The time has come to get our Nancy Drew big girl pants on, you guys. Your Mortician has been stumped. I got a letter from an Order reader who requested to remain anonymous, with the following question.
“Yesterday, fumbling around while cleaning out a storage unit of my dad’s, I came across a face of a skull. My father said he acquired it when a friend who worked at a crematorium gave it to him, saying that “Bones don’t always burn up in the oven”. I am interested in the colouring of the bones. It is mostly reddish, with white and grey patches, especially on the teeth. Any reason why? A couple photos are attached.”
First of all, if I was cleaning out a storage unit and that skull was like “hi thuur” I would NOT be having it. I’m a death worker and I still wouldn’t be having it.
Second, I’ve never seen a skull looking like that after a cremation before. There are usually piles of bones (and sometimes complete skulls) after a cremation takes place. But they are incredibly fragile and don’t usually last that long before crumbling. Anon says that this skull is very sturdy.
Post-cremation bones are also white, and sometimes black, but never this deep reddish color, more like a mummified skull. But a worker at a crematorium likely wouldn’t have access to decomposed remains. So it has to be something in the cremation.
Any ideas, deathlings?
