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Wednesday 8 August 2012

Blog a Day No. 4 - The Skull

Skeleton

He has been my neighbor since I have been living in a small village somewhere in the middle of Switzerland. They dug him up yesterday. The building site is just a few seconds down the road. One of many apartment blocks they decided to build in my village, ours being one of the first. So it seems I am living in a village containing a murderer, perhaps even a serial murderer as altogether they have found three skeletons. We have doctors, dentists, psychologists, millionaires living in the village and I am sure they might have some guilty secrets hidden away. 

Before my imagination completely runs amok, I will get back to the ground. I was in any case going to blog about this building site, lorries driving back and forth loaded with earth, metal supports, concrete mixtures and now this. Really put a spanner in my blogging work. I was even planning a photo safari to take a few photos of men working with their machines and yesterday everything changed. The local archaeologists moved in and disrupted the work by taking things under their microscope . 


building site skeleton

Note the white apartment block opposite. Not mine, but one of those next to it.

It is quite useful living in one of the oldest towns in the Kanton of Solothurn. The Romans discovered it many years ago on their holiday trip through Europe. It was then known as Solodurum, but over the years the name changed, as well as the natives and we are well equipped with archaeologists who are just waiting for a nice bony remainder from the past to appear. Gives them a purpose in their working life. . Today most of us are Swiss,  although a fair sprinkling of emigrants has joined us. 

So let us uncover the mystery behind this skull. No, we do not blame the village inhabitants, although you never know…… And it was not one of our cats that decided to drop one of his trophies in the pit dug for the foundations, at least I do not think so.

“Mrs Human” said Nera the alpha cat “we do not bother with dried bones, you cannot eat them. We are more interested in fleshy juicy items such as stray mice and we also deposit them in front of the window to show how gifted we are. I would blame it on the dog over the road. They are not fussy and do have a sort of bone fascination.”


“So Nera, I am writing a serious blog here. Please do not interrupt. Your comments have been noted.”

Actually the solution to the skeleton with its other bits and pieces has already been solved, thanks to Mr. Swiss and his knowledge of the area, but mainly thanks to the archaeologists. Mr. Swiss mentioned that there was a very old path or alley in the village at one time called Gallows or Gibbet Alley. The skull apparently showed a clean cut between itself and the body, the bones being very old, dating back a couple of hundred years, so the problem is solved. My rural village, where the cows and the bats say goodnight to each other, where the population is mainly that of the prosperous (having a very low basic council tax) and where the only nocturnal noises might be an owl in the near bye forest, was once the center for punishment. I now have untold opportunities to blog, and might even start digging in my garden. Who knows, I might be sitting on a mass grave of criminals doomed to their just punishment at the local gallows. 

Must take a walk around the village tomorrow to see if I discover any bones protruding through the earth in the fields. I believe the farmer is ploughing at the moment.


Skull found

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