When I was at Mission San Antonio field school, I was told that if you put
a bone in your mouth, it would stick to your tongue.

In 1980, I was working in Texas and applied this bit of wisdom to what I
thought was a bone. The lab sent it back, telling me that it was dried cow
dung!!

Needless to say, I no longer put ANYTHING in my mouth. :)


At 04:55 PM 2/17/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>The "tongue test" is good at determinng bones, pipestems and other highly
>porous materials.  A touch of the object to the wet tongue or lip will give
>a clue as to what it is.  If it sticks it is bone or pipestem, earthenware,
>or whatever.  I tend to taste rocks to see if they are sandstones, shales,
>or limestones.  Of course I stopped doing much of that after putting a
>cremated chunk of Earl Stott to my lip during the Rogers Island excavations
>in Fort Edward, NY.


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