Meet the new resident at Monk Bar’s Richard III Experience. He’s 6 foot 1, around 600 years old, and exceedingly boney.
And thanks to this amazing time-lapse video, we can see his remains reassembled in front of our eyes.
A soldier who fought in the bloody Battle of Towton in 1461, his identity largely remains a mystery. But his impressive height and allocation to his own separate grave point to high status.
He is thought to have been between 36 and 45 when he died, and seems to have had a rough time, having sustained a blunt force trauma to the back of his head.
The details of his death are still unknown, but Sarah Maltby, director of attractions for York Archaeological Trust, has a few ideas:
He has a stab wound to his left foot, which shattered one of the bones and cut two more.
Does this mean he was on horseback and combatants on the ground were slashing at him from below or was this an injury caused by downward blow of a sword?
Moving him in has not been easy. He had to be dismantled and then painstakingly rebuilt piece by piece.
Now that he’s settled in, you can see him on display as part of the Commemorating the Re-Interment of Richard III exhibition, open 10am – 5pm daily.