Congratulations, you made it. This is really, truly the last video of this MOOC. The truth in our bones, how human skeletal remains tell us about past people. Thank you for participating. We hope that you really enjoyed learning about the human skeleton and all of the things that we osteoarchaeologists can learn about past humans by studying their bones. First, you learned about basic osteology, about how we can estimate the age at death of adults and subadults. How we can estimate if someone was a man or a woman based on the shape of their skull and pelvis, and how we can reconstruct how tall someone was from their bones. Then, we studied some of the diseases that can leave marks in the skeleton and how these are related to our bone biology. Specifically, we talked about trauma, including gunshot wounds, the marks that are left by the infectious disease leprosy, as well as the metabolic disease rickets, which is caused by a lack of Vitamin D. In the third module, we showed you how we can determine what people in the past ate by studying different aspects of their bones. Stable isotopes can give us clues about the consumption of different kinds of plants and animal protein. Caries can tell us the amount and type of carbohydrates that were consumed, and enamel hypoplasia defects in the teeth can inform us about episodes of nutritional stress that past people experience during infancy and childhood. In Module 4, we showed you how physical activity can be reconstructed from the bones using musculoskeletal markers, especially emphyseal changes. Also, joint degeneration, including osteoarthritis and intervertebral disc disease, can inform us about the activity patterns of past people. Marks left on the teeth can show us how people used their teeth and their mouth as a third hand during certain activities. Finally, in the fifth module, we showed you how we can reconstruct the mobility and migration of past peoples using the shape of their long bones, isotopes, and ancient DNA. The shape of long bones can inform us about how much people are moving and about terrestrial or aquatic mobility. Strontium isotopes can show us from where to where people moved. Ancient DNA can help us reconstruct how people have moved on worldwide, continental, and more local scales. So, you have learned a lot, well done. You're probably not surprised to hear that there's a lot we didn't cover in this course. Many more methods we didn't introduce you to, many more concepts and questions that we explore that we didn't mention, and especially, there's so many more past populations that were not considered in this course. It really is enough to keep someone learning for their entire life, as I am fortunate enough to do. Anthropology and this archaeology in human osteoarchaeology within it is the study of human kind and all its wonderful diversity and complexity and this leaves a tremendous range of biological and cultural behaviour of phenomena to be studied. What you should do if you want to learn more about anthropology, archaeology or aosteoarchaeology? Well on the online forum we provide you with some links to free websites to might find interesting as well of information about other sources that you can look into. There are many academic journals and books worth reading. Feel free to run a title by us on the online discussion forum if you want feedback about whether the article or the book will give you the information you are seeking. And check out courses offered at the colleges and universities in your area. Most have at least introductory level anthropology or archaeology courses. And as the value of osteoarchaeology becomes more apparent, more universities are including human osteoarchaeology or biological or physical anthropology courses in their curriculum. Medical schools offer a human skeletal system or musculoskeletal system course and that would markedly improve your anatomical knowledge. And those of you interested in the biochemical methods discussed in this MOOC for example, the stable isotope and ancient DNA research, while we encourage you to take Biochemistry courses, this particular specializations have become quite high-tech and students entering them with a solid natural sciences background are at a considerable advantage. More than anything though we help this course has demonstrated to you the importance of adopting a deep temporal framework in a wide geographic perspective in understanding what it means to be human. In considering what aspects of our existence, of our nature, may be somewhat biologically based or innate, and what other aspects appear to be more influenced by culture. Think about it when looking at the society that you live in today. With the knowledge you've learned in this course, you're entering the fray of a biocultural, holistic, culturally relativistic and multidisciplinary perspective on the state of human kind. Those are some big important words to throw around. But on a less serious note, osteoarchaeologists can also be a lot of fun at parties. As we can sometimes be convinced to feel around on people's skulls, to them what sex we'd estimate them to be, We have great little factoids, such as babies lacking bony kneecaps. And we love hearing about the injuries and broken bones that you've sustained. This MOOC is the product of a lot of people, many of whom were behind the camera. Those folks are owed a huge thank you. So to the entire team at the online learning lab of Leiden University thank you. Especially to the two Thomas's, Inought, Nester, and Ameek and Leontine. We offer you many thanks for your time, expertise, patience and care and for really going above and beyond I'd like to thank all the interviewees for so willingly enthusiastically sharing their expertise with us. And the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University for letting us use the room for filming and for really being the impetus behind the generation of this MOOC. I'd also like to thank those individuals, mostly former and current students who are serving as moderators on the online discussion forum. Speaking of going above and beyond, I'd like to most gratefully acknowledge the two teaching assistants for this course, Anna-Marijn and Christine, who have done so much and have been absolutely the best TAs I could have wished to undertake this rather monumental task with. So ladies on behalf of myself and the many users of this course who will benefit from your hard work, thank you. And then the final note of thanks goes to you, the user. Thank you for joining us and for participating. Many of you will contribute in meaningful ways on the online discussion forum and that enriches the contents and enriches becoming a part of the online learning community. So it's very much appreciated and we hope it's an aspect of the course that you'll find particularly valuable going forward. So on that note this is Doctor Andrea Waters-Rist saying goodbye. Spread the word about the value of human osteoarchaeology research. Remember the clues, the truths hidden in your bones and in the bones of all of our ancestors. And how the truth in our bones can tell us not only about past people but also about what it means to be a human being, living today.
