![]() ![]() Pugin Thornton to confirm some bones as those of Thomas Becket. Unlike those inspecting saints for evidence of incorruptibility, these examiners inspected corpses ‘in order to validate supposition about the past’.Īn example of this phenomenon can be seen in attempts made by the 19th-century physician W. With the venerable Society of Antiquaries at the forefront of disinterment investigations, it became a gentlemanly pursuit. Kings and queens were also of interest to the excavators. Hair, bones and teeth were frequently ‘found’, notably those of saints. Complicating this was the fact that, between 17, numerous forgeries and hoaxes made the understanding of any particular corpse problematic. By assessing the ‘reading’ of corpses at particular times of disinterment, she shows how a new layer of complex interpretation was applied by the observer. With this new study, Tomaini presents a highly original way of examining culture. Each time bodies were dug up, their bones were reinterpreted, the excavators often purporting to reveal new evidence, although assessments were laden with established mythologies. Among the bodies scrutinised are those of King John, Katherine de Valois, Thomas Becket, Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Katherine Parr, William Shakespeare and Oliver Cromwell. This examination of history’s various disinterments and inspections shows how far perceptions about them have shifted through the centuries. Death and dead bodies have been an obsession of humans for as long as we have existed. ![]()
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