Confirmed: bones belong to Richard III

[struggle4progress]

February 05, 2013 7:58AM

... University of Leicester researchers say tests on a battle-scarred skeleton unearthed last year prove "beyond reasonable doubt" that it is the king, who died at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, and whose remains have been missing for centuries ...

And DNA from the skeleton matches a sample taken from a distant living relative of Richard's sister ...

Initial examinations showed the bones to be those of an adult male. There were signs of trauma to the skull, perhaps from a bladed instrument, and a barbed metal arrowhead was found between vertebrae of the upper back ...

Researchers conducted a battery of scientific tests, including radiocarbon dating to determine the skeleton's age. They also compared its DNA with samples taken from a London cabinet-maker identified as a 17th great-grand-nephew of the king's older sister ...

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/confirmed-bones-belong-to-richard-iii/story-e6frg8y6-1226570386843

[struggle4progress]

1. Richard III horror story: Axed in head, stabbed in rear, bones dug up

Feb. 04, 2013 | 1:25 p.m.

... The skeleton of the medieval monarch ... is missing its feet, and its wrist bones were found close together, suggesting that the hands were tied together when he was buried.

There were 10 wounds discovered on the skeleton, including two deadly blows to the back of the head, one of which sliced part of the skull off. And archaeologists from the University of Leicester, who found the royal skeleton, say the corpse was also subjected to “humiliation injuries” including a sword through the right buttock ...

The spine shows clear signs of scoliosis, which fits with the physical description of the king as being hunched over with a raised right shoulder.

Radiocarbon dating places the skeleton bones from 1455 to 1540. King Richard III reportedly died on the battlefield in 1485 ...

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2013/02/04/richard-iii-horror-story-axed-in-head-stabbed-in-rear-bones-dug-up/#/0

[littlemissmartypants]

2. Love it. eom

[struggle4progress]

7. it's pretty interesting

[struggle4progress]

3. Scientists identify remains as those of King Richard III

By Henry Chu
February 4, 2013, 3:45 a.m.

... Working from old maps of Leicester, about 100 miles northwest of London, archaeologists from the local university had less than a month to dig in a small municipal parking lot -- one of the few spaces not built over in the crowded city center. The team stumbled on the ruins of the medieval priory where records say Richard was buried, then found the bones a few days later last September ...

Scientists at the University of Leicester, which pioneered the practice of DNA fingerprinting, were able to extract samples from the bones and compare them to a man descended from Richard III's sister Anne. The match through the maternal line was virtually perfect ...

http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-richard-iii-remains-20130204,0,7667709.story

[struggle4progress]

4. Bones Under Parking Lot Belonged to Richard III

... The geneticist Turi King told a news conference held by the University of Leicester research team that DNA samples taken from two modern-day descendants of Richard III’s family matched those from the bones found at the site. One of the descendants, Michael Ibsen, is the son of a 16th-generation niece of King Richard’s. The second wished to remain anonymous, the researchers said.

The skeleton, moreover, had a gaping hole in the skull consistent with contemporary accounts of the battlefield blow that killed the monarch more than 500 years ago.

Before the DNA findings came in, Mr. Taylor and other team members said, the university team had assembled a mounting catalog of evidence that pointed conclusively at the remains being those of the king. These included confirmation that the body was that of a man in his late 20s or early 30s, and that his high-protein diet had been rich in meat and fish, characteristic of a privileged life in the 15th century ...

Equally conclusive was the evidence available at the time the bones were unearthed — that they were found exactly where a 16th-century Tudor historian, John Rouse, had identified as the burial place, in a corner of the chapel in the Greyfriars priory, and with a distinctive spinal curvature that pointed to the remains being that of a sufferer from scoliosis, a disease that causes the hunchback appearance that has come down through history as Richard III’s most pronounced physical feature ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/world/europe/richard-the-third-bones.html?_r=0

[struggle4progress]

5. Skeleton Buried in U.K. Parking Lot is King Richard III

By Makiko Kitamura & David Risser - Feb 4, 2013 8:51 AM ET

... Skeletal analysis showed the victim to be in his late 20s to late 30s, consistent with Richard III’s age of 32 at death.

The Leicester City Council and the Richard III Society collaborated with the university on the project ...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-04/leicester-scientists-say-skeleton-is-that-of-king-richard-iii.html

[struggle4progress]

6. Car park skeleton confirmed as Richard III

February 4, 2013 12:09 pm
By John Murray Brown and Ben Fenton

... Mathew Morris, archaeologist and site manager, said: “I don’t know what the odds are, but if I’d put my trench 50 centimetres further east I could have missed it entirely.”

Sir Peter Soulsby, Leicester’s mayor, announced that permission had been obtained from the Ministry of Justice for the body to be reinterred in Leicester Cathedral, ending weeks of speculation as to where the king’s remains would be sent – and which tourist attraction would benefit.

Richard III was always known to have been buried in Leicester following his defeat at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, an event that ended the Wars of the Roses, with the Plantagenet dynasty replaced by the Tudors ...

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/543f2bda-6eb9-11e2-8189-00144feab49a.html

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. Thank you, my dear struggle4progress, for all these links to this fascinating story!

This story has riveted me since I first heard about it some months ago.

You have done a good thing by bringing all these links together, and I thank you!

[struggle4progress]

9. It's such cool stuff, and it involves so many different types of expertise!

Searches of historical records, careful archaeological field work, skeletal forensics, radiocarbon dating, stable isotope analysis of diet, comparison of old and modern DNA ...

Was this found where we might have expected to find it? Is it the right age? Does the age at death seem to match what the history tells us? Does the manner of death seem to match what the history tells us? Etc

[krispos42]

10. they tracked down a female descendent...

through 17 generations. Reads like a CSI episode

[Warren DeMontague]

11. His kingdom for a hearse.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

13. *groan*lol*groan*

so bad and yet so good.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

12. awesome. science and history collide.

[struggle4progress]

14. Richard III dig: Facial reconstruction shows how king may have looked

4 February 2013 Last updated at 18:03 ET

... The reconstructed face has a slightly arched nose and prominent chin, similar to features shown in portraits of Richard III painted after his death.

Historian and author John Ashdown-Hill said seeing it was "almost like being face to face with a real person".

Dr Ashdown-Hill, who wrote The Last Days of Richard III, said: "The most obvious features in portraits are the shape of the nose and the chin and both of those are visible in the facial reconstruction." ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-21328380