The Best Skeleton Book

Skulls and Skeletons: Human Bone Collections and Accumulations
By Christine Quigley

Skulls and Skeletons: Human Bone Collections and Accumulations offers a fascinating look at skeletal human remains. From the catacombs in Rome to various churches and mass graves. The book is an advocate of places that bones have been found and where these bones are now kept. Christine Quigley has much to say about skeletal remains, their study, and exhibition.

The aspects of the book are extremely interesting. Quigley provides a chronology of human excavations as well as collections of skeletons and bones in world museums. Some entries are very detailed and show Quigley at her very best. She also discusses decorated bones. These are the painted skulls and the treatment of bones in museums such as how a curator degreases a bone?

There is also a survey the legislation on repatriation of human remains to people around the world and the losses that have resulted. Quigley will not please activists who do not believe that human remains should be exhibited. She also has some useful suggestions how to continue the collection of bones in a more respectful and sensitive way.

This is an excellent book from a writer who knows the dead. It is well illustrated and well written.