Medieval

Keeping your eye on the GOAL

In his final column, Mick leaves us with some tips on how to unpick the evolution of a local parish on the ground. What could you discover in your neighbourhood?

LEFT The human remains discovered in trench 1 of the Grey Friars dig laid out for study in the lab. The skeleton’s feet were destroyed during an earlier disturbance of the grave, while the severe sideways curvature or scoliosis of the spine is clearly apparent. Following detailed analysis, the team concluded that these are the remains of Richard III, the last Medieval king of England.

Reconstructing Richard III: discovering the man behind the myth

On Monday 4 February the results of tests on a skeleton found beneath a Leicester carpark were announced to a global media audience. Lead archaeologist Richard Buckley stated ‘our academic conclusion, beyond reasonable doubt, is that the individual exhumed at Grey Friars in September 2012 is indeed Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England.’ Matthew Symonds and Carly Hilts look at what this momentous announcement tells us about Richard, and why the Leicester team are so confident they have got their man.

The Past

Q&A with Cat Jarma – on encouraging potential archaeology students

Archaeology is a subject with endless topics to specialise in, so a degree in archaeology can be useful in a great number of ways.

Main Image This is believed to be the earliest surviving portrait of Richard III. Executed within about 25 years of his death, it was probably based on a lost original painted during the king’s lifetime.

Richard III: the search for the last Plantagenet king

On 12 September the University of Leicester held an extraordinary press conference. They announced that a three-week dig seeking the remains of Richard III had ‘entered a new phase’ with DNA testing under way on an adult male skeleton. So what had they discovered? Richard Buckley, Jo Appleby, and Helen Foxhall Forbes told Matthew Symonds and Carly Hilts.

Above Side by side in a pit, these skeletons were originally assumed to be Black Death victims, but radiocarbon dates have provided an unexpected explanation for the high fatality rate. Could they have died as a result of the last millennium’s largest volcanic eruption? This mass burial clips the edge of an earlier pit that may date to a 1252 famine, while the bodies in the later pit are believed to be victims of the climatic fluctuation brought on by the 1258 eruption.

London’s volcanic winter: Spitalfields cemetery and the famine of 1258

Mass graves were needed all too often in the Medieval world, but establishing the specific tragedy behind any given set is difficult. Now Don Walker believes that a group in Spitalfields cemetery can be linked to a massive volcanic eruption, as he told Matthew Symonds.

Opposite page Phil’s trench: a Medieval burgage or house plot, and the outer defences at Kenfig.

Digging with the Time Team

What is archaeology alongside a film crew like? Matthew Symonds found out.

The English Castle

A new generation of castleologists believe that castles were about much more than trebuchets, portcullises, galloping hooves, boiling oil, and the clash of swords on armour: instead, castles were centres of lordship, symbols of wealth, and expressions of status, alluding to the past and expressing poetic ideals. Current Archaeology's Chris Catling reports.

Where are the children?

There really have been so few instances when Time Team sites have yielded any evidence pertaining to children - despite having dug more than 150 sites over the 13 years the series has been running.