# What is this a picture of? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 24, 2010, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-a-picture-of/551231 "2010-08-24T00:27:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-a-picture-of/551231/1 "2010-08-24T00:27:36Z")
A friend of mine just posted a picture of [some guys standing on a pile of what appear to be human bones](http://i.imgur.com/ioR3F.jpg) on her blog. She saw the photo in an antique store in Kentucky and was curious, but it was way outside her price range. So this is actually a photo of a picture. Any ideas? I want to know the context now too. ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-a-picture-of/551231/2 "2010-08-24T00:52:23Z")
[Buffalo Bones](http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=buffalo+bones+picture&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8) most likely during the attempt to exterminate them. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-a-picture-of/551231/3 "2010-08-24T00:54:16Z")
> [@Disheavel](#): > > [Buffalo Bones](http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=buffalo+bones+picture&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8) most likely during the attempt to exterminate them. Those look like buffalo skulls to you? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-a-picture-of/551231/4 "2010-08-24T00:55:19Z")
Tin Eye can’t find any matches for it, so it’s not anywhere else on the Web. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-a-picture-of/551231/5 "2010-08-24T00:57:20Z")
Or possibly slaughterhouse bones. Possibly from the Chicago fire since they’re wearing firemen’s hats, though most animal bones from slaughterhouses were piled up an burned as bone char has a lot of industrial uses (glue, soap, paint, carbon filters, etc.), ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-a-picture-of/551231/6 "2010-08-24T00:59:59Z")
[Overview](http://terrysplace2000.tripod.com/bonepick.html) of the buffalo bone picking industry and their uses- paint, adhesives, and fertilizer- which explains why the bones were harvested in such large numbers after the extermination. (I recognize that the extermination was ongoing, but the original intent was not in order to obtain the hooves and horns.) ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-a-picture-of/551231/7 "2010-08-24T01:02:33Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > Those look like buffalo skulls to you? No, you are right upon further examination. I thought it was a railroad track or boxcars behind and some old timey people. But they definitely do look human, especially the guy on the left who seems to be making a jolly roger arrangement. ---
**Author:** ![GHO57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df788c/32.png) [@GHO57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GHO57)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-a-picture-of/551231/8 "2010-08-24T01:22:14Z")
Hmm… not enough resolution to tell anything for sure. Human bones tho. 1850’s? Is the guy on the left wearing a slouch hat? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-a-picture-of/551231/9 "2010-08-24T02:01:41Z")
I don’t think they’re human bones. That’s Killing Fields quantity- at least hundreds of skeletons and I think if there was a mass grave unearthed that big before WW2 (which this clearly is) it would be a famous event. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-a-picture-of/551231/10 "2010-08-24T02:05:31Z")
Unless perhaps it’s not American and was taken in some city with catacombs, but even those weren’t piled that [haphazardly](http://parisfrance.us/wp-content/uploads/paris_catacombs_20061210.jpg) and they weren’t outside. UNLESS it’s a double exposure or otherwise doctored- pictures of men outside _over_ a picture of catacombs. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-a-picture-of/551231/11 "2010-08-24T02:26:03Z")
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of respect for the bones. My guess would be that it’s something mediumly innocuous like that a graveyard in South Africa had been dug up to make room for new city buildings, and so long as they had the bones all piled up waiting to be transported out of town, some guys got up on them to fool about. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-a-picture-of/551231/12 "2010-08-24T02:39:19Z")
> [@](#): > > Possibly from the Chicago fire since they’re wearing firemen’s hats… Really? I thought those looked more like cowboy hats. ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_Doubt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7cd45c/32.png) [@Angel\_of\_Doubt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_Doubt)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-a-picture-of/551231/13 "2010-08-24T02:49:57Z")
Just a wild guess, but could the bones be ape/monkey? The skull being held by the guy on the left doesn’t look quite human. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-a-picture-of/551231/14 "2010-08-24T02:57:11Z")
There were some Indian burial mounds [near Macon, Georgia](http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~dvess/ids/amtours/ocmulgee400X200/400X200S/ocmwciv.htm)that were plowed through when the railroad was built, and I’m sure in other places as well. I wouldn’t think there would be as many bones as in that picture, but perhaps if it was several of them it could be. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-a-picture-of/551231/15 "2010-08-24T03:03:17Z")
The pile without question includes human skulls. Look in the lower right quadrant, there are a couple very clear ones. Maybe the Belgian Congo? ---
**Author:** ![rainy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@rainy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rainy)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-a-picture-of/551231/16 "2010-08-24T03:13:31Z")
The bones all appear very uniformly bleached. Or is that due to the type/age of film. Wouldn’t bones that came out of any sort of graves be stained by the dirt? ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-a-picture-of/551231/17 "2010-08-24T03:17:44Z")
In the background is a wall, surmounted by what looks like a series of ornamental urns. We seem to be inside a space enclosed by the wall; it turns a corner just behind the seated bloke. The only spaces that I can think of that would be surrounded by such a wall are a park, a formal garden or a cemetery. Looking more closely, the top course of the wall is in light, smooth stone, but below that is rougher stone or rubble, with supporting butresses. Could be that that is the foundation of the wall, exposed by excavation, or alternatively that that part of the wall was concealed by lean-to structures, which have been removed or demolished. I think we may be looking at a cemetery clearance. The cemetery has been dug out, and human remains not still enclosed in coffins, or not identifiable, have been piled up here, probably on top of a pile of spoil, to be removed and reburied in a mass grave somewhere else. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-a-picture-of/551231/18 "2010-08-24T03:20:40Z")
Compare to the picture of the boneyard in Havana from a 1909 issue of Popular Mechanics [here](http://books.google.com/books?id=qCbZAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=%22human+boneyard%22+Havana&source=bl&ots=qGVjA0ExrZ&sig=hBMM6WpibPmuFFKfvwqQVP03dBs&hl=en&ei=4DlzTN6uHIH88AbcuuDkDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22human%20boneyard%22%20Havana&f=false). They’re the cleaned bones of people whose families didn’t keep up with rental payment on their burial plots. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-a-picture-of/551231/19 "2010-08-24T03:21:29Z")
If they were dug up, would they be as clean as they appear to be? nevermind, i was yapping on the phone and rainy beat me to it ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-a-picture-of/551231/20 "2010-08-24T03:27:05Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > Compare to the picture of the boneyard in Havana from a 1909 issue of Popular Mechanics [here](http://books.google.com/books?id=qCbZAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=%22human+boneyard%22+Havana&source=bl&ots=qGVjA0ExrZ&sig=hBMM6WpibPmuFFKfvwqQVP03dBs&hl=en&ei=4DlzTN6uHIH88AbcuuDkDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22human%20boneyard%22%20Havana&f=false). They’re the cleaned bones of people whose families didn’t keep up with rental payment on their burial plots. I can’t view that photo for some reason but [this](http://drfong.blogspot.com/2009/01/macabre-havana-bone-yard.html) looks like a dead ringer for the OPs photo. It could be the same photo (or drawing I guess) as the Popular Mechanics, sorry if it is. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-a-picture-of/551231.md?page=2)