The University of Leicester’s announcement of its discovery of King Richard III has captured the attention of the world.

Now everyone will be able to read the first academic paper on the archaeology of the Search for Richard III – which has been published in the prestigious journal Antiquity.

The paper reveals details of our archaeologists’ excavation of the Grey Friars site in August – including specific details of the grave dug for King Richard III.

The academics reveal that Richard was casually placed in a badly prepared grave – suggesting gravediggers were in a hurry to bury him.

He was placed in an ‘odd position’ with ‘minimal reverence’ and the torso crammed in – and there is evidence to suggest Richard’s hands may have been tied when he was buried.

The paper was written by key members of the University’s Search for Richard III, including lead archaeologist Richard Buckley and Grey Friars site director Mathew Morris, both from University of Leicester Archaeological Services.

It also includes contributions from osteoarchaeologist Dr Jo Appleby, geneticist Dr Turi King, medieval friary expert Deirdre O’Sullivan and Professor Lin Foxhall, Head of the University’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History.

The full outcomes from the bone analysis and DNA tests will be published in subsequent papers.

Due to the worldwide interest in the discovery of Richard III, the University of Leicester has made arrangements to ensure the paper is publicly available via Antiquity’s website from midday on Friday 24 May.

This means anyone in the world will be able to read the paper online as soon as it is published.

There will be new excavations at the Grey Friars site in July, which will help clarify details around the disposal of the body.

• ‘The king in the car park’: new light on the death and burial of Richard III in the Grey Friars church, Leicester, in 1485 in Antiquity.

• The Search for Richard III was led by the University of Leicester, working with Leicester City Council, and in association with the Richard III Society.

• Press release

Several of our very own academics involved in the discovery will be presenting talks to the general public about their contributions to the Search for Richard III.

In the coming weeks, Richard Buckley will be giving an evening talk about the Richard III excavation and how the team were able to identify the skeleton of Richard III. The Channel 4 documentaries will also be screened for all to relive the behind-the-scenes action from the only team allowed to follow the scientists on the excavation.

The events continue in June with ‘Dean Discussions’ from Leicester Cathedral, presented by Dr Turi King, Professor Kevin Schürer and Richard Buckley. Dr Jo Appleby will also be presenting a talk the same evening with particular emphasis on the battle trauma and identifying traces of violence on the skeleton.

Book tickets and view a full listing of all the upcoming Richard III talks and activities

• The Search for Richard III was led by the University of Leicester, working with Leicester City Council, in association with the Richard III Society.

'Treasure!' -  An exhibition at Leicestershire County Council's Snibston Discovery Museum - features a dazzling array of finds from 4,500 years ago to the 17th century and is the first time they have been displayed in one place.

Richard Buckley, from University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS), formally opened the exhibition which includes a large panel about the University and its archaeological work. ULAS excavated the Hallaton Treasure and the Vine St Hoard which are on display.

Notable exhibits also include the Bosworth Boar badge (pictured right) - King Richard III’s silver-gilt insignia discovered on the site of the Battle of Bosworth and probably handed out by the king to his followers – along with the Hallaton Treasure - a stunning collection of Iron Age and Roman finds, including a Roman cavalry helmet, excavated jointly by community and professional archaeologists.

Bronze Age hoards from Welby and Rothley, a mysterious and beautiful Anglo-Saxon decorative object from Dalby (pictured left) will be displayed for the first time and many small items of gold and silver jewellery will be available to see.

There will also be interactive games, including a metal detector test, the chance to try on replica Roman helmets and a look at how metal detectorists and community archaeology groups have contributed to the county’s archaeology.

Treasure! – Shedding Light on Leicestershire’s Past runs until 3 November.

To find out more, please visit www.snibston.com or call 01530 278444.

Background

Certain types of metal objects have been subject to Treasure laws since medieval times.  Since that period the Coroner has been responsible for identifying treasure based on its material and the circumstances of the find.

The glittering array of objects in the exhibition are usually displayed around the county at Charnwood Museum, Melton Carnegie Museum, Harborough Museum and Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre, or viewable by appointment at the council’s Collections Resources Centre.

The main Hallaton Treasure displays will return to the refurbished Harborough Museum early next year.

• The Search for Richard III was led by the University of Leicester, working with Leicester City Council, in association with the Richard III Society.

They have uncovered evidence for the first time that people living in Xincun 5,000 years ago may have practised agriculture –before the arrival of domesticated rice in the region.

By using a new method known as ancient starch analysis to analyse ancient human diet, the researchers discovered evidence of different species of starch producing palms, which would have been ground and dried as flour and eaten.

The research was the result of a two-year collaboration between Dr Huw Barton, from the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Leicester, and Dr Xiaoyan Yang, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Beijing.

Funded by a Royal Society UK-China NSFC International Joint Project, and other grants held by Yang in China, the research is published in PLOS ONE.

Dr Barton said:

“Our research shows us that there was something much more interesting going on in the subtropical south of China 5,000 years ago than we had first thought.
The survival of organic material is really dependent on the particular chemical properties of the soil, so you never know what you will get until you sample. At Xincun we really hit the jackpot. Starch was well-preserved and there was plenty of it.”

• Press release

The event is the latest in a series of regular Question Time-style debates on topical subjects as part of Leicester Exchanges.

The panel for this latest debate, hosted in the city where Richard III’s remains were found after five centuries, will consist of Phil Stone, chairman of the Richard III Society; Paul Lay, editor of History Today magazine; and Dr Mary Ann Lund, of our School of English.

The experts will debate whether Richard III was as evil as the nephew-murdering madman depicted in Shakespeare’s play – or whether he was in fact a victim of malicious Tudor propaganda.

The debate is open to the public – and audience members will play a key part in the debate. It will be held at the Peter Williams lecture theatre, University of Leicester, on Thursday, June 6 from 6.30 to 8pm. Book your free ticket online.

Click here to listen and download our Richard III podcasts:

Listen to the podcast below:

• The Search for Richard III was led by the University of Leicester, working with Leicester City Council, and in association with the Richard III Society.

Highlights from its Richard III Open Day on Saturday 29 June include talks from experts Professor Lin Foxhall, Head of our School of Archaeology and Ancient History, geneticist Dr Turi King, forensic engineering expert Professor Sarah Hainsworth, Renaissance literature scholar Dr Sarah Knight, and Dr Tracey Elliott of the School of Law.

There will also be drop-in sessions to the Department of Genetics and School of Archaeology and Ancient History, where guests will be able to participate in workshops, displays and demos.

The events are also part of this year’s Summer Reunion Open Day, held annually for graduates of the University both across the UK and worldwide.

There will also be a BBQ on the main campus, drinks in the 1923 Restaurant and children’s activities.

To book your place and for more information about the Richard III Open Day – which is open to the general public – visit here.

• Press release

The Search for Richard III was led by the University of Leicester, working with Leicester City Council, and in association with the Richard III Society.

Archaeologists from the University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) have discovered a 1,700-old-Roman cemetery containing 13 ancient burials.

The find has revealed remains thought to date back to 300AD – and includes personal items such as hairpins, rings, belt buckles and remains of shoes.

Interestingly, the cemetery contains Christian burials alongside pagan burials – showing that Leicester was multicultural even in Roman times.

One of the bodies was found wearing a polished jet finger ring on their left hand which appears to have an early Christian Iota - Chi monogram etched onto it.

The dig was carried out in the car park on Oxford Street in Leicester’s historic city centre.

ULAS is based with the University’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History.

• The Search for Richard III was led by the University of Leicester, working with Leicester City Council, in association with the Richard III Society.
• Press release

The Cultured Rainforest Project (CRP) aimed to chart the long-term histories and social lives of two groups of peoples that currently inhabit the same, rich, vibrant, and steamy rainforests of this heart of Borneo; the hunter-gatherer Penan and the rice farming Kelabit.

In this landscape these two communities live side by side, sharing the forest resources, but living in quite different ways. The research project aimed to explore those differences and to better understand the long-term human histories of this remarkable part of the world.

Dr Huw Barton (Leicester) and Dr Samantha Jones (Queens University Belfast) retrieving a sediment core from a palaeochannel for pollen and sediment analysis. This core was later dated to c.7,500 yrs BP and showed evidence of human induced burning by at least 6,300 yrs ago.

The CRP exhibition is centred around a reconstructed Kelabit ‘hearth’. The hearth is central to the lives of all rainforest peoples, a place where meals are cooked and also a place which humanises the other worldly realm of forest spirits, dangerous energies, and mythological beings.

Stephen Baya's painting of culture hero Tukud Rini, shimmering with lalud (life force).

Explore the remarkable landscape for yourself through 360 degrees panoramas - an artistic collaboration between project members and artist/ photographer Douglas Cape which enables a virtual visit of the study area.

The exhibition will run at the University of Cambridge until 1 June 2013 and will open at the Sarawak Museum in Kuching, Malaysia later this year.

The head will take pride of place in Leicester's Guildhall, as a centrepiece of the current Richard III exhibition, from May 18 to June 9 before embarking upon a nationwide tour, being displayed at Bosworth Battlefield, before going on to Yorkshire, Northampton and London.

The replica head, created by the forensic art team of the University of Dundee and commissioned by the Richard III Society is made from detailed scans of King Richard’s skull, and offers the most accurate yet interpretation of what he would have looked like in life.

Once the tour, organised by Leicester City Council, is complete, the model head will return home to Leicester in spring 2014 to go on permanent display at the city’s new Richard III visitor centre.

• The Search for Richard III was led by the University of Leicester, working with Leicester City Council, in association with the Richard III Society.

• Press release

Professor Simon James (pictured), from the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Leicester, will deliver the lecture, entitled Ancient Rome and the clash of Civilizations: or the curious life of artefact H278, on Tuesday 30 April.

The lecture will discuss how Roman artefacts, particularly the remnants of ancient warfare and battle, can provide clues about our past and the histories and fates of ancient civilisations.

Professor James will focus in particular on artefact H278, a small decorative copper-alloy casting, currently in the store of Yale University Art Gallery in Connecticut, USA.

Ancient Rome and the clash of Civilizations: or the curious life of artefact H278 will be held in the Ken Edwards Building, Lecture Theatre 1, at 5:30pm on Tuesday 30 April 2013.

The lecture is free and open to the public. More information can be found here.

• Press release

The “incredible” discovery of King Richard III under a car park in Leicester has featured in Loughborough University’s external research magazine The View.

Experts from Loughborough’s School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering were invited to make an electronic reconstruction of the King’s skeleton, and then a physical replica using the latest 3D printing techniques.

The replica skull is now on display as part of Leicester City Council’s exhibition – ‘Richard III: Leicester's Search for a King’ – at the Guildhall. Record numbers of visitors have already been to the exhibition, and queues continue to form daily.

The team are now working on replicating the rest of the King’s remains. The full skeleton will form another focal point of the permanent visitor centre that the Council is planning to open in Leicester, incorporating the site where Richard III was found. This is due to be completed in 2014.

The online article can be found here

• The Search for Richard III was led by the University of Leicester, working with Leicester City Council, in association with the Richard III Society.

Archaeologists from the University of Leicester have uncovered one of the biggest hoards of Iron Age metal artefacts to be found in the region- in addition to finding dice and gaming pieces.

Both staff and students from the University’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History and University Archaeological Services are involved in the dig at a prehistoric monument, an Iron Age hillfort at Burrough Hill, near Melton Mowbray.

About 100 pieces, including iron spearheads, knives and brooches have been found at the site, giving archaeologists a remarkable insight into the people who lived there over 2000 years ago.

A Public Open Day will be held at the site on Sunday 30 June between 11am – 4pm.

• Press release

Brad Lidge (pictured), a former professional baseball pitcher for the likes of The Huston Astros, The Philadelphia Phillies and The Washington Nationals will be joining University of Leicester to complete a distance learning masters in Archaeology.

Nicknamed “lights out”, Brad Lidge can throw a baseball up to 92 miles per hour!

Brad will be studying from sunny Boulder in Colorado, so unfortunately his bowling skills won’t be recruited by the University sporting teams.

A link the the article is here

Content relating to Zak Boggs including a podcast can be found below:

• Zak Boggs blog
• Zak Boggs press release
• FUTSAL blog

The historian who decades ago correctly predicted the whereabouts of the remains of Richard III is to be celebrated at the launch of a new edition of his biography of the king.

David Baldwin, a retired University of Leicester historian, has brought out a new paperback edition of Richard III, his biography of the medieval monarch.

The book, which was first published last year, has been updated with a new final chapter covering the University of Leicester’s momentous discovery of the king’s remains in Leicester’s Grey Friars car park.

The book launch will occur at 6pm on Tuesday 9 April at the University of Leicester Bookshop. All welcome.

In an article published in 1986, David suggested the remains of the last Plantagenet king would be found on the site of the Grey Friary during the 21^st century.

Richard III, by David Baldwin, is published by Amberley. It is available from the University of Leicester Bookshop on 0116 229 7440 or at http://shop.le.ac.uk/.

• The Search for Richard III was led by the University of Leicester, working with Leicester City Council, in association with the Richard III Society.

• Press release