Category Archives: Foot

Gotta hand it to you: identifying manual and pedal phalanges

Posted on June 4, 2014 by JB

At the AAPAs, the Bone Clones table was handing out free phalanx keychains, and when I received mine I had to double-check whether it was manual or pedal. This led me to review White and Folkens’ section on the phalanges, … Continue reading →

Posted in Foot, Hand, Osteology | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Merely a cuneiformality: Identifying and siding the cuneiforms

Posted on November 21, 2013 by JB

While working at a late Neolithic mortuary site in Portugal, my friend Anna and I would frequently joke that we were excavating the ‘burial of the feet’, because it seemed like every day on site we chanced upon a new … Continue reading →

Posted in Foot, Osteology, Tarsals | Tagged , | 7 Comments

OsteoMenagerie 6: Tips for Siding the Calcaneus

Posted on August 27, 2013 by JB

The calcaneus, often colloquially referred to as the ‘heel bone’, is the largest tarsal in the human foot. It preserves relatively well archaeologically speaking, appearing both in individual cemetery burials and in commingled graves. The photo below is of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Foot, Osteology, OsteoMenagerie, Siding Tricks, Tarsals, Test Your Skills | Tagged , | 5 Comments

OsteoMenagerie I: The Navicular

Posted on May 2, 2013 by JB

I find that students react to the bewildering variety of bones in the human body with a greater amount of aplomb when you explain things using animal metaphors. I’ve always found some of these visual parallels impossible to unsee after … Continue reading →

Posted in Foot, OsteoMenagerie, Siding Tricks, Tarsals | Tagged , | 6 Comments