Fun facts from my zooarch days: if you shake a couple of these bones in your hands they sound like dice.
Anyone know where the site is? The article says “Ainabulak, […] a village in the eastern part of the country”, but the only Ainabulak I can find is in western Kazakhstan.
EDIT: The referenced Astana Times article puts the find in the Zaisan district, near the Altai and Tarbagatai ranges. Which I guess would put it near the eastern edge of the Andronovo culture.
It’s already kind of iffy to assume religious significance to a find, but to assume function within a ritual? Those bones could be her collection of pretty bones for all we know. That’s bad science journalism. I bet the archeologist got caught musing what could it mean and the writer simply cherry picked what they thought was most interesting.
the writer simply cherry picked what they thought was most interesting
seems like that’s a fair description of what all journalism ends up being, but most especially science journalism… i hate trying to sift through articles for actual information on finds like this…
One scale bar is enough, jeez.
Listen, it’s not the size that counts, it’s the amount of bones. 🎺
Fun fact
from my zooarch days:If you shake a bunch of these bones, that one colleague will start screaming at you.
Haha, my boss told me to check it out! 😅
