Bones, Bones, Dem Dry Bones

How many people can say that their family would freeze their butts off to bury bones in the middle of the woods for their daughter's art thesis. I now know that my family would. Thanks to Tom Kroll and the Saint John's Outdoor University, I have been given permission to create a small graveyard of cow and deer bones on the arboretum's rolling acres of land. This was step one in my thesis plan of action.

Left: Neil and Renate help enclose the bones in mesh to protect from predators. Right: Labeled plot.

Once school ended, I went out to dig up some of the bones and hopefully do some cyanotype tests on them. Unfortunately, the tests never occurred. By burying the bones I was hopeful all the meat and membranous skin would be eaten off by bugs and maggots.The maggots were present, and there were plenty of bugs, but everything was soggy, gross and a little bit moldy. So I decided to give the bones some more time and exposed them to open air taking two bones to try another method of cleaning.
I tried to simmer and soak these bones in hydrogen peroxide, but there was still a bit too much tissue to clean the bones in this manner. Being stubborn, I refused to accept this until I spent a week attempting to clean the bones and finally accepted defeat.
Until August, the bones will decay in the summer sun, fingers crossed when I return to the graveyard they will be cleaner than last time.

Peace and Blue,
Lexi