Oxford Archaeology IT Application Development and Support (ITADS) have released their first official computer software to the archaeological community. It's called Crossbones and it is used to generate 3D skeletons based on Total Station data created using the new X-Bones recording methodology.

The X-Bones methodology was the result of a joint collaboration between ITADS, Geomatics and Burials, who were trying find an appropriate technique for modelling a very complex mass grave site at London Road, in Gloucester. According to Louise Loe, Head of Heritage Burial Services, “the application has been invaluable for understanding this complex burial deposit which consisted of randomly deposited individuals and bones - a deposit that would otherwise have been very time consuming to interpret. Through visual 3D representation we have been able to match bones with individual skeletons, explore spatial patterning in the distribution of osteological traits and have begun to understand some of the depositional and post-depositional processes that have resulted in the deposit’s formation. Heritage Burial Services looks forward to employing the methodology on future burial related projects where it will be used to facilitate excavation and post-excavation strategy and data analysis.”

The recording schema was created by Mary Saunders, a member of the Geomatics Department. “What is good about this system is that it is an extension of our current approach to skeleton survey and so takes little extra time or effort in the field. All that has really changed is that the levels we take are given a particular point ID according to where they are on the skeleton. Once we’ve collected our data we can use Crossbones to produce useful spatial information about the orientation and position of skeletons in less than an hour and because it’s GIS-based this can be immediately linked to information like basic age and sex gathered by the osteologist on site. Hopefully this will aid the interpretation of the site while it’s still under excavation.”

The program has been released under an Open Source license as part of OA's Open Archaeology policy. That means it is freely available to anyone who wants to use it. When Crossbones was presented at the Computer Applications in Archaeology UK conference in Southampton recently, it stirred up significant interest. “A big part of that was the fact that we're giving it away free”, says Leif. “People generally like the look of it to begin with, but when you tell them they can use it for no extra time and cost then they begin to sit up and take more notice. It's early days yet for Crossbones, but we're hoping that it'll bring something new to the field.”

The software can be downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/projects/openarchaeology