said Matt Morris (Mat Morris) from the University of Leicester (UK).
Morris and other University archaeologist Richard Buckley (Richard Buckley), launched at the beginning of the current decade a large-scale search of the remains of king hunchback on the territory of Leicester, in the vicinity of which he presumably died after his defeat at Bosworth field in 1485. In August 2012, this quest has ended with success Buckley and helped him history lovers Society Richard III found the remains of the king in the territory of a municipal car parks in the city.
A genetic examination, held in February 2013 with the assistance of the living relatives of the king, finally proved that the bones found in the car Park, really belonged to the celebrated Shakespeare monarch. After that, scientists launched a more large-scale excavations on the territory of Leicester, trying to find other traces of the era of the last Plantagenet.
In August 2013 the search was successful – the archaeologists managed to find ten graves, including giant stone tomb, inside of which was hidden another coffin of lead. Over the next fifteen years, Morris and his colleagues carefully studied the coffin and tried to understand who the remains belong inside it.
As shown by radiocarbon analysis, the noble old woman from this tomb was not a contemporary of Richard – she died at least not before 1250 year and not later than 1400. The researchers suggest that it was one of the first of the protecting Leicester monastery of deacons, which was built in the mid 13th century.
Judging by the monastic Chronicles, these remains may belong to a local noblewoman by the name of “Emma, married John Holt”. Check this hypothesis, as perceived by archaeologists, most likely never to be implemented, as the descendants of this noble line or died out, or forgot about his origins.
With it, scientists have discovered the remains of three women in a solid for the middle Ages age from 40 to 50 years. >
Two other women, apparently, are not belonged to the nobility, as the curvature of the bones of their arms and legs say about regular exercise and extremely hard work. However, they all ate lots of fish and meat and did not suffer from hunger that speaks of great material prosperity. As suggested themselves to archaeologists, this combination of we>
However, the most interesting discovery was the fact that during the long months of excavations Morris and his colleagues failed to find any skeleton in the monastery, which belonged to the man. This again suggests that the burial of Richard in this parish was most unusual for that period of time.
Literally three weeks later, on March 22, the remains of the king-the hunchback would be transferred from the University, where they were studied by archaeologists, permanent burial in Leicester Cathedral.
