Special Containment Procedures: SCP-8481 is to be kept in a sterilised medical Containment Locker. The environment within should not exceed a 50% humidity rate, and if SCP-8481 is removed from containment for study, it should be kept away from exposed sunlight. One single security camera should be positioned and active at this locker at all times.
Description: SCP-8481 is an archaeological assemblage consisting of exactly 5421 different distinguishable human bone fragments, ranging from entire femurs to heavily degraded metacarpals stored within a hard plastic 79x57x43 centimetre box. A white label is haphazardly plastered to its side with the words ‘Box O’ Bones’ written in black ‘whiteboard marker’ upon it.
Whilst the SCP Foundation has established a standard that the average human has 206 to 300 bones in their body throughout their lives, anatomical landmarks and DNA sampling on the specimens of SCP-8481 imply that all 5421 bones belong to the same skeleton. Each bone from SCP-8481 exhibits the exact same palaeopathological1 wear, with extensive osteoporosis2 found throughout the debris.
Further osteoarchaeological3 analysis lead by Junior Researcher Dr. Maple on the assemblage has identified that each bone must have all belonged to an individual no younger than 80 due to clear severe damage and aging. Assuming that this assemblage features the remains of one organism, extensive radiocarbon dating has yielded results that SCP-8481 was ‘alive’ during the Upper Palaeolithic Period, around 30,000 years ago, and likely ‘died’ due to common disease or old age. Dr. Maple has expressed that these bones are “fascinatingly elusive” and “enjoy masquerading as either an assemblage of one incredibly anomalous individual or a very, very strange coincidence”. Analysis and proposals to understand what SCP-8481 is are still on-going, with further plans including possible reconstructive work and more elaborate DNA sequencing.
SCP-8481 was sourced from an osteoarchaeological lab at the University of ██, England. Its label, ‘Box O’ Bones’, was an affectionate nickname given to this strange assemblage used for student study. Furthermore, their Department of Archaeology does not seem to retain or remember records of when the ‘Box O’ Bones’ was taken into their collection.
SCP-8481 was brought to the SCP Foundation’s attention when an article was published by University of ██’s professors in the █/█/██ issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science. This report noted the ‘bizarre’ osteoarchaeological characteristics of the assemblage, and requested input from the wider academic community in regards to future research. In order to prevent the anomalous nature of SCP-8481 piquing the interest of the academic field, all researchers, students, and university staff involved in the study of SCP-8481 were administered Class-C amnestics.
Addendum-1: A recent excerpt from Dr. Maple's initial Archaeological Report on SCP-8481.
As of █/█/██, countless different theories on the origins or nature of SCP-8481 have been suggested and tested. Bolstered by the data collected throughout our studies, the following notes list my current understanding of the nature of SCP-8481; In short, extensive analysis on SCP-8481 supports a hypothesis that this is the remains of a prehistoric, anomalous humanoid.
The sheer intricacies of this assemblage are too similar to be coincidence, and very, very unprecedented for this archaeological period; It is common archaeological knowledge that by the Upper Palaeolithic Period, Homo Sapiens were the only humanoid race on Earth, with the last Neanderthals going extinct around 10 thousand years prior, leaving no temporal space for this outlier.
To disprove the possibility of SCP-8481 just being an undiscovered humanoid race that inhabited Earth during prehistory, an exhaustive review was performed of global excavation data dated to between 50,000 BCE and 20,000 BCE. Even despite the last century of developments in technology, efficiency and research in the field of archaeology, our search yielded nothing, confirming SCP-8481 as an isolated case. Therefore, SCP-8481 must have simply been a very, very unique individual walking amongst Homo Sapiens during the Upper Palaeolithic Period.
Minor experimentation on ‘piecing together’ SCP-8481 has been attempted. A study seeking to identify the articulations in SCP-8481 together pinpointed twenty different ‘fingers’, four different ‘knees’, and hundreds of spinal vertebrae.
Reconstructing SCP-8481 will certainly prove difficult.
Addendum-2: Following a ‘prank’ that replaced a femur from SCP-8481 with another human article whilst in storage, the code to the containment locker of SCP-8481 has been changed. Thus, a complete re-analysis of every bone in SCP-8481’s assemblage was deemed necessary in order to identify the outlier. Correspondence has been sent to site personnel about the Foundation’s guidance on ‘Undeclared Possession of Human Organic Matter’.
Note: Please refrain from taking metacarpals from SCP-8481’s assemblage for the purpose of "Experimental Archaeology" in the site breakroom. The classical game of ‘Knucklebones’ was played with the astragali of Ovis Aries, not Homo Sapiens.