Thursday 18 October 2012

The Bush Archeologist

There's lots to do in the bush before the snow falls...but today it was too windy so I found something else to do...

Todays project was an archaeological one...
I decided to excavate the remains of four beaver heads that I buried two years ago in the front garden.  I buried these skulls to let the bugs clean the flesh from their bones so I can prepare them for mounting.
Skulls have such an interesting aesthetic and these beaver heads were ones that I trapped giving them added meaning...

The first order of business was to actually find my buried beaver cache.
I remember having placed them under a rock...but there were a lot of rocks in the garden...
I was starting to feel a bit like a squirrel that misplaced their nuts 45 minutes into my dig when the shovel hit the edge of a skull.


With a little care most of the skulls, jawbones and teeth were located.


Not much to look at initially...


But a scrub in a pail of water and some tooth brushes did a nice job taking off the detritus.





Beautiful natural specimens...
evocative and talismanic

-Martin







No comments: