Archaeologists Find King Richard III's Forgotten Bones

JonB

Don't Take Crap from Life
Sep 16, 2012
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Archaeologists Find King Richard III's Forgotten Bones


DDNA evidence confirms that the bones found in Leicester are really those of the long-lost king.

A team of archaeologists at the University of Leicester have announced that they are convinced "beyond reasonable doubt" that a skeleton unearthed from beneath a parking lot in Leicester is in fact that of King Richard III. Richard III died in 1485 after a short reign of 26 months, and was the last English king to die in battle. Richard suffered from scoliosis, a condition that causes curvature of the spine, which was the first sign that the archaeologists had found something special. Next, Radiocarbon dating placed the skeleton at about 1455-1540. The wounds on the skeleton are consistent with contemporary reports of Richard's demise, including a likely fatal halberd and sword wound to the skull. An osteo-archaeologist with the researchers said that "Both of these injuries would have caused an almost instant loss of consciousness and death would have followed quickly afterwards. In the case of the larger wound, if the blade had penetrated 7cm into the brain, which we cannot determine from the bones, death would have been instantaneous."

The skeleton was found under a parking lot in Leicester, the previous site of the church of Grefriars where historical accounts tell us Richard was unceremoniously buried after his death. Prior to investigations by archaeologists and historians the exact site of Greyfriars had been lost. The final, and most trustworthy, piece of information confirming the skeleton's identity was a DNA test comparing the bones to Richard III's living relatives. 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.

A reburial ceremony is planned in Leicester cathedral for 2014, and a Richard III museum will soon be constructed near the site. Philippa Langley, of the Richard III society, said plans were well underway. "I'm totally thrilled, I'm overwhelmed to be honest, it's been a long hard journey." Of the King's much maligned reputation derived from the Shakespeare play, she said "We're going to completely reassess Richard III, we're going to completely look at all the sources again, and hopefully there's going to be a new beginning for Richard as well."

Source: BBC [http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/press/press-releases/2013/february/university-of-leicester-announces-discovery-of-king-richard-iii]


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gigastar

Insert one-liner here.
Sep 13, 2010
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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.
 

octafish

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Apr 23, 2010
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That is awesome...what a fantastic find. Truly. I have to say though that Richard is my favorite literary villain, yes even more than Iago.

?Why, I can smile and murder whiles I smile,
And cry 'content' to that which grieves my heart,
And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,
And frame my face for all occasions?

...and that isn't even from Richard III.
 

Saviordd1

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Jan 2, 2011
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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.
Nah, history and heritage aren't important at all; we should ignore history and its relics, that always works right?
 

gigastar

Insert one-liner here.
Sep 13, 2010
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Saviordd1 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.
Nah, history and heritage aren't important at all; we should ignore history and its relics, that always works right?
Bones. Thats all they found.

Everything you could possibly want to know about the man and his life can be found here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_3rd].
 

F'Angus

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Nov 18, 2009
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IT's kinda odd that he was buried under a parking spot marked with "R", and that the first body they found when they dug was Richard...but hell odd things happen.

Even with all the evidence I'm still skeptical though. It just seem too unlikely at the moment...but I'm sure I'll be more exited when I read into it.

If it is truly him then that's just plain fantastic.
 

maninahat

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Nov 8, 2007
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j-e-f-f-e-r-s said:
Pretty typical of us British. The body of one of our most important historical figures turns up, and it was buried in a car park all along.

CAPTCHA: tea with milk

That's... bloody brilliant, captcha. What better way to celebrate this important historical find?
An impromptu war with those Lancastrian Pretenders?

As a Yorkshireman, I don't really understand why the guy is being buried in a Lancastrian cathedral. York minster or Westminster would make more sense, surely?
 

MarsProbe

Circuitboard Seahorse
Dec 13, 2008
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gigastar said:
Bones. Thats all they found.

Everything you could possibly want to know about the man and his life can be found here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_3rd].
Sure, who needs the will to actually go out and find things when you can just in front of a screen and read about on wikipedia? To think we've been wasting all this time making discoveries and the like instead of slipping into atrophy at our computers.

....

I was being sarcastic.
 

Mr Companion

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Jul 27, 2009
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I was hoping the last piece of evidence would be a crown made from solid gold with "Richard" written in old English carved into the front.
 

EscapeGoat_v1legacy

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Aug 20, 2008
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maninahat said:
As a Yorkshireman, I don't really understand why the guy is being buried in a Lancastrian cathedral. York minster or Westminster would make more sense, surely?
Could be so York has a little bit of Yorkshire in Lancastrian ground, so as to form an effective rally point and HQ when War of the Roses v2.0 springs up?

OT: I think this is awesome. It's history in motion, a facet of our past being realised here in the modern day. It's what makes history so fucking amazing. On a rather more banal note, I just kind of love that he was buried what is now a car park. I love the image of a bunch of historians just tearing apart a car park in Leicester on an Indiana Jones-esque search for the long lost bones of a hunchbacked tyrant king.

JonB said:
The BBC just reported on the fact that historians have now analysed Richard's skull and digitally reconstructed how his face might've looked! [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-21328380] SCIENCE!
 

Hero in a half shell

It's not easy being green
Dec 30, 2009
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maninahat said:
j-e-f-f-e-r-s said:
Pretty typical of us British. The body of one of our most important historical figures turns up, and it was buried in a car park all along.

CAPTCHA: tea with milk

That's... bloody brilliant, captcha. What better way to celebrate this important historical find?
An impromptu war with those Lancastrian Pretenders?
I say we invade France, or pit Harry and William against each other in a chess boxing match!


The sport of Kings!
 

Voulan

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Jul 18, 2011
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gigastar said:
Saviordd1 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.
Nah, history and heritage aren't important at all; we should ignore history and its relics, that always works right?
Bones. Thats all they found.

Everything you could possibly want to know about the man and his life can be found here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_3rd].
Bones, sure, of an important historical figure. A King no less! Honestly, don't ever play any Tomb Raiders and Uncharteds, they'd mean nothing to you. Hell, if we ever find an ancient Egyptian tomb or even so far as Atlantis, I won't bother telling you. After all, it's just a bunch of rocks and old buildings, isn't it? Stick to your Wikipedia articles, mate. Meanwhile, the rest of us can marvel at history unfolding before our eyes.

Seriously though, this is fantastic!
 

Idlemessiah

Zombie Steve Irwin
Feb 22, 2009
1,050
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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.
If you're going to be like that, then so was going to the moon.

OT: This is a brilliant discovery. The perfect mix of chance discovery and scientific method. I'm also willing to bet without further reading that the descendant was tracked down using tax records. Seriously, we brits can pretty much track anything through time using tax records.
 

uzo

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Jul 5, 2011
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Sounds great. Not everyday we get to dig up a king and look at his bones.

Although death by a halberd to the back of the head? Ouch. Haven't seen that killmove in War of the Roses yet. The developers should do a DLC for the King Richard death strike where a halberd user repeatedly hacks at the fallen opponent's head. I do believe they could call it the King Dick Head move ! ha ha!

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.
Hmmm .... someone with over 3000 posts on the Escapist probably shouldn't be complaining about wasted man hours. Glass houses n' all that, eh?
 

MortisLegio

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Nov 5, 2008
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That's kinda cool. Wonder what took so long to find him?

Edit: Upon further review, I had the wrong king for my interesting fact. My apologies, Carry on.