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The remains of the king were excavated from beneath a parking lot in Leicster, central England, in August 2012. Dr. Hainsworth, with colleagues Guy Rutty and Jo Appleby, spent several months using modern forensic tools to reveal new clues about the last king of England to be killed in battle. Historical accounts state that Richard was knocked from his horse at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.

The researchers used the same 3D-imaging technology found in modern hospitals, a CT scan, to get the big pictures. They used a micro-CT scan to get more refined images as well as a variety of microscopes and high-resolution photography.

Once they scanned the three parts of the skull, a process that took six hours per scan, researchers tapped into the extensive medieval weapons collection at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds to match the shape and edging of the wounds to possible arms.

If you took a serrated kitchen knife and pushed it through a block of hard cheese, what you’d get is a pattern on the cheese of the tool marks on your kitchen knife. You can also see marks like that in bone

“If you took a serrated kitchen knife and pushed it through a block of hard cheese, what you’d get is a pattern on the cheese of the tool marks on your kitchen knife,” Dr. Hainsworth said. “You can also see marks like that in bone.”

Their investigation found that Richard also sustained a major injury to the right side of his head, likely from a halberd, a pole with an axe on the end. Dr. Hainsworth said the images couldn’t reveal of how much of his brain would have been exposed by that hit. Seven centimetres would have been fatal.

Dr. Hainsworth said the king also sustained four injuries to the top of his head — one from a square-shaped dagger, likely a rondel, and three slicing marks from another dagger — as well as injuries to his cheek, jaw, rib and pelvis.

Richard will be buried in a $1.8-million ceremony at Leicester Cathedral.

National Post