History is the coolest thing ever

[neadods]

I couldn't be more thrilled to be hearing the news about Richard III. A bigger triumph of history, research, forensics, determination, genetics, and archaeology I cannot think of. We don't think he might be RIII, we've proven that he really most sincerely is RIII.

SCIENCE ROCKS!

Serious articles with pictures include:
After 500 years, Richard III's bones yield their secret | Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/04/us-britain-richard-idUSBRE9130BW20130204

Bones Under Parking Lot Belonged to Richard III - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/world/europe/richard-the-third-bones.html?_r=0

Richard III: skeleton is the king - Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9846693/Richard-III-skeleton-is-the-king.html

But in many ways, the best part for me has been the wit that's sprung up around it. I passed on the Facebook meme of Blackadder saying "Really? Under a car park? That was your cunning plan, Baldrick?" K posted "he's parked in my spot."

But the best, THE winner hands down is the LJ-less JBM with "They paved Plantagenet and put up a parking lot."


PS - If you have never heard the complete and utter crack that is Big Finish's The Kingmaker, now is the perfect time to either dust it off or download it. Doctor Who, Shakespeare, Richard III, and history itself all go through the grinder, with hilarious results.

Comments

[redpanda13.livejournal.com]

Well, a lot of people are convinced that Thomas Jefferson fathered kids on Sally Hemings, when it could have been another male in his family, such as one of his nephews. (And her first child wasn't of his line anyway.)

Best to wait for scientific findings to appear in a peer-reviewed journal rather than a press conference, though sometimes that's not reliable either.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Thing is, the Jefferson males had access to Sally, and she was in no position to say no.

On the other hand, the chances of finding someone who had an upperclass diet, the right age, buried in the right time period, showing the right wounds, and showing the right skeletal defects just *happening* to have coincidentally been lobbed into the right area of a churchyard and who isn't who they think it is strike me as being vanishingly low.