Question: what technology do you use to examine bones?

Anna Williams answered on 13 Jun 2011:

Well, Tucker2011, this is a great question!
We use a variety of technologies, but our main one is all our senses. We look at the bones, smell them, listen to them, and even taste them sometimes! If you tap a bone, and it sounds hollow, it is more likely to be a human or bird bone, and if it sounds ceramic, it is more likely to be a big animal bone, from a horse, cow or sheep. Smelling them helps us decide how long they have been in the ground, or how recent they are – if they smell nasty, like rotting meat, they are more likely to be fresh, and not dead long.
We also use some simple methods to measure bone – special calipers and 3D rulers for taking measurements like length and circumference.
Other technologies we use are microscopes – we can slice thin slices of bone and look at the bone cells under the microscope – this is called histology. We can also use CT scans and xrays to look at bone if they are still in living or dead people.
We can also use analytical techniques like xray diffraction, where we take bone powder and reflect xrays off it, so we can look at the bone crystal shapes and sizes. We can also look at bone colour with a spectrophotometer, which tells us exactly the colour of little specks of bone.

So, there is a vast array of technologies and analytical machines, but mainly it is good, old fashioned examining with our eyes and experience, and measuring. We need to be able to do most of our analysis out in the field, so we can’t take much kit with us. My field kit contains an osteometric board (fancy ruler), callipers, calculator, pencil and paper, and lots of reference books.