About Me

I'm a PhD student researching the role of the archaeological dead in contemporary British society. Think of this as a scrapbook of all the interesting links, snippets of information and random bits and bobs I come across pertaining to death, dying and the dead. Enjoy?!

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    Decomposing bodies exploding in front of your face and being eaten from the inside out… Does this sound like a zombie-horror flick? Well it is not, it’s just nature.

    Scientists have long been fascinated by underwater decomposition. On land it’s easy to follow the life cycle of bacteria, flies and other life that feeds on death, but underwater the show is completely changed.

    Here, forensic scientists place a pig in the ocean, train a camera on it and enjoy the wonders of nature. What can we learn? According to the lead researchers, we can use the pig to approximate how humans decompose under water. They’ve discovered that sea lice invade the body, and — were it not for the cage — sharks, octopi, shrimp and other carnivorous animals would have devoured the flesh as well.

    This puts a whole new perspective on eating seafood, doesn’t it?

    (Source: news.discovery.com)

    It’s midsummer on the Isle of Bute in Scotland. Archaeologist Paul Duffy has a plan. He wants to know how our ancestors went about cremating their dead. He didn’t have a dead person handy, so he decided to cremate our closest relation in the animal kingdom - a pig.