666
Lik the bone (lemmy.world)
submitted 22 hours ago by edg@lemmy.world to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

Tumblr thread, one user says that archeologists identify human remains by taste. A second user points out that this is not true, bone is identified as not a normal rock by touching it to your tongue and seeing if it sticks. If it does then bone.

Third user shares a poem they wrote: mai nam is jane and wen i dig i fynde some roks both smol and big i put my tung upon the stone for science yes i lik the bone

4th user is an archeologist and is crying laughing with a bunch of other archeologists and they're going to have shirts made with the poem.

top 28 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] AlexLost@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

Did anyone else sing the poem? Good flow.

[-] definitely_AI@feddit.online 15 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

One of my favorite archaeology stories comes from a Reddit AMA waaay back over a decade ago, there was this girl who was on an archaeological expedition somewhere in the Middle East and they had unearthed a bunch of ancient honey jars. Honey, famously, never goes bad, and their professor said that if anyone wanted to try some, they could. Most didn't, but she did- lo and behold, tasted very much like normal honey.

Months later when they were back in the states they had performed some tests on the honey and realized that these jars had originally contained stillborn fetuses, a now known practice, which had dissolved into the honey over the millennia. So she had eaten human fetus honey.

I know it sounds made up but she was a legit archaeologist and could back it up with names and dates and shit, though I'm hazy on the details.

[-] coaxil@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 hours ago

I kinda wanna try it now

[-] Test_Tickles@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago

Holy shit, I didn't know about that one... And holy shit, I wish I could un-know it now.

[-] Zerush@lemmy.ml 14 points 15 hours ago
[-] Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net 16 points 18 hours ago

Not just archies, like another commentator points out, but Geo's and pedologists too

In soil science we sometimes put soil in our mouth to determine between silt and clay or silt and fine sand

[-] affenlehrer@feddit.org 4 points 14 hours ago
[-] Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net 2 points 7 hours ago

I suppose, but I also smell subsoil for the presence of hydrocarbons, soo...

[-] marduk@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 13 hours ago

They ate a lot of dirt as kids, built up their immune system

[-] Kolanaki@pawb.social 19 points 18 hours ago
[-] AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world 4 points 12 hours ago

......I feel quite hungry.....

[-] edg@lemmy.world 49 points 22 hours ago

You can also tell a claystone from a siltstone by rubbing it against your teeth! If it rubs smoothly without friction then it's a claystone. If it feels abrasive then it's a siltstone.

[-] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 28 points 16 hours ago

I find a stone
But is it clay?
Or is it silt?
I cannot say.
I'll rub a bit
Just on my tooth,
If tooth falls out
I'll know the truth.

Maybe you think
My methods strange,
Maybe you think
They cause me pain.
But I'll keep rocks
All in my fist:
Not odd to me;
I'm geologist.

[-] edg@lemmy.world 5 points 6 hours ago

Oh hell yes ヾ(⌐■_■)ノ♪

[-] jellyfishhunter@lemmy.world 62 points 22 hours ago

Better don't tell your dentist

[-] Plum@lemmy.world 44 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

This was a lot of my degree. We licked everything. Still do.

Mouthfeel is an incredible sense. Babies learn what the world is by pushing handfuls of it into their mouths. Texture, taste, angularity, porosity, density, degree of lithificaton.... instantly.

*edit: we did not all lick things. There are two distinct schools of thought, and not a lot of fence sitters.

[-] ghost_towels@sh.itjust.works 14 points 18 hours ago

I would absolutely be on the lick things team. I use my mouth as a tool all the time.

This post sounds incredibly weird.

[-] edg@lemmy.world 11 points 18 hours ago

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[-] buttmasterflex@piefed.social 6 points 18 hours ago

You can also differentiate between halite and sylvite using your tongue! Sylvite has a more tingly, "spicier" feeling and taste, whereas halite is simply salt.

[-] TomMasz@lemmy.world 27 points 22 hours ago

Always great to see scientists with a sense of humor.

[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 24 points 21 hours ago

Pretty sure that's most of them

[-] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 9 points 18 hours ago

Conceivably you could do this with any similar skin type to a tongue so wet nipples and genitals would also stick to bone. Boners are the unlikely but accurate technical term for the application.

[-] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 8 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

So you want me to put dicks in my mouth? Alright, you have me convinced. Science needs me!

[-] Test_Tickles@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago

And that is how I found my exe's account on Lemmy...

[-] SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 6 points 19 hours ago

There's no other way to test to see if it's bone?

[-] reallykindasorta@slrpnk.net 10 points 19 hours ago

If you have two you can try to see if they’ll rattle

[-] slampisko@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago

Thank Mr Skeltal

[-] astutemural@midwest.social 2 points 16 hours ago

Rattle 'em, boys!

this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2026
666 points (99.1% liked)

Science Memes

19492 readers
944 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS