WEBVTT - Into the Ossuary: Consult the Bones - Part 1 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.000 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:13.600 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:13.600 --> 0:00:16.360 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. And 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:19.800 in this episode we are venturing into the house Stuff 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:25.760 works Awesiuary because like like a great educational institute. Um. 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:30.720 We're of course so situated over an underground catacomb stuff 0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:34.560 full of human remnants. We have this wonderful bone chandelier 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:38.280 hanging over us. Uh. It's a delightful place and we 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:40.920 hope that you will join us for this episode as 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:44.440 we explore some of the specimens we have around here. Indeed, 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:48.240 and in case your company doesn't have an osuary, UM, 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:50.880 this is also known as the bone house, the facility 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:55.840 for the storage of human of course UM now owesuaries. 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:58.840 You'll find these throughout human history, sometimes not with such 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:02.200 an elegant title. Again, going back to just a bone 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:05.480 house or even a bone pit um you look back 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:10.160 to ancient Persia. For instance, the Tzarastrians used a version 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:13.840 of of an ossiuary. They would they would take corpses, 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:17.280 put them on top of their their towers of silence 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:20.680 and birds and the elements to break the bodies down 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:22.479 to the bones, and then the bones would be stored 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:26.679 away in for safekeeping. And uh. And actually we see 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:30.440 some truly ancient bone pits out there that provide us 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:33.640 with some of the earliest evidence, even DNA evidence of 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:36.040 early humans and pre human hominids. For instance, back in 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:38.920 two thousand thirteen, a German team from the Max Plank 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:42.280 Institute was able to identify twenty eight different remains from 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:46.640 Spain's Semididas twices, or the bone pit, which contained four 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:52.080 hundred thousand year old Homo Heidelbergenis hominids. So we've we've 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:57.680 been dumping our skeletons into various tombs and caves and 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:01.320 nublettes for quite a while. Uh, it's a grand tradition 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:04.280 and uh and one that one that I hope continues, 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:08.360 and it's pragmatic. Um. And we're going to actually look 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:12.360 at one of probably the most stellar examples of an ossuary, 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:16.440 which is the Catacombs of Paris. You've been lucky enough 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:19.400 to witness this place firsthand. Yes, I have been to 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:23.280 the Empire of Death and it's it truly is one 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:26.240 of the creepiest places I have ever been. At sixty 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:31.079 underground and Uh, you know, you go through these small 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:34.560 little halls until you get to this marker that talks about, hey, 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:38.000 you're about to enter the Empire of Death, and lo 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:43.200 and behold you see all of these bones. Um, this 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:47.679 pathway of bones stacked in such a configuration, in such 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:51.400 an elaborate one that it's just it's like the Vatican 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:55.920 of bones. It's too much. It's almost it's overwhelming. And 0:02:56.840 --> 0:03:00.680 you imagine the person responsible for arranging those bones, and 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:04.080 wonder if if he went absolutely mad with the task. 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:06.400 Now are you there on an official tour or is 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:10.280 this like a secret underground Parisian ray? If you written, yeah, 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:13.480 I can't really tell you the details of how I 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:16.240 got there, just that I got there. Now, of course 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:18.839 they aren't just they're willing million for people to ply 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:20.720 off the sewer covers and jump down and have a 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:25.360 party in the catacombs have a very long history that 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:28.160 actually started with Romans. Yeah. I mean, of course, you 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:30.440 can go back even even further, Ina, we can go 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:33.160 back like forty five million years to where you had 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:38.320 just a tropical sea instead of Paris, France. And eventually, uh, 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:41.040 the seabed sediment turns into limestone and This is key, 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:45.119 of course, because most naturally occurring caves formed from limestone 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:49.240 via dissolution. Uh and limestone is soft yet firm, so 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.320 it's a great stone to use in construction as well, 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:54.480 which is what the Romans were doing, right. Yeah, they 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:57.840 were like, look at all this delicious limestone. Let's carve 0:03:57.880 --> 0:03:59.520 it out and make things out of it. Yeah. They 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:03.960 eventually created the Roman city of Lutatia, the city that 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:08.320 would eventually become Paris. And in the process they made 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.160 they dug up these quarry pits. They resulted in roughly 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:15.760 a hundred eighty seven miles of underground tunnels. And these 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:18.839 these cores ended up providing the stone for even such 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:22.560 such modern post Roman constructions as uh as Notre Dame 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:26.360 well And and they remain that way for quite a 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:30.560 bit until the eighteenth century, when they were long abandoned 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:34.279 and someone scratched their heads said, hmmm, this could really 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:38.600 solve our public health problem, namely, like all these bodies 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:42.520 that we have piling up from various diseases. That's right, 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:46.680 I mean, you had you had such large central cemeteries 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:51.799 as uh as Saints Innocence are what's the French on that, Well, 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:54.880 this is not Holly Fry certified. But I'm going to 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:59.440 take a step. Okay, okay, so active Germans. I'm useless 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:02.719 on this one. But yes. St. Sentisen is one of 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:04.960 the main cemetery, is the largest cemetery in Paris. And 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:07.400 you had a situation where you had the bodies were 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:11.479 just improperly buried or weren't weren't buried yet. It was 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:14.560 there's things are just stacking up. We've been burying people 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:17.720 in the cemetery for for quite a while. And so 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:21.480 what are you gonna do. Well, you dig those bodies up, 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:26.040 you take the bones, and you deposit them somewhere. Yeah. 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:28.080 It took two years to do that, by the way, 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:32.480 and then between seventeen eighty seven and eighteen fourteen, bones 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:36.680 from other cemeteries were also transferred in the final transfer 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:39.520 of bones took place in eighteen fifty nine. Now, there 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:42.040 is a ton of history in those bones. I mean, 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:46.159 you have the bones of Robespierre from the French Revolution. Um. 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:48.760 I mean, it's just it's a it's a piling up 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:54.720 of historical events and historical diseases. Yeah, all just cataloged 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:58.080 there in the catacombs. Uh. Into the tune of what 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:01.840 like seven million dead Parisians down there, Yes, seven million 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:07.400 deporations and perhaps some people of other nationalities stirring about there. 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:10.960 But that is why when you go into this it 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:14.719 is so it's just like staggering to see that amount 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:17.599 of bones configured in that way. Again, we were talking 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:21.679 about a hundred and eighties seven miles of these tunnels 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:25.120 and various other little areas. Um, there's there's a place 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:29.720 where I think they called it like the footbath for 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:33.640 the quarrymen. That's just this big open pool that's sort 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:37.520 of fascinating to to be, you know, in this configuration 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:41.479 and then just happened upon this pool. So um, it 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:44.600 really is sort of this empire of death underground, which 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:46.560 is fitting. Yeah, I mean it really gets down to 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:49.200 some of the you know, the fascinations we just have 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:51.120 with the skeleton, like what are we to make of 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:55.480 the skeleton? This this this part of ourselves that remains 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:59.479 after all the flesh has has gone away, and and 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:02.919 sometimes when there's for quite some time that that is 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:06.360 it's us, but it's also just a part of us. Uh, 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:09.119 you know, what are we to make of the skeleton? Well, 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:13.520 and keep in mind too that until humans really started 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:16.080 missing about with skeletons. I mean, the natural thing to 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:18.840 happen would be deterioration for it just to become part 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:22.520 of a leaf litter, which in large part it still does, right, Um, 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:26.840 if you have sort of your traditional burial um. But yeah, 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:29.400 I mean it was for me. It's the sort of 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:32.960 grappling with what life and death is in this attempt 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:37.200 to take these bones, arrange them, give meaning, preserve them, 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:40.560 hope that there's an Afro life for them. Yeah, yeah, 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:42.480 because I you know, a lot of that is what 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:45.480 Western funeral practices come down to, is this idea that 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:48.880 there's going to be an actual physical resurrection of the dead. 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:50.880 And then we got into that a bit in uh 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:52.680 one in a couple of our episodes, the Problem of 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:55.400 Immortality and then also the Problem of Hell, both of 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:58.600 which deal with what do we do with our ideas 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:02.200 about what happens to some permanent, supposedly permanent part of 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:06.760 ourselves when when we pass on. Yeah, And we were 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:10.760 actually just talking about this before we started recording this episode, 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:14.280 about that song dem Bones, which sort of like we 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:19.800 think of a children's song like to THEE. I don't know, Um, 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:24.840 that's actually an African spiritual that is talking about if 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:28.360 I've got this right resurrection, that all these different parts 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:31.880 are fitting back together so that this person can you know, 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:35.240 have a resurrection. It's pretty fascinating when you when you 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:38.400 compare that to say that the practice of sky burial 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:42.200 into bad and also in parts of Mongolia and elsewhere where, 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:45.880 the the idea is to just break everything down and 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:48.839 and just have it be reabsorbed by nature to the 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:53.200 point where actually, uh, someone is pulverizing the bones. Now 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:57.360 there is an idea in terms of green burials that 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:00.920 ossuaries could make a comeback. In other world this practice 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:05.439 of moving bones could continue, um because as they decompose, 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:07.280 you could then add it to an ossuary and then 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:10.080 could sort of clear up that land and reuse it 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:13.800 for another burial. Yeah, I really like the idea. The 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:16.040 more I read about green burial, the more I'm on 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:20.080 board with it. Um. So, I guess ultimately anyone's death 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:21.839 is you know, it's it's been a large part in 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:23.960 the hands of what you know, the people that come 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:26.760 after you. But I think there's something more, There's something 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:29.720 get far more beautiful about your body being broken down 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:33.200 becoming part of nature instead of being sealed away in 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:37.920 this artificial box, popped with all these artificial chemicals. Uh, 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:41.199 you know, for what, for what purpose? Well? And again 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:43.559 I think it's as trying to grapple all the questions 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:45.800 of life and death and put some sort of form 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:48.800 to it and organize it and make ourselves feel better 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:52.120 about it. Um. But the ossuary route is really a 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:55.280 lot more practical or any sort of green burial um. 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:59.560 You know, because again we've got the population exclusion currently 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:02.640 and comeing online in the next fifty years. We don't 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:07.280 have any more territory to explore to to really sort 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:10.240 of grow our food or bury our dead. So yeah, 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:13.040 I mean our cemeteries are nice, but let's maybe we 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:15.160 should stop making new ones. You know. That's this land 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:17.240 that commute further the purposes. So yeah, for my part, 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:20.400 I say, let the flesh fall off my body, Let 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:22.720 the lambur guyers have my bones, let them drop them 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:26.800 from from from from from on high onto some stones 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:29.120 and then eat the marrow. Wow. So if you did 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:31.839 have some sort of traditional barrel that would be on 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:34.679 your tombstone, Uh, yeah, I guess I don't know where 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:37.360 the teambstone is gonna go. There. I guess like you know, 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:40.000 my descendants living room or something, or you just you 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:42.840 find some stone, you need to face it somewhere and say, hey, 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:47.520 I existed, my body rotted and then some birds messed 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:50.760 with my bones. Tombstone. There you go. All right, look 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:54.040 at the virtual Robert Lamb that exists online. All right, 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:55.880 we're gonna take a break and when we come back, 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:58.880 we're gonna handle some skulls. Does that mean that we're 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:12.520 going down to the basement. Yes, yes, let's look at 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:15.199 some skulls. You know, you you look at the human 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:19.160 skull and a lot of things go through your head. 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:20.839 We've a very discussed some of this. You know, it 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:23.320 appears to be smiling at you or laughing at you 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:28.280 with its uh, with its big grins, it's gaping sockets. 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:31.480 But you know, the more we look at it, the 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:33.480 more we look at the skull, and the more we 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:36.680 look at the human hand and incidentally, um, the hands 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:39.640 and feet contain over half the body's bones. Because these 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:42.760 are you know, these are delicate instruments, uh that are 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:45.000 that have that have evolved for you know, the fine 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:49.480 manipulation of of of items and tools. The more we 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:52.480 look at them though we can tell that the hand, 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:56.600 particularly the fist, was made for punching the skull, and 0:11:56.679 --> 0:12:01.040 the skull evolved to receive the fifth. The skull and 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:03.360 the fifth are are made for each other. They are 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:07.520 there there, their lovers across time and uh and and 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:09.400 when you look at the science of it, it's it's 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:12.360 really fascinating. There. I don't know that I would say 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:15.040 their lovers across time, but I would say they have 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:20.319 certainly connected across time, that's right. University of Utah biologists 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:25.200 David Carrier and Michael H. Morgan, a University of Utah physician, 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:30.320 contend that these human faces of ours, especially those of 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:36.120 our austral epith ancestors, evolved to minimize injury from punches 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:39.640 to the face during fights between males, and their paper 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:44.280 is titled Protective Buttressing of the homin In Face. Yeah, 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:46.120 they said, if we look back four or five million 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:50.640 years at these ancestors, we find an increased robustness in 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:53.640 the particular facial bones that are most likely to suffer 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:57.600 fracture during a pummeling. Uh And these are these are 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:00.920 the areas where we also find the greatest different between 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:05.240 male and female facial structures. Both in austero epiths, both 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:08.840 in asterol epiths, and in humans because again, uh, the 0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:11.840 structures may have evolved in response to that male on 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:16.040 mail of violence. Now, initially the idea was something like 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:19.480 the these really strong jaws were needed to you know, 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:24.400 break down not serving really hard foods. But more and 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:28.480 more of this evidence in these resulting studies suggests that no, 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:31.560 it's not just to break down nuts. And there is 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:36.080 a difference in gender. Yes. Now, previously back at this 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:40.920 study about the skulls, come but Carrier back in two 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:43.640 thousand twelve had looked at the bones of the hand, 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:47.280 and this is the study where he revealed that proportions 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:49.640 of the human hand allow us to make a fist 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:52.880 that protects all of those delicate bones and muscles and 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:56.880 ligaments during a jaw shattering, right hook. Because again, it's 0:13:56.920 --> 0:13:59.400 kind of crazy when you think about it, Like these hands, right, 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:05.400 these these these fine manipulative limbs that we use to 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:08.360 h to make tools, to make fire, to prepare food, 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:10.600 to put food in our mouth, that we're gonna then 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:14.000 take those fine instruments and punch people in the face 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:16.800 with it. I mean, it's like like a violinist it's 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:20.240 gonna take his or her strata varius and then swing 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:24.640 it at an enemy during a battle. It doesn't make sense, right, Well, Uh, 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:28.600 the argument here from Carry's research is that we evolve 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:32.080 to deal with that. No other primates um or any 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:35.200 animal for that matter, can actually throw a punch. You 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:38.280 don't see punch is thrown with chimps, with gorillas, none 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:41.800 of them. It's a human thing um and Carry argues 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:44.600 that our earliest answers just may have benefited from an 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:48.960 evolutionary advantage if they could actually punch hard without injuring. Uh, 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:51.960 those five fingers, and they're gonna win mates, They're going 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:55.320 to win resources, they're gonna win tribal honor. Furthermore, Carrier 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:57.920 also found that a punch is always going to be 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:02.320 better than a slap or a chop. Now I've about 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:04.400 the chop that can be really effective. Well, a chop, 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:07.360 chop can be effective. And I've i when I shared 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:09.960 this study a few years back, when it first came 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:13.160 out on on social media and on our blogs, I 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:18.480 did have some conversations with people that were arguing against that, 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:21.880 people who had a little more expertise in martial arts, saying, well, 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:25.760 actually a chop you know, can be extremely effective, or 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:30.080 or a palm thrust, etcetera. But Carriers research found that 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:32.880 a peak that peak strike force is always the same 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:35.720 no matter what manner of handblow you're using. But the 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:39.120 fist delivers all of this force to a smaller area. 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:42.920 So according to him, the force per area is up 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:45.720 to three times greater with a punch of the face 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:49.000 versus a slap to the face. Now, Carrier says, quote, 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:52.360 if indeed the evolution of our hand proportions were associated 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:56.360 with selection for fighting behavior, you might expect the primary target, 0:15:56.440 --> 0:16:00.320 the face, to have undergone evolution to better protect from 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:04.560 injury when punched. In other words, coevolution. Yeah, I mean 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:08.080 an arms race, essentially almost literally in arms race. Right, 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:11.360 you canna swing that big meat club at me? Okay, fine, 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:13.960 I'm gonna my jaw is gonna get much bigger to 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:17.600 absorb that so it doesn't break its easily. Now, all 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:20.320 this being said, uh, Michael H. Morgan, one of the 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:24.280 studies co author, says, quote, our research is about peace. 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:28.360 We seek to explore, understand, and confront human kinds, violent 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:32.320 and aggressive tendencies. Peace begins with ourselves and is ultimately 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:37.320 achieve through disciplined self analysis and an understanding of where 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:40.560 we've come from as a species. Through our research, we 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:42.960 look at ourselves in the mirror and begin the difficult 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:46.600 work of changing ourselves for the better. I think Michael 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:49.160 Jackson said the same thing. Yeah, I think so. I mean, 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:51.120 really when it comes to changing ourselves for the better. 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:54.080 We'll get into an example this later on. But humans 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:57.560 have always been into finding ways to hack their bodies 0:16:57.600 --> 0:17:01.080 and indeed hack their skeletons in ways that match up 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:04.639 with their own expectations of the human form. Well, you 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:06.840 know this, this whole study to makes me think of 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:12.040 just the complexity of of evolution. Like imagine if it 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:16.040 were a boardroom or a committee trying to determine what 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:19.920 shape that the fifth or the skull would take. Because 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:22.960 on one hand that you would have individuals saying, all right, look, 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:26.080 it needs to be a delicate a delicate system of 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:29.080 fingers so that we can do some fine manipulation of 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:34.040 crafting projects of uh, you know, of the various interactions 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:36.760 with the natural environment. But also it needs to be 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:38.520 able to punch somebody in the face. And likewise, the 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:42.560 face department are saying, well, this is essentially a communications array. 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:45.359 We have our sense organs frontloaded at the at the top. 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:48.119 We want, you know, all the faces to kind of 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:50.520 look look the same, so that there's a so that 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:55.399 needs a small difference can have an emotional response on 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:57.840 the viewer. But also it needs to be able to 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:01.440 take a punch just head on without too much damage occurring. Yeah, 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:03.359 and especially when it comes to the hands, I really 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:09.240 feel like that potential for peace or thoughtful um ways 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:13.440 in which to enter a situation and war are contained 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:16.919 within because you do have the intricate system that that thumb, 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:19.880 the placement of that that is gives us that sort 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:23.160 of advantage with tools and that grasp that no other 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:26.920 species has. At the same time, it also gives it 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:29.480 the strength that just wallet the big old punch. But 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:32.040 I feel like that like the tool using things should 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:36.440 win out here, that that thoughtfulness of like, Okay, how 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:39.000 do we proceed. We can use tools, we can use 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:42.120 our minds and use communication getting into the universality of 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:44.600 of of sign language. We can just use these hands 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:48.000 to actually communicate. But or you know, or we can 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:51.159 shop people in the face and punch them. Yeah, choice 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:53.639 is yours, all right? We're gonna take a quick break 0:18:53.680 --> 0:19:04.480 and when we come back more bones. All right, we're back. 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:09.240 Let's let's discuss another ossuary of sorts, one that is 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:13.359 tied in with with with a central figure in the 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:17.440 history of of the United States of America, Ben Franklin, 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:19.960 of course, and he's come up before. We've talked about 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:23.040 his air bath in which he would just you know, 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:25.240 hang out naked during the middle of the night and 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:29.520 read when he couldn't sleep. Well, he is associated with 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:33.480 this ossuary. Uh did he know about it? We're not 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:36.360 quite sure. But let's sort of unravel this for you. 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:40.199 We're talking about number thirty six Craven Street in London, 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:45.600 which was Craven Street which was once home to Benjamin Franklin, 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:48.760 who resided there between seventeen fifty seven and seventeen seventy 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:52.760 five when he was the ambassador for the American Colonies. Now, 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:56.080 that's all very fine and well, but in ninet the 0:19:56.080 --> 0:20:03.640 house received extensive renovations and during that excavations and renovations 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:08.400 were halted because in the basement a thigh bone was found. Yes, 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:12.160 the police were called. Uh, they began to dig out 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:14.639 more from this pit. In the basement, and they found 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:20.360 some twelve hundred pieces of bones, and initial examinations revealed 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:22.800 that the bones were the remains of ten bodies, six 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:26.639 of them children, and uh, they were about two hundred 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:30.080 years old. Um, which all of a sudden casts a 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:33.480 new light on ben Franklin. Yeah, and it's uh, it 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:37.000 was probably a pretty interesting if maybe even a little scary. Uh. 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:39.439 There for for a few minutes with the friends of 0:20:39.440 --> 0:20:42.800 Benjamin Franklin House, who were who were orchestrating this whole 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:46.520 attempt to get this house in shape. Because as far 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:49.840 as places Benjamin Franklin had lived like this one stood up. 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:52.320 This one was was a good one to renovate and 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:55.520 and and and turn into the museum devoted to the man. 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:58.320 And here you go digging around underneath it, and you 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:01.600 find this windowless room with a pit full of bones. 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:03.800 And what do you make of it? Now? Now, granted, 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:06.439 we're talking about London here, and so in London is 0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:09.120 is an old city, and if you dig down deep 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:11.440 enough in a place like London, you're gonna find just 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:15.040 about anything. You're gonna find bones, um, mental flaws. And 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:18.360 their article about it asked the question, well, was Franklin 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:22.399 a serial killer. Yeah it was no. No, but that 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:24.399 still leaves room for aout the questions like was he 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:27.040 a necromancer? Was he was he a ghoul? Was he 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:30.720 a bone fetishist? I don't know. The more likely explanation 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:33.520 and will never know, is that he had a friend 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:37.639 who who definitely owned a saw and uh and a 0:21:37.760 --> 0:21:41.359 drill probably even, and he happened to be an anatomous 0:21:41.520 --> 0:21:46.800 and um. Sure enough, when people looked at further analysis 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:51.320 of those bones, they saw saw marks, scalpel scraping, and 0:21:51.440 --> 0:21:55.119 drill holes. And so the story that begins to emerge 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:59.040 is that these bodies were taken apart in a in 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:03.320 a very thought full manner, and probably by an anatomist. Yes, 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:06.919 the animis in question William Houston, who had previously been 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:10.359 a student of anatomist William Hunter, but the two had 0:22:10.400 --> 0:22:14.879 a falling out, Howiston broke aways, but he continued his studies. Now, 0:22:15.119 --> 0:22:17.879 this was an interesting time to be an anatomist, because 0:22:18.119 --> 0:22:21.879 to study human anatomy you need examples of human antomy. 0:22:21.920 --> 0:22:25.840 Anatomy to study I mean even today, despite all of 0:22:25.840 --> 0:22:29.800 our our resources, our illustrations are models, um that the 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:33.959 use of computers to really explore the human body. You 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:37.960 need cadavers, you need medical specimens to to cut into, 0:22:38.000 --> 0:22:41.879 to look out, to study, and at the time these uh, 0:22:42.040 --> 0:22:46.119 we're not easily obtainable, at least in in an ethical sense. 0:22:47.200 --> 0:22:49.879 You can always get human bodies, but you've gotta be 0:22:49.960 --> 0:22:52.760 willing to put in the work or pay for that work. Yeah, well, 0:22:52.800 --> 0:22:58.160 cadaverish for medical students um, which the demand for dovetailed 0:22:58.200 --> 0:23:01.520 with the increase in medical students, by the way, created 0:23:01.600 --> 0:23:05.000 a black market for dead bodies, and these bodies were 0:23:05.000 --> 0:23:09.600 obtained by people called the resurrection men. And this is 0:23:09.720 --> 0:23:13.639 just a really unsavory piece of history. And the reason 0:23:13.760 --> 0:23:16.399 why people had to go to the black market is 0:23:16.440 --> 0:23:20.000 because the Anatomy Act of eighteen thirty two wasn't in 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:23.720 place yet, and the Anatomy Act um kind of loosened 0:23:23.760 --> 0:23:26.880 up the laws a bit in terms of getting cadaver 0:23:27.040 --> 0:23:31.159 so people had to go to grave robbers essentially. And 0:23:31.240 --> 0:23:35.600 this really marked the whole medical profession because people began 0:23:35.680 --> 0:23:38.480 to get, of course, a little bit paranoid and not 0:23:38.760 --> 0:23:41.119 you know, like if you introduce yourself as a doctor 0:23:41.160 --> 0:23:44.320