have forced up the bones in some way.

Ouriana · 08/05/2016 18:26

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shinynewusername · 08/05/2016 18:23

Measure it, OP, measure it!!

SharonSignsToCherryRed · 08/05/2016 18:22

You will wake up in the night
And there will be a headless ghost sitting on your bed.

shinynewusername · 08/05/2016 18:22

People were shorter in Olden times

Yeah but they weren't hobbits Wink. Based on the number of blades of grass next to it, I'd say that bone is around 15 cm long and the average adult male femur is 48 cm. It is too thick and fully-formed to be a child's femur.

There are some rare diseases that makes bones denser than normal and odd shapes so I'm not saying it's impossible that it is human, but I think it is very unlikely.

Ouriana · 08/05/2016 18:22

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