Dead in the river

Tonight I went back to Surrey Uni with Dawn to attend a lecture on skulls (and other bones) found in, beside or under the Thames. It was really very good and thoroughly enjoyable.

It was organised by the Humanity group who have been presenting them for years. They were part of the BSc course we did and are only just winding up. I’d never been to one before and was looking forward to it, mainly because it was featuring an outside speaker. Of course, Dawn wanted to go because of its relevance to her PhD studies.

So, off to the Lecture Theatre Block we trotted.

The main entrance area of the lecture building

I’d had a few lectures in this block years ago and, when I realised where it was being held, I was not looking forward to sitting in a cold lecture hall with draughts and inadequate electronics. I was very pleasantly surprised.

We were in Lecture room M and it looked and felt brand new. It reminded me of one of the lecture rooms we had at City, even down to the red seating.

The new lecture room

The lecture was called Death on the Thames and was presented by Natasha Powers of the Museum of London. It was concerned with the possible reasons why human remains turn up in the Thames, with a particular emphasis on skulls.

By the end of the lecture we were not really any wiser as to the reasons but were much more wiser on what study is presently being carried out.

We were taken on an hour and a half journey beginning in prehistory and winding up in the 19th century, unearthing bodies or finding washed up skulls. It was fascinating. And even included a short film.

After the lecture

On the drive back home, I asked Dawn whether she could identify a human bone now she’d been studying them in such detail. She was fairly sure she could. I also asked her if she could lay a skeleton out on a table. She informed me that she’d managed to lay out so many she knew she could. I said she’d be quite handy to dig with now.

On the office front, I second coated the desk first thing and will not need to give it a third. It looks very bright and glossy.