About

Osteosophy: Osteosophy is a nonsense word made up of “osteo” (Greek for “bone”) and “sophy” (Greek for “wisdom”). So I guess you could say this blog is about bone wisdom. Or the knowledge of bones. The study of bones is, of course, osteology, but I had to be difficult. And “osteophile” was already taken. (Also, it seems that “osteosophy” is an obscure philosophical branch of medical osteology, but I like my version better.)

What to expect: Here you’ll find the results of my explorations into bones. There will be zooarchaeology (because that’s what I did my BA Honours thesis on). There will be mammalogy and herpetology and palaeontology, and even a little physical anthropology. You’ll find links (to places that sell bones, to articles about bones, to art featuring bones), reviews (non-fiction, museums, maybe even some fiction and comics), art (I also make art and often it has bones in it), and possibly nonsensical blathering.

Who I am: I’m Niko, and I used to study archaeology. Specifically zooarchaeology (or archaezoology, if you prefer). I wrote my honours thesis on North American canids and drew a whole lot of pictures of canid bones.  Now I’m a writer and artist and printer, and I’m still interested in bones. My friends used to tease me that whenever I left the house, I’d find dead things. I still do, though not as often. I drifted away from zooarchaeology to study folklore and design, but now I’m drifting back. I aim to wrangle my old thesis from 1996 into something halfway useful today and eventually publish it via Lulu or some other POD place. I’ll probably post parts of it here first.