Human Osteology

During this one-week hands-on beginners course, we aim to

1. provide participants with a working knowledge of human osteology;
2. provide an ethical framework for dealing with human remains;
3. provide an overview of the informational value of human remains for different fields, including a brief introduction to biomolecular methods;
4. provide hands-on experience with human remains;
5. familiarize them with the relevant tools and resources for them to subsequently broaden as well as deepen this knowledge;
6. put them in contact with a network of biological anthropologists.

The following topics will be covered:

• the human skeleton (overview)
• ethical framework
• basic bone biology
• anatomical terminology
• cranial anatomy
• postcranial anatomy
• common anatomical variation
• macroscopic ways to determine whether bone is human or animal
• basic osteobiographical techniques for age and sex estimation (introduction)
• basic pathology: how to recognize pathological lesions (introduction)
• basic biomolecular sampling techniques
   

Learning outcomes

Participants who have successfully completed this course

• can distinguish human from animal bone;
• can reconstruct al human skeleton;
• are actively aware of the complexity of the human skeleton;
• are actively aware of what parts are located where in the human body;
• can correctly identify the most important human bones and determine the side (left / right);
• can also correctly identify the smaller, more complex bones;
• are actively aware of the presence of more skeletal parts in the remains of immature individuals;
• have a basic knowledge of the techniques for determining age and sex, and know where to find more information about this;
• have a basic knowledge of pathological features on the human skeleton;
• have a basic knowledge of biomolecular techniques and possible sampling;
• have insight into the proper ethical handling of human remains.