The Battle of Towton in North Yorkshire, fought during the Wars of the Roses, was reputedly the bloodiest battle ever seen on English soil. In 1996 a mass grave of soldiers was discovered there by chance. This was the catalyst for a multidisciplinary research project, still unique in Britain ten years after the initial discovery, which included a study of the skeletal remains, the battlefield landscape, the historical evidence and contemporary arms and armur. The discoveries were dramatic and moving; the individuals had clearly suffered traumatic deaths and subsequent research highlighted the often multiple wounds each individual had received before and, in some cases, after they had died. As well as the exciting forensic work the project also revealed much about medieval weaponry and fighting. Blood Red Roses contains all the information about this fascinating discovery, as well as discussing its wider historical, heritage and archaeological implications. The second edition features new chapters by a re-enactor and a history teacher, which apply the research from the initial study to produce a veritable 'living history'. Table of Contents Site discovery, context and excavation The context of the discovery (Veronica Fiorato) The historical background to the battle and the documentary evidence (Andrew Boardman) The excavation and finds (Andrea Burgess) Recording the grave (Tim Sutherland) The Human Remains The physical anthropology (Anthea Boylston, Malin Holst and Jennifer Coughlan) Health status (Jennifer Coughlan and Malin Holst) Dental health and disease (Malin Host and Jennifer Coughlan) Battle-related trauma (Shannon Novak) Arms and Armour of the Fifteenth Century: Weapons (Graeme Rimer) Armour (Thom Richardson) Combat techniques (John Waller) The wider implications of the discovery The potential of the site for improved understanding of the Towton battle and battlefield (Tim Sutherland) How has the Towton project contributed to our knowledge of medieval warfare? (Christopher Knusel and Anthea Boylston) Battlefield protection and the current extent of archaeological research (Veronica Fiorato)

Blood Red Roses: The Archaeology of a Mass Grave from the Battle of Towton AD 1461, second edition

History

Fiorato, Veronica

Boylston, Anthea

Knusel, Christopher

Europe

Oxbow Books

Human bones form the most direct link to understanding how people lived in the past, who they were and where they came from. The interpretative value of human skeletal remains (within their burial context) in terms of past social identity and organization is awesome, but was, for many years, under-exploited by archaeologists. The nineteen papers in this edited volume are an attempt to redress this by marrying the cultural aspects of burial with the anthropology of the deceased. Table of Contents Introduction (Rebecca Gowland and Christopher Knüsel) The intrinsic pattern of preservation of human skeletons and its influence on the interpretation of funerary behaviours (Silvia Bello and Peter Andrews) Pattern in human burial practice (Peter Andrews and Silvia Bello) L'archaeothanatologie ou l'archaeologie de la mort (Henri Duday) Neolithic burial taphonomy, ritual, and interpretation in Britain and Ireland: a review (Jessica Beckett and John Robb) Cremation ... the cheap option? (Jacqueline I McKinley) Companions in death: the roles of animals in Anglo-Saxon and Viking cremation rituals in Britain (Julie M Bond and Fay L Worley) La Tène dietary variation in Central Europe: A stable isotope study of human skeletal remains from Bohemia (John Le Huray, Holger Schutkowski, Mike Richards) Immigrants on the Isle of Lewis - combining traditional funerary and modern isotope evidence to investigate social differentiation, migration and dietary change in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland (Janet Montgomery and Jane A Evans) Ageing the past: examining age identity from funerary evidence (Rebecca Gowland) Gender, bioarchaeology and human ontogeny (Joanna R Sofaer) The gendered skeleton: anthropological interpretations of the bony pelvis (Pamela K Stone and Dana Walrath) The osteology of monasticism in Mediaeval England (Simon Mays) Text, space and the evidence of human remains in English Late Medieval and Tudor disease culture: some problems and possibilities (Isla Fay) 'Of no more use to men than in ages before?': the Investiture Contest as a model for funerary interpretation (Christopher J Knüsel) Skeletal evidence and contexts of violence in the European Mesolithic and Neolithic (Rick Schulting) Beneath the façade: A skeletal model of domestic violence (Shannon Novak) Fragmentation of the body: comestibles, compost, or customary rite? (Christopher J Knüsel and Alan Outram) Altering identities: body modifications and the pre-Columbian Maya (Pamela L Geller) The living dead and the dead living: burials, figurines and social performance in the European Mid Upper Palaeolithic (Paul B Pettitt)

The Social Archaeology of Funerary Remains (Studies in Funerary Archaeology)

Politics & Social Sciences

Gowland, Rebecca

Anthropology

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