Week 4 Lab Data Group 2: RITUAL

This week we explored components of ancient Greek ritual. The lab had two parts: recreating sacrifical practices by burning a fat wrapped thigh bone and roasting splanchna, and constructing miniature ash altars.

Part One: Burning the Thigh Bone and Splanchna

We were one of two groups that was given omentum, a kind of fat, to wrap around our thigh bone. The bone was quite large and we were somewhat concerned about having enough fat to stretch around the bone, but we ended up having plenty (Images 1, 2, and 3). Before building our fire, we took measurements of the omentum and the bone, which can be seen in Table 1.

Circumference of bone (middle)	23 cm
Circumference of bone (end)	36 cm
Length of bone	46 cm
Weight of bone	2313 g
Weight of omentum	450 g

We then began building our fire. We attempted to stack the large logs in the same manner seen in vase paintings (almost like a “tic-tac-toe” board), but we made the mistake of also adding smaller kindling and did not see the smaller fire starter sticks that we were supposed to put on top. The wind then made it very difficult to light the fire, especially since we were using matches. We ultimately had to enlist the aid of others to hold up a tarp to block the wind. Jake also eventually came over and added the fire starter sticks and used a larger lighter (Image 4).

We were now ready to begin burning our bone! Once we had placed the fat wrapped thigh bone on the fire, it immediately began to sizzle and to smell delicious. There was great sense of anticipation as we watched and waited for the flame to flare up (Image 5). A smaller flare up occurred around 2 minutes in (Image 6), an even larger one at 3 minutes (Image 7), and then the fire got to be its most intense between minutes 6 and 8 (Image 8). Finally at around the 9 minute mark the fire began to die down.

We then left the thigh bone and began cutting up our splanchna: a heart, a liver, and 3 kidneys! We chose to cut each organ into pieces hoping that it would help them cook. The textures of the various organs were quite different. We speared the splanchna onto a stick and started to cook them over the fire, still containing the thigh bone (Image 9). Almost immediately the splanchna began to turn more yellow. They also started to drip red juice. We noticed that the different organs seemed to cook very differently. We struggled somewhat to fully cook the inside of each organ—while it took only 6 minutes to hit 130 degrees, it took a full 11 minutes to reach 150. We determined that this was potentially because we had placed the organs too close together on the stick. We arranged them to be further apart and did another 5 minutes on the fire before determining that they were good enough. We poured wine on the fire to put it out and it smelled amazing! It also is worth noting that it took less wine than I anticipated to put out the flames.

We all taste tested the splanchna and had quite different reactions. As someone who doesn’t normally eat meat, I found that all the organs tasted the same. Others had more specific reactions, including that the “heart tastes like duckbreast” and the “kidney is sweet.”

At some point while cooking the splanchna, the thigh bone split in half (around 20 minutes after we had first placed it in the fire). We could see the marrow bubbling inside of the bone! After we removed the bone from the fire (Image 10), we attempted to remeasure it, though this was challenging due to its fractured nature. These new measurements can be seen in Table 2. The end circumference was the only measurement to increase; I suspect that this was user error on my part. Most notably, the weight of the bone almost halved, indicating how much volume was lost during the burning process.

Circumference of bone (middle)	20 cm
Circumference of bone (end)	41 cm
Length of bone	41 cm
Weight of bone	1222 g

In class on Friday (a little less than 24 hours after completing this lab) we again examined the thigh bone. Not much had changed while the bones cooled down. We could still feel some “wet and squishy” marrow within the bone which was cool. We also compared our thigh bone to those of groups which had not been wrapped in fat. It was quite difficult to tell the difference; perhaps ours was more shiny or textured. We decided that if presented with a bone found in the field, we would have no way of telling whether or not it had been wrapped in omentum.

Part Two: Constructing Ash Altars

For the second half of the lab we experimented with creating ash altars out of varying ratios of bone ash, wood ash, water, and wine. For the first mixture we had no idea what we were doing and what the correct ratios would be, but we started to get a better sense as we made more altars. It is worth noting that our altars were not particularly altar shaped, instead more closely resembling mounds. For the first four altars we were very precise with our measurements, but quickly noticed that this was not a particularly precise art. Thus for the final altar we somewhat haphazardly threw together ingredients to see if we would still be successful. We found that this last altar was just as structurally sound as the previous. See the ratios and descriptions of the resulting mixtures in Table 3 and an image of all 5 altars in Image 11.

ALTAR	INGREDIENTS	DESCRIPTION
Altar 1	11/4 cups bone ash; 1 cup water.	“Feels like ricotta”; Similar to cement; Lightest in color; Gelatinous and jiggly.
Altar 2	1 cup bone ash; 1 cup wood ash; 5/8 cup water.	Similar to cement / clay; Firmer than Altar 1.
Altar 3	5/4 cups bone ash; 5/4 cups wood ash; 1/4 cup water; 1/2 cup wine.	“Like kneading pizza dough”; Crumbly and hard.
Altar 4	7/4 cups bone ash; 9/16 cup wine.	Combination of the first 3; “Moist but firm”.
Altar 5	Unspecified combination of bone ash, wood ash, water, and wine.	Crumbly and hard; Less crumbly than Altar 3.

In general we found that much less liquid was needed than we expected. Often times a mixture would seem quite dry but would become moister as we kneaded it. We also found that the bone ash was the most necessary ingredient. It was more absorbent than the wood ash and was the key to getting a mixture that actually stuck together.