As soon as I saw the wooden box of bones at the auction house, I knew I had to pull it out to take a closer look. On top was what looked like a tibia – or was it a femur? I was trying to remember the bones in our body from my elementary science classes, and the memory was faded.
I knew the bones on top were thigh bones, but I wasn’t sure which was which. Beneath the leg bones I could see a foot with its small jointed bones and what looked like a mold of the top of another foot. To the left appeared to be the hip bone (or maybe it was a shoulder), and lower in the box were parts I could not identify.
“Are you CSI?” joked an auction-goer standing over me as I sat on my haunches moving the bones around in the box. Just curious, I said to him. “It looks like a CSI starter kit,” he said.
I hadn’t connected the bones to my favorite TV shows (CSI: Las Vegas, New York and Miami – I love them all). I could imagine one of the characters, like me, hunched over a box of bones that someone had discovered, intent on solving the mystery behind them. Here, though, I sensed no mystery.
Someone had likely donated their body to science, and their bones had ended up with a medical student or some other medical professional studying human skeleton in class. Over time, the bones became part of that person’s estate along with the pots and pans, furniture, clothes and valuables. As for the bones, lying here in a wooden box under an auction table didn’t seem to me to be a proper resting place for someone who had once lived.
When the bones came up for auction, the auctioneer confirmed that they were “real human bones” that had likely belonged to a student. He also noted that the skull was missing, along with a few other body parts.
My research cleared up my confusion over what bones were in the box. The ones on top were the tibia and fibula, and just beneath them was a femur. Then I also remembered the bones of the feet: tarsals, metatarsals and the 10 phalanges. I was right about the hip bone; the clavicle and scapula of the shoulders may have been there, too.
I have always been fascinated by the human body both physically and psychically, not only the bones but the other systems that keep us alive. What a wondrous piece of work it is – able to heal itself but also kill itself, able to make itself sad or happy, believe or not believe. And all the pieces work in harmony to make each of us alike but different. I’m also fascinated because the skeletal remains of the earliest people always take us back to Africa.
Unsurprisingly, real human bones appear to be in short supply. I came across at least two sites that sell real bones, and another that offered plastic models. Some sell both human and animal skeletons. You can even buy and sell them on eBay.
On its site, the Bone Room in Berkeley, CA, says its best bones were imported from India during the 1970s, and it purchased them from museums, private collectors and estates. India has a century-long history of importing bones around the world, but the country banned the importation of human remains in 1985. That didn’t stop the sales on the black market, though.
The Bone Room was selling real human skeletons for $4,000 to $5,000. In its FAQ, it mentioned that people use the bones for art, and study and teaching, and that some buy them for their “three-dimensional” beauty. Here’s a picture of a full skeleton that has been taken apart (or disarticulated, in their language), much like the one at auction.
Skulls Unlimited sells the real thing, too, but you have to call for prices. It has opened a Museum of Osteology devoted to skeletons.
I found a company selling models: foot and ankle, $62; vertebra, $213, and full skeleton called Stan that was the kind used by hospitals, schools and universities for 50 years, $250. So I can imagine that getting a real skeleton – even with missing pieces – at auction was a find.
There is no federal law disallowing the sale of human bones, but some states have their own laws with prohibitions. Federal law does prohibit the sale of the remains of Native Americans.
On eBay, one writer offered a guide on how to buy them on the site. Full skeletons and parts were being sold for up to $2,500. Someone sold a skeleton in a coffin for $2,500, noting that it had been in the family since 1986 but the origin was unknown.
At auction, the box of bones ignited tit-for-tat bidding between two people before stopping at $90. It was purchased by an auction regular. I wonder where they will end up next.
