Checkmate: comparing the skeletal evidence of the death of King Richard III with other medieval weapon trauma

Conference

Published on

13 October 2014

Updated on

19 June 2017

Colloquia

The Archaeology of Violence

International colloquium organized by Inrap and the Museum of Louvre-Lens.
October 2, 3 and 4, 2104 at La Scène du Louvre-Lens

The archaeology of violence: wartime violence, mass violence
by Tim Sutherland, University of York

The discovery of the skeleton of King Richard III, who died at the Battle of Bosworth (1485) led to a comparison of the sharp edge and penetration weapon trauma on Richard’s bones with that of some of the skeletal material from the Battle of Towton (1461). A complex interpretation initially applied involved multiple weapons over an extended period of time, during and after the battle. This paper provides evidence that the wounds inflicted might simply represent a minimum of two weapons used in a very short space of time, thereby removing the necessity for the wounds inflicted as ‘post battle humiliation’.

Tim Sutherland lectures in Battlefield Archaeology at the University of York. He is the co-ordinator of the Conflict Archaeology International Research Network (CAIRN), a group of experts who research the archaeology of conflict. He has carried out numerous battlefield archaeological surveys including Towton (1461) and Azincourt (1415). He co-wrote the book 'Blood Red Roses: The archaeology of a mass grave from the Battle of Towton, AD1461' and has published numerous papers, presented papers at many conferences, and has assisted with several television documentaries, all relating to the archaeology of conflict. He is currently involved in the production of the second series of the television documentaries 'Medieval Dead'.

Bibliography

Buckley, R., Morris, M., Appleby, J., King, T., O'Sullivan, D. and Foxhall, L. 2013 "'The king in the car park': new light on the death and burial of Richard III in the Grey Friars church", Leicester, in 1485 Antiquity 87 519-538
Fiorato, V., Boylston, A., Knusel, C. (eds.) 2000 'Blood Red Roses: The archaeology of a mass grave from the battle of Towton, AD 1461'. Oxbow, Oxford
Sutherland, T.L. 2006 'Unknown Soldiers: The Discovery of War Graves from the Battle of Towton AD1461' From Artefacts to Anomalies: Papers inspired by the contribution of Arnold Aspinall, Conference held at University of Bradford 1-2 December 2006
Sutherland, T.L. 2009 "Archaeological Evidence of Medieval Conflict - Case Studies from Towton, Yorkshire, England (1461) and Agincourt, Pas de Calais, France (1415)" in H. Meller (ed.) 2009 Schlachtfeldarchaologie Battlefield Archaeology. 1 Mitteldeutscher Archaologentag vom 09. bis 11. Oktober 2008 in Halle (Salle). Landesamt fur Denkmalpflege und Archaologie Sachsen-Anhalt. Landesmuseum fur Vorgeschichte HAlle (Salle), 109-116