human remains
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We all know that an unidentified medieval stone sarcophagus containing a lead coffin was discovered close to Richard’s last resting place in Leicester. And, probably, that it proved to be that of an elderly woman. Now there is a video of what happened when it was opened. When they first examined the remains inside…
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The Royals: A History of Scandals
adultery trials, Albert Victor Duke of Clarence, Amy Robsart, animal bones, annulments, Brighton Pavillion, Caroline of Brunswick, Catherine of Aragon, Charles V, Cleveland Street, coronations, corruption, Count Konigsmarck, disappearance, divorce, DNA evidence, Edward VII, Elizabeth I, Ernest Augustus Duke of Cumberland, extravagance, Frederick Duke of York, George I, George III, George IV, Germany, Group Captain Townsend, Hanoverians, Henry VIII, human remains, imprisonment, John Ashdown-Hill, Leine Castle, male brothels, Maria Smythe, More 4, Princess Margaret, Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester, Royal Marriage Secrets, Royal Marriages Act, royal mistresses, royal murder mysteries, Sophia Dorothea of Celle, Suzannah Lipscomb, Sweden, The Royals: A History of Scandals, valets, Victoria, William CecilThis is a four-part series on More4, presented by Suzannah Lipscomb and with a focus on the Hanoverian era. It started with financial scandals, such as George IV’s extravagance and his brother‘s mistress who sold army commissions. The second episode was about sexual scandals and rumours, such as Edward VII’s mistresses and the male brothel…
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The term ‘nasty, brutish and short’ is a phrase often used, half jokingly, for the lives of our pre-modern ancestors. It wasn’t always, but in many cases, life in the Middle Ages could be harsh–especially in regards to illness and injury. A recent assessment of skeletons discovered in Cambridge at three separate sites shows…
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Just as the construction Crossrail exposed human burial grounds, so has HS2. Here, in Wendover, Buckinghamshire we have an Iron Age burial that is likely to have followed a murder, possibly a ritual murder, or an execution. An Iron Age man was discovered, face down, his unusual position indicating that he was most likely bound…
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NEW BONES FROM THE TOWER–HOW LONG BEFORE THEY BLAME RICHARD FOR THESE TOO?
“Princes”, Anne Neville, Beaker Era, Bronze Age, Charles II, denialists, Edward of Warwick, Elizabeth Roberts, Elizabeth Woodville, First Battle of St. Albans, George Duke of Clarence, Henry Pole the Younger, Henry VII, human remains, Jane Shore, John Ashdown-Hill, John Everett Millais, Margaret of Salisbury, mtDNA, Osteology, radio carbon dating, Richard III, Tower of London, Weir, Will SlaughterRecently, archaeologists working at the Tower of London discovered the remains of two people, an adult woman age 35-45 and a child of about seven. Proper modern carbon dating has taken place and it is determined that the pair are from between 1450-1550. Osteological examination shows no signs of trauma on the bones, although the…
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Britain’s top burial sites?
“Princes”, Anglo-Saxons, Bronze Age, Dartmoor, DNA evidence, Henry I, human remains, Iron Age, John Ashdown-Hill, Kings of Essex, Leicester dig, Oxfordshire, Philippa Langley, Pocklington, Prince of Prittlewell, Reading Abbey, Repton, Richard III, Richard III reburial, Seaxa, Southend Museum, Tutankhamun, Vikings, Westminster Abbey, WhitstableThis Sun article, which originally confused Richard’s Leicester with Henry I’s Reading, lists what they consider to be Britain’s top burial sites, although there is no detail on the supposed “Princes” in that urn, especially now that there is evidence to test the remains. Are there any others you might have included?
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Ancient human remains can sometimes ‘speak’ to us through time and inform us not only of their own life stories, but how modern medical complaints came to be. Here is a case of a Franciscan friar’s mummified remains found in an old church in Ecuador that collapsed during an earthquake in 1949. The man, who…
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The scanty arches of St Oswald’s Priory lie tucked in a Gloucester suburb a few minutes walk from the cathedral. Once a place of great importance, it was the burial spot of Queen Aethelflaed, daughter of Alfred the Great. She was a warrior-queen who fought the Vikings. Henry of Huntingdon wrote this about her– Heroic…
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Here is what little Lady Anne Mowbray may have looked like. She was the child bride of one of the so-called Princes in the Tower, the younger one, Richard, Duke of York. Her burial was recently extensively covered by sparkypus here. Now The Times has come up with an article about the reconstruction of this…
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UPDATED POST ON sparkypus.com A Medieval Potpourri https://sparkypus.com/2020/05/14/crossrail-a-portal-into-medieval-london/ No doubt archaeologists thought all their Christmases had arrived at once when first they heard breaking news of the building of Crossrail, Europe’s largest infrastructure – which will be called the Elizabeth line and will open in phases from late 2018 – and the exceptional opportunities the…
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