Zooarchaeology (exam, and quotes)

I just had the best exam ever! It was for zooarchaeology and he'd told us we'd really just have to identify a single animal bone and tell him all about it, but I kinda hadn't believed it would be that easy. And yet it was. I walked in and he handed me a femur! (which, while it isn't the easiest bone in the body to identify (there are no easy bones) is relatively straightforward). I told him everything I knew about it from latin names to it's purpose and design, and that was it. It was brilliant!

Of course, I had a major advantage over everyone else having spent a month of my life sorting through fragmentary human skeletal material, thus I already knew the names of all the bones and the basic latin terms and just had to memorize a few of the rarer ones and more generic terms plus usage (mammalian bones being almost exactly the same as human bones, just differently shaped in places). It was still so lovely to have such an easy exam, since I was well prepared to explain the entire skeleton if it was called for. Pity the exam only counts for 10% of my grade.

And now, more quotes from my Zooarch. professor. They are unfortunately the last set of quotes since he is returning to Budapest tomorrow. Oh well.

On bone size - "You have wee little sheepy bones too."

On bone tools - "One of my favourite tools is the beaver mandible chisel."

On neolithic tools resembling shoe horns - "I don't know what you call them, those spoons that you use for putting on shoes."

On his elk obsession - "I always wanted elks."

On zooarchaeologists' competiveness - "Is my sheep earlier than your sheep?"

On his dog catching a live chicken and accidently letting it go - "Lucky for me since it wasn't my chicken."

During the exam - "I must ask you a nasty question... What is your name?"

Zooarchaeology (exam, and quotes)

I just had the best exam ever! It was for zooarchaeology and he'd told us we'd really just have to identify a single animal bone and tell him all about it, but I kinda hadn't believed it would be that easy. And yet it was. I walked in and he handed me a femur! (which, while it isn't the easiest bone in the body to identify (there are no easy bones) is relatively straightforward). I told him everything I knew about it from latin names to it's purpose and design, and that was it. It was brilliant!

Of course, I had a major advantage over everyone else having spent a month of my life sorting through fragmentary human skeletal material, thus I already knew the names of all the bones and the basic latin terms and just had to memorize a few of the rarer ones and more generic terms plus usage (mammalian bones being almost exactly the same as human bones, just differently shaped in places). It was still so lovely to have such an easy exam, since I was well prepared to explain the entire skeleton if it was called for. Pity the exam only counts for 10% of my grade.

And now, more quotes from my Zooarch. professor. They are unfortunately the last set of quotes since he is returning to Budapest tomorrow. Oh well.

On bone size - "You have wee little sheepy bones too."

On bone tools - "One of my favourite tools is the beaver mandible chisel."

On neolithic tools resembling shoe horns - "I don't know what you call them, those spoons that you use for putting on shoes."

On his elk obsession - "I always wanted elks."

On zooarchaeologists' competiveness - "Is my sheep earlier than your sheep?"

On his dog catching a live chicken and accidently letting it go - "Lucky for me since it wasn't my chicken."

During the exam - "I must ask you a nasty question... What is your name?"