Richard III Press Conference – live updates from 11.00am
The banner of Richard III with his symbol, the white boar.
At 11.00am today, major news about the search for King Richard III was announced by the University at a press conference in Leicester.
We tweeted live from the press conference on @uniofleicester, and have collected those tweets here.
Tweets in reverse chronological order
And that wraps up our press conference for today!
PL: This project has always been about finding out about the real man, not the Tudor myth.
LF: The arrow was near the spine, but not embedded in the bones. Detailed analysis will tell us more.
TK: We are hopeful that we will recover DNA from the skelton
RT: we are clearly very excited but the University now must subject the findings to rigorous analysis. DNA analysis will take up to 12 weeks
PS: this is a major chapter in the country's history and should be allowed to continue
RT: all human remains are being treated in full accordance with the University of Leicester's ethical policy for dealing with human remains
TK: the next step is to move from archaeological excavation to laboratory analysis.
RT: the skeleton found has spinal abnormalities. We believe the individual would have had severe scoliosis. The skeleton was not a hunchback
RT: a barbed metal arrowhead was found between vertebrae of the skeleton'a upper back.
RT: skeleton appears to have suffered significant peri-mortem trauma to the skull which appears consistent with an injury received in battle
RT: the skeleton was found in the Choir area that was reported to be the burial place in historical records
RT: the articulated remains are of significant interest to us. Dr JA carried out initial exam & found that the skeleton is in good condition
RT we have found 2 skeletons. 1 fully articulated & 1 set of disarticulated human remains. The latter are female & therefore not Richard III
RT will now read out a statement: On Friday 31st, Leicester applied to the Ministry of Justice to commence the exhumation of human remains.
RB explains how we went about digging the trenches. Whilst this was coming together, we were also investigating some human remains.
RT and PS begin by welcoming everybody to the conference. PS thanks everyone involved
and JA is Dr Jo Appleby, the project osteologist.
RB is Richard Buckley, co director of ULAS. TK is Dr Turi King, Leicester's dept of Genetics. LF is Prof Lin Foxhall, dept of Archaeology
RT is Richard Taylor - Director of Corporate Affairs at @uniofleicester. PL is Philippa Langley, lead for the Richard III society
For our live press conference tweets, we will use initials instead of names. PS is Peter Soulsby - Leicester City Mayor
All the available new information will be in the press statement and all the background on our Greyfriars Project website. Media/press enquiries should be made through our Press Office.
