How do bones reveal when something happened?

In this episode, we break down how forensic anthropologists distinguish between antemortem, perimortem, and postmortem trauma and how the entire body acts as a clock through the decomposition process.

A clear, friendly, writer-focused guide to:

Healing vs fresh injuries

Bone behavior at the moment of death

Environmental damage after death

The full decomposition timeline

Taphonomy (insects, scavengers, soil, weather)

How to use this knowledge in fiction, D&D, mysteries, and worldbuilding

If you’re a storyteller who wants your scenes to feel real without being graphic, this episode is for you.

Ethical, accessible, and grounded in forensic anthropology.

Why were some people in the past buried with stones over their necks?
Why were some pinned down, bound, or placed face down in graves?
And were they really “witches,” “vampires,” or “criminals”… or something far more complicated?

In this episode, we wander into the world of deviant burials: archaeological graves that break the “rules” of how people were normally buried. These unusual burials give us a window into fear, belief systems, social control, and the boundaries of community within ancient societies.

From medieval “vampire burials” in Eastern Europe to face-down interments across the globe, to Iron Age bodies weighted with stones, and even colonial American burials with decapitation or “binding,” we explore what these choices really meant. Spoiler: it’s often less about “punishing monsters” and more about social anxiety, disease, marginalization, and ritual protection.

Featuring insights for:

• Writers and world-builders

• Students of archaeology & anthropology

• True crime fans

• Horror creators

• Anyone fascinated by how societies manage fear

We’ll dive into what deviant burials actually tell us, and why the dead who break the rules continue to haunt our imagination today.

You can reach me at:motherofwolves4@gmail.com

Fieldnotesofthedead @ TikTok and Youtube

feildnotesfromthedead.com

Cheddar Man, one of the oldest nearly complete skeletons in Britain; became a cultural flashpoint when ancient DNA revealed he likely had dark skin, dark curls, and blue or green eyes. But what does his genome really tell us about identity, migration, and early post-Ice-Age Europe? And why did the public react so strongly to a scientific finding that surprised almost no anthropologist?

In this episode, Ki explores:

The discovery of Cheddar Man in Gough’s Cave

How ancient DNA was extracted from the petrous bone

What his traits actually mean (and don’t mean)

How early European hunter-gatherers really looked

Why ancient DNA challenges modern identity narratives

The difference between ancestry and nationalism

What this 10,000-year-old man teaches us about the human story

Cheddar Man isn’t a symbol or a controversy; he’s a window into a world where race didn’t exist, borders hadn’t been imagined, and identity meant something very different than it does today.

📧 Contact: motherofwolves4@gmail.com

🌐 Website: Field Notes from the Dead

🎥 YouTube: Field Notes from the Dead

📱 TikTok: @FieldNotesFromTheDead

Cheddar Man, ancient DNA, Mesolithic Britain, early European hunter-gatherers, skin pigmentation evolution, Gough’s Cave, British archaeology, race and identity, anthropology podcast, Field Notes from the Dead, forensic anthropology, ancient genomics, early Britain, Ki Roberts

In this debut episode of Field Notes from the Dead, we open the case file of a medieval monk whose skull carries the unmistakable mark of a sword strike, a blow he survived long enough for the bone to heal.

This wound isn’t just evidence of violence.

It’s evidence of care, survival, and community in a world far more dangerous and far more human than popular history suggests.

Join Ki as she explores:

what daily life inside a medieval monastery actually looked like

why monks were not always sheltered scholars

how forensic anthropologists identify sharp-force trauma

what bone healing reveals about long-term survival

the cultural and emotional meaning of a healed wound

the ways violence and compassion coexist in the archaeological record

Through the lens of one man’s skull, we dive into the science of trauma, the history of medieval conflict, and the deeply human stories bones carry through time.

📧 Contact: motherofwolves4@gmail.com

🌐 Website: fieldnotesfromthedead.com

🎥 YouTube: Field Notes from the Dead

📱 TikTok: @FieldNotesFromTheDead