Young boys and older men with greying beards half-heartedly mixed cement and worked iron rods as we walked through the site and were shown the skeleton of a 16 classroom building.

BBC: Constant violence blocks Afghan progress

The search turned up traces of the building, and then something altogether more exciting: A human skeleton, complete with evidence of battle wounds -- a blow to the head, and an arrow in the back -- and scoliosis, or curvature of the spine.

CNN: Richard III: The mystery of the king and the car parking lot

Stony corals are microscopic animals with an outer skeleton of calcium carbonate that form colonies and are responsible for reef-building.

UNESCO: L O S S A R Y