Notes On The Film Of The Dig

[poliphilo]

In another age (Richard III's for instance) a person who intuits the presence of a buried body by getting "cold chills" whilst walking over it would have had their extra-sensory perceptions taken seriously. In our own they're treated with embarrassment and a "look at the nutter"  tone of voice- even when it turns out that they're right. The archaeologists dug their trench where the "crazy woman" told them to and found the bones immediately- even before they found evidence for the building they were buried in. 

The arrow in the back turned out to be a Roman nail.

Philippa Langley insisted on draping the box containing Richard's bones with his colours. The osteologist demurred. What if it turned out not to be him? In the event amateur passion got the better of professional caution; Langley took the risk- of jumping the gun and looking stupid- and once again proved to be right. 

While Richard was being carried from the battlefield- naked, slung over the back of a horse like a Western bad-man- some oik stabbed him in the bum. It only happened the once. One would like to think the oik got smacked down for it.

The facial reconstruction gives us (to quote Simon Farnaby) "a bonny lad". The nervy, prematurely aged person in the portraits is replaced by a handsome, smooth-faced, cocky young man. The real Richard seems to have looked remarkably like Olivier's version of him. 

Comments

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

One needs to be a little bit wary of facial constructions as they tend to forget things like aging. Richard would certainly have had worry lines on his worry lines!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I imagine a 32 year person in the 15th century would have looked older than a 32 year old person today.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I think he looks like Neil Oliver...

I don't think the osteologist would have been allowed to drape the box with colours under rules and guidelines issued by English Heritage or whatever - the Historic Scotland ones are quite strict about behaving in a 'neutral' fashion, and give the impression that you're just to treat them as any other kind of artefact rather than something which was once human. I find that sad, but hey, rules and guidelines is rules and guidelines. I think a few stupid archaeologists in the past have done skull puppetry and the like and as a result, the powers that be get jittery...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Silly old powers that be.....