Archaeologists Find King Richard III's Forgotten Bones

ThunderCavalier

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gigastar said:
Yay, we found a corpse.

Totally worth it too. All those manhours put into it...

Seriously, finding a 500 year old corpse its going to change the world someday...

Cant keep it up anymore. Its all a bloody waste of time.
So, what do you think about dinosaurs, fossils, the study of life and about 50% of biology in general, then? I mean, those are mostly corpses, too. Technically, about 50% of that is just a bunch of rocks.

While it's not exactly substantial to you, rare finds like this kind of get a lot of historians into hysterics. They like this kind of stuff. Besides, when there's a noteworthy person in history, it's nice to get some sort of closure on his life, even if it turns out to be "Yep, he did, in fact, die in this battle. Case closed, everyone."
 

FrozenCones

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Sleekit said:
i heard he liked camping and bacon rolls...

"Now is the winter of our discount tent, Made glorious summer by this bun of pork..."
And thats coffee all over my keyboard.

Well played good sir.
 
Apr 5, 2012
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As a history major I can say with all of my history street cred that...

...That's pretty neat. Also...

Roses are red, Violets are blue. Kill all the Lancastrians, and those damn Tutors too!
 

PhunkyPhazon

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JonB said:
A reburial ceremony is planned in Leicester cathedral for 2014
Wait, is this like a second funeral or something? How exactly is that going to work? It's not like there's going to be a ton of mourners and people to give speeches about their relationship to him. Whatever, this is still a really cool find.

Gentleman Adventurer said:
Kill all the Lancastrians
Ppphhht, you didn't kill us 600 years ago and you sure as shit won't do it now. :p
 

gigastar

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Sep 13, 2010
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CrossLOPER said:
gigastar said:
Yay, we found a corpse.

Totally worth it too. All those manhours put into it...

Seriously, finding a 500 year old corpse its going to change the world someday...

Cant keep it up anymore. Its all a bloody waste of time.
It's the body of the king who ruled in England in the last years of the middle ages, giving way to the eventual English Reformation. His body can tell what was true about him and what was made up by the conquering regime to make him more monstrous. He is the subject of a play by Shakespeare, which shaped the way most people used to view this person, helping to understand the attitudes of the time.
And what new information are his bones going to tell us other than that he probably died of a halberd to the face?

Unless youre about to tell me that coroners can examine his pelvis to see how much wenching he did?

Idlemessiah said:
If you're going to be like that, then so was going to the moon.
Apart from the issue of even daring to compare the two, the moon can one day be used to launch spacecraft that dont have to be biult with stupidly powerful engines to escape Earths gravity.

We just arent that far along yet.

ThunderCavalier said:
gigastar said:
Yay, we found a corpse.

Totally worth it too. All those manhours put into it...

Seriously, finding a 500 year old corpse its going to change the world someday...

Cant keep it up anymore. Its all a bloody waste of time.
So, what do you think about dinosaurs, fossils, the study of life and about 50% of biology in general, then? I mean, those are mostly corpses, too. Technically, about 50% of that is just a bunch of rocks.

While it's not exactly substantial to you, rare finds like this kind of get a lot of historians into hysterics. They like this kind of stuff. Besides, when there's a noteworthy person in history, it's nice to get some sort of closure on his life, even if it turns out to be "Yep, he did, in fact, die in this battle. Case closed, everyone."
Sorry, i didnt realise that human bones were such a rarity theese days.
 

Saika Renegade

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Nov 18, 2009
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gigastar said:
And what new information are his bones going to tell us other than that he probably died of a halberd to the face?

Unless youre about to tell me that coroners can examine his pelvis to see how much wenching he did?
It might actually tell us how true to life the history we've read of him might actually be. For instance, Ramses II was a spin doctor without shame, rewriting history out of whole cloth to suit his needs. I doubt that any ruler of more recent vintage is going be any less inclined to such behavior, and as a result, having a body on hand, even a skeleton, allows us to take a look at the actual, hard physical evidence of a historical figure, and allow us to try and discern who might be giving the most accurate portrayal of the man and history itself as a result. Most people know of Richard III from Shakespeare, and however stylized that portrayal might be, it's what's in the public consciousness (even if barely).

Simply put, while men and their interpretations can lie, the actual physical relics and the bones cannot, and actually getting some more factual truth out of this is worthwhile enough, just as with any other form of archaeology or even paleontology. Richard isn't any less dead or any more relevant in our present day and age, but being able to set the record straight is reason enough for the effort.
 

Sizzle Montyjing

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Apr 5, 2011
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I... I swear I've heard this before...
Yeah... so I guess they've finally dug him up now, right?
That's... nice, I guess.
 

Petromir

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Sizzle Montyjing said:
I... I swear I've heard this before...
Yeah... so I guess they've finally dug him up now, right?
That's... nice, I guess.
Talking about the same incident. They've just done enough work like DNA tests to be confident enough to declare that yes it is him.

Edit: To be clear that original David Mitchell piece is around the original dig announcement when they dug him up and said they had substantial circumstantial evidence that it was him but needed to do more work to confirm it. This announcement made on Monday is the culmination of said work.
 

Dwarfman

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Been hearing about this on the radio at work, now and six months ago when they first discovered him. Damn amazing find and regardless of whether he was a villain or not it's good his found a better resting place other than a ditch in a forgotten grave of a church that was turned into a garden then into a car park.
 

SecondPrize

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That's awesome. I can't help but view Dick through Kevin Spacey's performance at Epidauros in Richard the third, and he was certainly the hero of that piece.
 

TheBelgianGuy

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MortisLegio said:
Little known fact: Richard the 3rd didn't speak English at all, he spoke French. Yeah kinda weird ain't it.

OT: That's kinda cool. Wonder what took so long to find him?
You're probably thinking about Richard the 1st, who was more French than English and is commonly thought to have been the last English king not to have spoken English. Though in reality there are no sources actually claiming he could not speak English, only that the only texts we know of him were in French, ie. an argument out of a lack of evidence.

And as far as I understand it, Richard III was killed in battle, then they mutilated his corpse and displayed it somewhere. Some monks in the neighbourhood did their Christian duty and took the body and buried it near their abbey, in an unmarked pit. It took that long to find him because nobody knew where he was, basically.
 

2xDouble

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"How do you know he's a king?"
"Because he hasn't got sh*t all over him."

Heh. Sorry.
 

MortisLegio

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TheBelgianGuy said:
MortisLegio said:
Little known fact: Richard the 3rd didn't speak English at all, he spoke French. Yeah kinda weird ain't it.

OT: That's kinda cool. Wonder what took so long to find him?
You're probably thinking about Richard the 1st, who was more French than English and is commonly thought to have been the last English king not to have spoken English. Though in reality there are no sources actually claiming he could not speak English, only that the only texts we know of him were in French, ie. an argument out of a lack of evidence.

And as far as I understand it, Richard III was killed in battle, then they mutilated his corpse and displayed it somewhere. Some monks in the neighbourhood did their Christian duty and took the body and buried it near their abbey, in an unmarked pit. It took that long to find him because nobody knew where he was, basically.
Edited "Fact" out of my original post. I hate it when I think I remember something "interesting" and it ends up being the wrong guy. Oh well, live and learn.
 

Crenelate

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May 27, 2010
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As an archaeologist (specialising in osteology) I'm glad to see that people are excited about this :)
But, for the UK people who may have caught the Channel 4 show on it, that Phillipa woman was really bloody annoying. Clearly had no idea about actual archaeological procedure.
 

Triaed

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Jan 16, 2009
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JonB said:
Archaeologists Find King Richard III's Forgotten Bones


Genealogical researchers managed to track down a 17th generation descendent of Richard's sister living in London, whose DNA was confirmed to match with Richard's.
That is London, Ontario, Canada. Not the UK
 
Apr 5, 2012
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PhunkyPhazon said:
Ppphhht, you didn't kill us 600 years ago and you sure as shit won't do it now. :p
For the glory of the House of York I attack! This battle defies time, logic, and continents! I just hope you don't find the Yorkist weakness, the pesky halberd to the head. We are powerless with out our heads.

Sizzle Montyjing said:
I... I swear I've heard this before...
Yeah... so I guess they've finally dug him up now, right?
That's... nice, I guess.
The King is (500 years) dead! Long live the (very dead) King!
 

PhunkyPhazon

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Gentleman Adventurer said:
PhunkyPhazon said:
Ppphhht, you didn't kill us 600 years ago and you sure as shit won't do it now. :p
For the glory of the House of York I attack! This battle defies time, logic, and continents! I just hope you don't find the Yorkist weakness, the pesky halberd to the head. We are powerless with out our heads.
*Throws a halberd at your head*

GLORY TO THE LANCASTRIANS! I CLAIM YOUR HEAD IN HONOR OF MY FALLEN ANCESTORS WHO DIED FOR...FOR...

What the fuck were we fighting over again?