The backstory to the bones is pretty interesting. Take a look at https://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Documents/Bones... if you're curious. One of the surprises to me when I first read it is that the British administrator on Nikumaroro flat states that he thinks the remains could be those of Amelia Earhart.
Ultimately they decided that no, these bones were those of some other unfortunate person predating Earhart's disappearance. It's worth reconsidering their conclusion because we know some things now that they didn't know then.
The sextant box with two different serial numbers seems weird. That's addressed here: https://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/Bullet.... The TLDR is that there's a very good chance that this was the box for a sextant that was surplussed by the U.S. Navy some time after 1919. Also it turns out that Fred Noonan (Earhart's navigator) liked to carry a naval sextant as a backup to his regular aeronautical instrument.
I've been seeing breathless "could be!" announcements from TIGHAR in the news every year for what feels like my entire adult life. So color me skeptical.
Ultimately they decided that no, these bones were those of some other unfortunate person predating Earhart's disappearance. It's worth reconsidering their conclusion because we know some things now that they didn't know then.
Here's a link to a scan (or maybe it's a photograph) of one of the Tarawa telegrams: https://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Documents/Taraw.... Take note of the two serial numbers from the Sextant box, those turn out to be important.
Scans of some more telegrams from the Tarawa archive can be found here: https://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Documents/Taraw....
The sextant box with two different serial numbers seems weird. That's addressed here: https://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/Bullet.... The TLDR is that there's a very good chance that this was the box for a sextant that was surplussed by the U.S. Navy some time after 1919. Also it turns out that Fred Noonan (Earhart's navigator) liked to carry a naval sextant as a backup to his regular aeronautical instrument.