Comments on: Richard III unexpectedly pretty

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 20:05:00 +0000

It wasn’t Time Team was it? They’re the kings of drawing sweeping conclusions from practically no evidence. They’re probably more accurately described as psychics than archaeologists.

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 20:03:00 +0000

If you feel effected by today’s topic, or are a tyrant yourself and require support, please call 0800 9990011

By: Cynical

Cynical — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 11:40:00 +0000

Genocidelicious.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 23:55:00 +0000

I’ve never hit anyone hard enough to injure them, just wake them up. I also wake up screaming at the top of my lungs a couple of times every year. Honestly, I get more complaints about the farting.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 21:34:00 +0000

So dreamy.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 21:27:00 +0000

No.

By: awjt

awjt — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 21:10:00 +0000

We wear straightjackets to bed at our house.

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 20:35:00 +0000

Now, that’s no way to solicit future candidates.

By: shay simmons

shay simmons — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 18:50:00 +0000

“History is written by the victors.”

Except in the case of the American Civil War.

By: Susan

Susan — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:32:00 +0000

He never had one – he is/was slightly undershot.

By: GregS

GregS — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:07:00 +0000

You’re talking about Richard III, right?

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:30:00 +0000

It wasn’t Time Team was it? They’re the kings of drawing sweeping conclusions from practically no evidence.

They’re probably more accurately described as psychics than archaeologists.

By: Wreckrob8

Wreckrob8 — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:21:00 +0000

How archaeologists jump from the physical properties of artifacts to belief systems and ideas is quite mystifying at times. However, without it archaeology is just a collection of indecipherable texts.They take no more liberties than are taken in trying to interpret contradictory written texts.

But I do know exactly what you mean.

By: Fee Berry

Fee Berry — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 14:48:00 +0000

In the programme broadcast earlier this week in the UK, the proofs offered were carbon dating of the bones, adjusted for the diet unusualy high in protein including fish, which skews it (but is another pointer towards high status corpse); circumstantial evidence of wounds to the body as reported contemporaneously; DNA testing against a known descendent of R3′s sister. The reconstruction of the face was done by the expert from Dundee who features in History Cold Case, and was close enough to portraits, although there is always the suspicion that painters will glamorise a living sitter and demonise a dead one.

By: Fee Berry

Fee Berry — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 14:41:00 +0000

It isn’t that their care that disturbs me, it’s that they care passionately about stuff they haven’t got the data to support… it is an object lesson in turning theories into dogma. The tv programme about the discovery of the skeleton was irritating in the extreme, mainly because they behaved as though there were only one descendant of the platagenets when there are thousands in the UK alone (and many more in the US I think) and the odd woman from the R3 society who was visibly upset that he was proven to have a physical deformity, against the party line for the society. On the other hand…she raised the money, and took them straight to the place where he was buried, so maybe we should forgive her disappointment at finding out the rumours weren’t all Tudor propaganda.

By: Cynical

Cynical — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 14:30:00 +0000

Teddy bear, my arse. Uncle Joe may have been one of the most genocidal tyrants the world has ever seen, but there aint nothing teddybearish about him:
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ltydkfFy1v1qeest9o1_400.jpg

By: peregrinus

peregrinus — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:57:00 +0000

Your chin diminishes, your bones shrink, you get neck-ache from looking up at everybody while looking down your nose, your voice gets louder, your hands move in nutty expressive patterns …

It’s not all easy, being a tyrant.

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:30:00 +0000

I can believe this.

I’ve actually started to build quite a lot of distrust around this kind of work, archeology as well (I’m afraid to say).

I’ve seen enough archeologists make bold, far-reaching claims, and present them as facts to know that at least some of the field is a bit iffy.

Things like: “There are four people buried here in the middle of nowhere, and one of them is pointing south, therefore this country’s primary theology was Devil worship”. That’s a pretty good format example that can be applied to 80% of archeology claims.

It’s the science equivalent of using a single anecdote to prove a theory.

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:24:00 +0000

Being a tyrant will have a toll on your face. If you’re angry at people all day, you’re going to end up looking angry.

It’s all in the eyebrows.

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:24:00 +0000

Is that a metaphor?

By: Wreckrob8

Wreckrob8 — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:15:00 +0000

500 years isn’t so long ago in Europe. The Yorkists have already started a petition to have his body repatriated to Yorkshire.

By: jorum

jorum — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 10:24:00 +0000

These reconstructions have been shown to be often very subjective.
Last time someone did a test they gave same skull to a dozen different forensic reconstructors and came back with a dozen completely different faces.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 10:13:00 +0000

I’ve managed to slug every person with whom I’ve ever slept.

By: Capital_7

Capital_7 — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 09:59:00 +0000

Well, if you’re not factoring in any expression, I suppose anyone can look innocent. We all look like angels when we’re sleeping.

By: Lemoutan

Lemoutan — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 09:34:00 +0000

My Little Kingdom?

By: Øyvind

Øyvind — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 08:26:00 +0000

“…doesn’t look like the face of a tyrant”
Tyrants have a certain face? Mao was ugly as sin, sure, but Stalin sometimes had a teddy bear look to him, and Tito looked more like a talk show host (when out of uniform). Even more to the point, except the odd moustache, most tyrants and dictators have had little physical in common as well.
Maybe we could have a chart ala the plane recognition charts of the 1950s; how to spot a tyrant?

By: Wreckrob8

Wreckrob8 — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 07:32:00 +0000

If Richard III is to be promoted to the status of ‘good’ king, someone needs to be demoted to the position of ‘bad’ king. History is a zero sum game. There are inept Plantagenet candidates, Edward II or Henry VI.
Now all we need is a long lost first folio with a missing 37th play….

By: sigismund

sigismund — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 07:05:00 +0000

Sam Riley !!! Now I want a black and white biopic directed by Anton Corbijn that will be called “A horse” or something that short.

By: Halloween_Jack

Halloween_Jack — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 05:33:00 +0000

I don’t think that the older portrait really makes him look sinister; he looks more tired of all these damn lies people keep telling about him. The new one, though, makes him look all like, eh, whatevs.

By: speleothem

speleothem — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 04:55:00 +0000

Another one that presents Richard III in a better light is Thomas B. Costain’s “The Last Plantagenets.”