News & Events

Simulated mass grave excavation work carried out by BU students has been featured in the Bournemouth Echo.

The week–long practical was set up for Forensic Osteology and Archaeology students to learn first–hand what it is like to excavate a mass grave. They were tasked with digging into the simulated World War I grave cataloguing the items the discovered as they went.

Martin Smith, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at BU, said to the Echo, “It’s a really nice exercise that pulls together everything the students have been doing through the year.

“The anthropologists have learnt lots of theory about the anatomy of the body and how we can interpret types of trauma and disease, who we can tell age and sex and so on. The archaeologists have done all sorts of work on how we can find buried remains and how we can excavate them in a controlled and scientific manner.”

Martin continued, “This allows us to get them to work together as a team, pull together everything they have done and put it into practice.”

The work all took place on the estate of Giles Sturdy, Pro–Chancellor of Bournemouth University.