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鈥淭he dead can talk to us, and not in a frightening way,鈥� says .

Head of osteology at Museum of London Archaeology, Natasha leads a team of osteologists who study old bones dug up in the city. Often they are called in by developers who have been obliged by local planning rules to check the ground. That鈥檚 just as well: London sits on rich pickings for an osteologist, ranging from Roman burials to medieval plague pits and Victorian cemeteries.

鈥淚 specialise in human remains,鈥� Natasha says. Her team analyses bones to find out about the people they belonged to. 鈥淵ou can tell the sex of an adult by looking at the pelvis,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he female pelvis is very open, like a fruit bowl, while the front of the male pelvis is V-shaped.鈥� Estimating age at death is less straighforward. 鈥淭o age children, you can look at the size of the skeleton, and which teeth have come through. In adults it鈥檚 less reliable 鈥� we look at how certain joints fall apart.鈥�

A person鈥檚 bones can also tell more individual stories about them, from deficits in their diets to the diseases they suffered. 鈥淏ones respond to disease,鈥� says Natasha. 鈥淔or example, we found an infant at St Marylebone whose bones had been completely destroyed by tuberculosis.鈥�

Detective work

The job sometimes presents a chance to solve a historical riddle. One that Natasha has worked on concerned . 鈥淭he skulls looked stained from silt, and polished from being rolled around,鈥� she says. The lower jaws were missing, so historians at the time thought .

Yet Natasha has a different explanation, based on work she carried out a few years ago. In 2003, she and her team excavated a cemetery at the head of the now-underground Walbrook River, opposite London鈥檚 eastern railway terminus at Liverpool Street. 鈥淲e found 182 full burials, but also lots of bits and pieces, washed up all over the place,鈥� she says.

Natasha reckons the cemetery was prone to flash flooding. 鈥淭hat means that there were rotting corpses moving around,鈥� she says. The skulls travel a lot further than long bones, which meet with a lot of resistance in water. 鈥淚t explains why you see skulls alone elsewhere,鈥� she says. The flooded cemetery may have been the source of the skulls found in the 19th century, she thinks.

In a secondary role as a forensic archaeologist, Natasha excavates more recent graves. 鈥淲hen people find remains, the police need to know whether they are from a human, and whether they are old or recent,鈥� she says.

Natasha鈥檚 first forensic search was for a baby thought to have been buried in a garden. 鈥淚 supervised the excavation of the entire garden, took away all of the top soil, and identified any samples of bone,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut we didn鈥檛 find any evidence.鈥�

Science of storytelling

Natasha always knew she wanted to be an archaeologist. While studying for a degree in archaeological science, she took on a placement with an archaeologist in the Shetland Islands, north of the Scottish mainland. Here she excavated her first cemetery, and from then on she was hooked on exploring buried remains.

After working as an archaeologist with commercial land developers Natasha returned to university to study for a master鈥檚 in human osteology and funerary archaeology. 鈥淎 master鈥檚 is pretty much required for what I do now,鈥� she says. Even with that qualification, you鈥檙e not guaranteed a secure job: most contracts are short-term.

But the thrill of finding remains that haven鈥檛 been seen for thousands of years is worth putting up with temporary contracts, says Natasha. 鈥淚鈥檓 pretty spoiled 鈥� no two days are the same,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the science of storytelling.鈥�