Just...................whatever

A facial reconstruction based on the skull of Richard III has revealed how the English king may have looked.

The king's skeleton was found under a car park in Leicester during an archaeological dig.

The reconstructed face has a slightly arched nose and prominent chin, similar to features shown in portraits of Richard III painted after his death.

Historian and author John Ashdown-Hill said seeing it was "almost like being face to face with a real person".

The development comes after archaeologists from the University of Leicester confirmed the skeleton found last year was the 15th Century king's, with DNA from the bones having matched that of descendants of the monarch's family.

Richard was killed in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, at the age of 32 and after just two years on the throne, having been challenged by the forces of Henry Tudor, the future Henry VII.

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Interactive: Twisted bones reveal a king

Dr Ashdown-Hill, who wrote The Last Days of Richard III, said: "The most obvious features in portraits are the shape of the nose and the chin and both of those are visible in the facial reconstruction."

Richard III Society member Philippa Langley, originator of the search, said on a Channel 4 documentary earlier: "It doesn't look like the face of a tyrant. I'm sorry but it doesn't.

"He's very handsome. It's like you could just talk to him, have a conversation with him right now."

Layers of muscle and skin were added by computer to a scan of the skull and the result was made into a three-dimensional plastic model.

Dr Ashdown-Hill said: "I had said previously that when I stood by the grave in Leicester that I felt closer to Richard III than I had ever been, but when I saw the facial reconstruction I realised I had been close to a dead Richard III.
"It was just bones, just a body, whereas confronting a facial reconstruction, I felt almost in the presence of a living Richard III."

'Humped backs'

The reconstruction is particularly important because there are no surviving contemporary portraits of Richard III.

Dr Ashdown-Hill said: "All the surviving portraits of him - even the very later ones with humped backs and things which were obviously later additions - facially are quite similar [to each other] so it has always been assumed that they were based on a contemporary portrait painted in his lifetime or possibly several portraits painted in his lifetime."

The Richard III Society officially unveiled the reconstruction on Tuesday morning

I'm very excited about this discovery and I think it's a great achievement for archaeology, but I must admit to being baffled by the existence of a Richard III Society and the number of people in the press who seem to be taking sides in a dynastic struggle that ended over 500 years ago .

sometimes, i want people to 3D my scull, then sculpe my face and see if it looks like me

who seem to be taking sides in a dynastic struggle that ended over 500 years ago- Eldo

I thought you would have learnt something about these isles of ours by now Eldo- nothing ever actually ends, least of all a good struggle. 500 years is just about enough time to get a good grudge worked up.

But they're all dead!

Yes but the grudges arent- thats the beauty of it.

Fair enough, but does the average person even know which side their ancestors supported anymore? Is it a geographical thing?

Usually geographical, knowledge of family line- not uncommon among rich families stil to have furniture from ancestors 500 years ago- and often along religous or social lines.
Or more commonly these days treated like a reality tv show where people just decide sides based on if they like his hair or not.

I dont know anything about a supposed argument, but it really is fascinating, i love stuff like this. and to think of a king of England buried under a car park with a descendant who is a Canadian furniture maker, you couldnt make that stuff up. its brill. he was very handsome too.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:who seem to be taking sides in a dynastic struggle that ended over 500 years ago- Eldo

I thought you would have learnt something about these isles of ours by now Eldo- nothing ever actually ends, least of all a good struggle. 500 years is just about enough time to get a good grudge worked up.

does this mean we get that banner for another 500 years?

Nah Americans think 500 years is a long time.
Eldo would never last the pace, and he's to nice to pass the grudge on to his children and amplify it and make it more full of bile like we Brits can.

How do they no its him ? What did they check his DNA with ?

Someone who they traced back to Richard's niece through old genealogical records, apparently. It's pretty cool.

Eldorion wrote:Fair enough, but does the average person even know which side their ancestors supported anymore? Is it a geographical thing?

VIKINGS!!!

my cousins just told me that they went to my moms grave on her 7 year death anniversary & drank diet coke and ate peanut m&ms

/proud of them

Paving should be finished 2moro. What should av taken 1 week took 4

Looks rather cosy

http://www.travelchannel.com/daily-escape/hotel-and-igloo-kakslauttanen?cid=socde_20130228_6090774

looks aweseom!

I need someone who knows London reeeely well

i do.

oh really

no.

yeah

What do you need doing Mrs Figg ?
And that Igloo place looks like a mini slice of heaven, Chris

So much to say and no time to say it in! Missing everyone here -7 days to get an engineer to turn a phone on! How come they can switch me off remotely but not switch the bloody thing back on remotely?!
And I dont live on a bloody island other than the one called Britain But my router will take 2 days longer because they say I am living on an island. And when I told them maybe they should look up google earth or an atlas- they got stroppy about it, bloody cheek!
So I will be back assuming my crabbittness at how long its taking- and they took the bloody payment roughly 0.0000003 seconds after I placed the order - doesn't cause me to kill the engineer when he finally bothers showing up. And between 10am and 6 pm- any chance you could be vaguer about that BT?
Um this is a long way of saying how much I miss dropping by here and just how crabbit I am about it.