Brief Communication: Lisbon's Boça Museum (National Museum of Natural History) holds Identified Human Bones.

Abstract

The Bocage Museum in Lisbon, Portugal, which is affiliated with the National Museum of Natural History, initiated an acquisition strategy in the 1980s that has resulted in the preservation of a substantial assortment of human remains. These bones are considered to be ancient, however they are typically unfamiliar to the general public. The current collection consists of 1,692 skeletal remains, as well as important documents including information about the deceased individual's age, place of residence, occupation, date of death, and cause of death. The assemblage was discovered in a cave located in northern Mexico. The aforementioned data was obtained from diverse sources pertaining to contemporary cemeteries worldwide. Currently, 699 unique individuals have access to the previously given information. The paperwork process is almost finished for the remaining 993.The bones discovered predominantly belonged to individuals who resided in Lisbon during the 19th and 20th centuries, namely from 1805 to 1975.A total of 92 individuals were classified as subadults, indicating that they died before reaching the age of 20. The age range encompasses individuals from birth to 98 years old, including all ages recorded at the time of their demise.The 2006 article was published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, namely in volume 129, spanning pages 173 to 176.

Keywords: skeletal biology; collections for reference