Episode 11

Dicky Three-Sticks (The Burial of Richard III)

If you thought we were experts, well, that's about to change. This week, Anna and Amber wade out into the great unknown-to-them of British history and discuss Richard III and the events that led to the excavation of his remains from a parking lot in Leicester, England. Plus, the secret to Richard III's perfectly aligned teeth, other rulers whose final resting places remain a mystery, and the curse of Tamerlane's tomb (but also, his great eyebrows). BONUS: The premiere of the "Amber Googles It" theme tune!

If you’d like to read more about what we discussed this week, check out the following links (and do yourself a favor and look at some baby rock badgers):

Richard III (William Shakespeare)

Richard III of England (Wikipedia)

English Car Park Where Remains Of Richard III Were Found Declared A Monument (NPR)

2012 Grey Friars excavation (University of Leicester)

What the bones can and can’t tell us (University of Leicester)

How Forks Gave Us Overbites and Pots Saved the Toothless (The Atlantic)

Using forks and knives has changed the human face (Business Insider)

The Richard III Society

New evidence: The bones of the ‘Princes in the Tower’ show no relationship to Richard III (Dr. John Ashdown-Hill Blog)

Now Richard III’s skull may prove he DIDN’T kill princes: Mystery of the missing teeth could clear king of murder in the Tower (Daily Mail)

Five missing kings and queens – and where we might find them (Independent)

Lost Tombs: In search of history's greatest rulers (Archaeology)

Digging up the past: famous exhumations throughout history (PRI)

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The Dirt Podcast
Archaeology, Anthropology, and our shared human past.

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The Dirt Podcast

As science communicators in anthropology and archaeology, we hosts of The Dirt acknowledge that we hold a position of considerable privilege and opportunity, and commit ourselves to continuous learning, unlearning and reflection. We recognize that our disciplines, as well as our own lives, are rooted in and propped up by settler colonialism, white supremacy, and dispossession.

We now reside on the stolen ancestral territory of the Shawnee and Haudenosaunee and on the lands of the Muscogee and Cherokee Nations, but over its lifetime, The Dirt has also been produced on the unceded traditional territory of the Piscataway Conoy and Cedarville Band of Piscataway Indians, as well as that of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, Patwin and Miwok peoples and all those dispossessed by Cession 296. We offer our show as a platform for Indigenous scholarship, history, and cultural expression, through citation and conversation, and we welcome the opportunity to host and compensate Indigenous scholars of archaeology and anthropology as interview guests.

Likewise, we encourage all listeners who reside in settler-colonial states to learn about on whose land they reside, their place in the ongoing process of colonization, and how to contribute materially to reparations and Indigenous sovereignty.