'Open the Box'

(From Day of Archaeology website)

Some of you may, like me  be old enough to remember a game show, hosted by Michael Miles where contestants had to decide to  "take the money or open the box". The box might hold a booby prize, a £1 premium bond or some fabulous prize. Well , there have been echoes of this at Bucks county museum stores over the past few months. 

Three members of the Active archaeology group-Jean, Jeanie and Glynis have been helping two osteoarchaeologists -Diane and Suzy to describe, identify material suitable for scientific tests, catalogue and repack the museum's skeletons. 

When we choose a box to open we have little idea of what might be inside- a bronze age warrior, a saxon "princess", sometimes a jumble  of bones from several different skeletons, sometimes with animal bones or pottery or pieces of stone mixed in. Trawling the archives to discover what information is available about the remains is also part of the project. 

To find out more about this project keep an eye on the programme for the AAG meetings. We are now about halfway through the 200 boxes of human remains, so we will continue to "open the box" and no, "take the money" is not an option!

Glynis