Richard III’s skeleton came within inches of being destroyed by a massive disturbance at his burial site, archaeologists say.
A team from the University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) have discovered during a second, follow-up
dig, a massive disturbance at the Grey Friars site where the bones of the medieval monarch were found last year.
The news comes one year on from when archaeologists began the Search for Richard III at the Grey Friars site on August 25 last year.
The area – measuring over five metres by 10 metres – was just inches away from Richard III’s skull, meaning the remains of the Last Plantagenet King came very close to being destroyed.
The disturbance covers a far larger area than the remnants of the Victorian toilet which were also discovered
near Richard’s grave during the first dig last year.
It’s a miracle that Richard III’s skeleton was where it was. To the east, there is a massive disturbance that has
removed all evidence of the church – which must have come within inches of his head,” site director Mathew Morris said.
“The disturbance is so big we didn’t have all of it in the excavation area. We uncovered an area more than 5 metres
by 10 metres. We never got to the bottom – it is at least 1.8 metres deep.
We don’t know what caused it yet. It’s possible it was related to the demolition of the Grey Friars church – or it
could have happened any time after the friary was disbanded.
Whatever it was, it came very close to removing Richard’s head,” said Morris.
It’s entirely possible that because he was underneath the Victorian outhouses, he was protected from it. We found
some pottery remnants in the area, but until we have examined those we won’t have any idea when the disturbance happened,” Morris said.
The team first started digging on the Grey Friars site on August 25, 2012.
They came across Richard’s remains on the very first day – but didn’t exhume the skeleton until they were able to
determine where the bones were buried within the friary.
——————————PTI