skullful

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Recently I was on a conference at Strobl, Austria. The social event included a trip to Hallstatt, an old settlement on a narrow strip between Hallstättersee and the mountains. So the space on the Hallstatt graveyard used to be limited. Thus every 10 years the bones were exhumed, bleached and placed in an ossuary. The skulls were decorated with ornaments and the persons’ names.

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Nowadays people can choose wether they want this treatment.
I like the idea – especially decorating the skulls, because it shows a normal relationship to death. And it is quite different from Damien Hirst’s skull which was quite nicely commented by Laura Keeble who placed a look-alike skull in front of a Hirst exhibition.

4 Responses to “skullful”

  1. NDCCPA Says:

    Am in Geschwendt near Abersee on the Wolfgangsee. Thanks for the tip on Hallstat; we will visit there today. Sounds like great historical fun. Great web page; keep it going.

  2. timh Says:

    Thank you. I was in austria two weeks ago. This time in Admont. They have a very impressive monestary library there and we (our conference party) got a special “show” from the librarian there (like a version of Euclid’s elements with commentary from the 12th century and many other goodies)…
    Enjoy your trip.
    timh

  3. Dr. Mike Caudle Says:

    I was in Hallstatt two weeks ago today. The visit to the ossuary was quite unusual, yet not repulsive. I had visited the Greek peninsula of Athos in 2008, and this is very similar to what happens to the monks’ remains when they die, except their skeletal remains are exhumed after about three years. The skulls are kept in one storage area, and the rest of the skeleton is stored in a separate one. Visit my Flickr site and check the Europe 2008 picture set. Thanks for posting this. It’s always nice to see something like this and say, I was there!

    Dr. Mike Caudle
    Bryan, Texas

  4. nad Says:

    Tim has currently not time for replying to comments.
    Thanks for your contribution.

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