Mike Pitts tells the story of how archaeologists found Richard III, the king in the car park

Digging for Richard III: How Archaeology Found the King
BY Mike Pitts
Thames and Hudson Ltd (14 April 2014)
ISBN-10: 0500252009
ISBN-13: 978-0500252000

The book is available in hardcover as well as an E-book – iBooks, Kindle and Kobo.

ABSTRACT:

First came the news that archaeologists were searching for a king in a car park. Next it was said they had located the church where Richard had been buried. Finally it was announced that a skeleton had been found – with curved spine and battle wounds. Archaeologists urged caution, as media frenzy led to questions in Parliament. The scientific conclusion came early in 2013. All the studies, including analysis of anatomy, DNA, high-resolution scanning and a digital facial reconstruction, led to one thing. This really was Richard III, England’s most disputed monarch and probable murderer of the Princes in the Tower.

The events of Richard III’s reign and his death in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth are known worldwide through Shakespeare’s most performed, filmed and translated history play. ‘Digging for Richard III’ is the page-turning story of how his grave was found, the people behind the discovery and what it tells us. It is the first complete narrative of a project that blended passion, science, luck and detection. Told by a noted archaeologist with access to all the parties involved, it follows the quest from an idea born in an Edinburgh bookshop to the day, fourteen years later, when two archaeologists carefully raised the bones from a car park in Leicester, and the scientific studies that resulted.

The vivid tale of a king, his demise and now his rediscovery, this is also an insider’s gripping account of how modern archaeology really works, of how clues meticulously assembled and forensically examined are pieced together to create a narrative worthy of the finest detective fiction.

AUTHOR:

Mike Pitts is an archaeologist and award-winning journalist. He grew up in Sussex and studied archaeology at University College London. In his early career he directed his own excavations at sites such as Stonehenge and Avebury, and he continues with scientific research, including most recently on an Easter Island statue. For the last ten years Mike has edited Britain’s leading archaeological magazine, British Archaeology, and as a freelance journalist he writes frequently for national and international newspapers and magazines.