SKELETONS OF THE MARY ROSE | The New Evidence

The Cold October morning in 1982 a worldwide TV audience held their breath.

For centuries Henry VIII legendary war ship laid undisturbed in the murky depths of the Solent. One of the largest operations in British Maritime Archeology was underway and reaching its nail biting conclusion. After 437 years the Mary Rose had been lifted back to the surface.

With the loss of all hands, the remains of those found alongside the Mary Rose have been invaluable in piecing together a picture of the people who lived and worked on the ship as well as providing insight into the lives and overall civilization of Tudor England.

With the advent of new forensic DNA technology techniques, previously held beliefs on the crews health, physique and ethnicity are beginning to be unraveled. New discoveries are overturning long established narratives and drawing a picture of a far more racially mixed set of seamen.

Our scan of the wreck, one of the most detailed scan of the Mary Rose ever undertaken comprised of nearly 4 days of capture and resulted in a model of over 2 billion points. Helping to locate the precise posirions of the crew members alongside their remains and personal belongings, the model allowed researchers to build up a map and probe deeper into the stories and newly available scientific evidence.

Through the laser scanning action on the Mary Rose and the DNA and facial reconstruction research on the over 10,000 human remains found in the wreck of the boat, this project enriched the current knowledge on a considerable slice of 16th Century British life.