bones

The Case of The Missing Bear Bones was a series of six drama and improvisation workshops for the local community in Rotherhithe, culminating in a bear-tastic showing for an invited audience. This project was a partnership between London Bubble, Box Office Bears and myself – Theatre Maker & Writer Angela Clerkin - in February-March 2024.

What can the bone of an adult bear tell us about the life it led and the world around it?

We’ll be at HistFest 2023 with a stall of bear-related delights on April 29^th - 30^th at the British Library.

This cranium, from excavations at the Davies’ Bear Garden on London’s Bankside, contains the story of the life and death of this individual dog, which we can recover through zooarchaeological analysis.

Part of the ‘Box Office Bears’ Project research includes ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis of the animals involved in the baiting themselves – namely bears and dogs. This image shows us sampling skeletal material for ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis, at the PalaeoBARN Laboratory at the University of Oxford.

Two months ago, I had the privilege of travelling with some early modern bear bones from Oxford to Nottingham. These bear bones were found during excavations by MOLA in Southwark in London, and were analysed for zooarchaeology and isotopes in Nottingham, before being taken to Oxford to be sampled for ancient DNA analysis.