Stay weird.

Slow cooking a small mammal was a success!

Full collection update! 

I think I have acquired twice as much as I had when i lived in the US! Probably because now I can actually salvage birds…

I’ve been wanting one of these beauties for years and I finally found a good price on one!

This is called a Fleam and it’s an old blood-letting tool. They were most often used by veterinarians but doctors were known to use them on their human patients too, especially during the Civil War. Many were made with horn or bone handles but I prefer the look of the ones with these brass handles. Morbidly elegant, haha.

In 1809, during the Battle of Cegar, Serbian revolutionaries were attacked by Turkish forces near the city of Nis. Rather than be captured and impaled by the Turks, Serbian leader Stevan Sinđelić ignited a powder magazine with his pistol, killing himself along with all the Serbian rebels and Turkish soldiers around him. The turks skinned Sinđelić and his men, then built a tower and embedded their skulls in the walls.

Here’s an interesting “Before and After” pic… this is a sustainably Inuit hunted polar bear head that we cleaned at the Prehistoria Natural History Centre!

While some people take personal offense to the Inuit’s traditional lifestyle, their limited (and sustenance) hunting of animals is not what puts these species at risk. For thousands of years these incredibly hardy and ingenious people have managed to exist in the most inhospitable climate on Earth, while building a truly rich culture.

The Church of Saint Michael in Hallstatt, Austria, is home to over 700 painted skulls in its chapel basement known as the Bone House. The Karner (charnel house) houses an additional 500 unpainted skulls, as well as the rest of the bones. The collection represents all the families of the community, dating back to at least the 17th century.