The Greyfriars Dig and Polish Vampires

I am now the ridiculously happy owner of a Richard III refrigerator magnet and a reproduction gold angel (coin), a friend’s gifts from a visit to the Richard III exhibit in Leicester. Thank you, Chris! A follow-on dig in the carpark where Richard’s skeleton was found commenced earlier this summer, so far uncovering nothing more exciting than pottery shards (or that’s all I’ve heard about)–not to demean pottery shards, we learn a lot from such everyday items. But here’s what they’re hoping to find: “The team is on the lookout for artifacts a bit sexier than pottery sherds this summer in their new 82-by-55-foot (25-by-17-meter) trench. The archaeologists have said they would examine other burials that were exposed at Grey Friars, including a stone coffin suspected to belong to a medieval knight. They will also be watching for evidence of headless friars, who were beheaded by Henry IV and buried at the church, according to legend.” http://www.livescience.com/38010-interns-medieval-pottery-richard-iii-dig.html   Oh, wouldn’t you love to be there when they find a collection of headless friars? Er, how will they know they’re friars?

One of my brothers-in-law found this and suggested I delve into vampires in an Owen Archer: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/suspected-cemetery-of-vampires-located-in-poland-a-912363.html  “…at least 17 skeletons buried with the skulls severed and placed between the knees or hands. That, say archaeologists, is how vampires used to be interred, to stop them rising from the dead.” (italics mine) Do we have documented vampires???? “In 2012, archaeologists in Bulgaria discovered two medieval skeletons that had been pierced through the chest with iron rods — another popular way to prevent suspected vampires from rising from the dead and gorging themselves on the blood of the living.” Ah, “suspected”–do you think they left that out of the caption above for effect? (No Polish jokes, please. I’m a proud Pole myself.)

Hah! Searching further I found this: http://listverse.com/2013/04/04/8-recently-discovered-medieval-vampire-burials/ I see one in Southwell, England. They certainly got around. And look at this: http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/researchers-look-for-descendants-of-medieval-vampire  Still, much as I enjoyed Nosferatu I don’t plan to add vampires to the Owen Archer ensemble. Magda would not approve.

And last but certainly not least, Welcome to the world, George Alexander Louis, Prince George of Cambridge!  (I was hoping for an Arthur in there, but I’m over it.)