The Incredible Bones of the Narrenturm: A Photographic Comparative Atlas of the Pathological and Anatomical Collection of the Fool's Tower

Incredible Bones is based on the perspective of two experienced scientists. Their shared goal is to better understand the human skeleton and to compile an accurate photographic and historical document of a small portion of the vast osteological collection at the Narrenturm Museum. This comparative atlas records and shares some of the most incredible skeletal malformations and the wide range of variability and severity that can afflict the human skeleton, before and after the advent of antibiotics. It captures examples of disease, malformations, and trauma with little or no surgical or medical intervention and reveals their natural progression, often, without treatment. This atlas will assist practitioners in making more accurate interpretations and in making better differential diagnosis of human skeletal remains, whether ancient, modern, or contemporary. It will also serve as a resource for scientists, oftentimes paleopathologists, in the process of excavating, analyzing, interpreting, and accurately reconstructing skeletal remains in historical contexts. Incredible Bones presents large, full color photographs augmented with diagnoses based on historical records and sometimes patient histories.