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Blood Red Roses: The Archaeology of a Mass Grave from the Battle of Towton, AD 1461
 
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Blood Red Roses: The Archaeology of a Mass Grave from the Battle of Towton, AD 1461 (Hardcover)

by Veronica Fiorato (Editor), Anthea Boylston (Editor), Christopher Knusel (Editor)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 277 pages
  • Publisher: Oxbow Books (1 Dec 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1842170252
  • ISBN-13: 978-1842170250
  • Product Dimensions: 28 x 21.6 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 679,867 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #58 in  Books > History > Archaeology > By Region > European

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  • See Complete Table of Contents

Product Description

Product Description

In 1996 a mass grave believed to be from the Battle of Towton was discovered by chance. This provided the opportunity for the first archaeological excavation of a mass grave from an English battlefield and was the catalyst for a multi-disciplinary research project, beginning with the excavation of the grave, and then a study of the skeletal remains, the battlefield landscape, the historical evidence and contemporary arms and armour. The discoveries were dramatic and moving; the individuals had clearly suffered traumatic deaths and subsequent research highlighted the often multiple wounds each individual had received before and, in some cases after they had died. The exciting forensic work was documented in the Channel 4 programme Secrets of the Dead. An important and controversial question that emerged was whether the soldiers had been killed in battle, or executed as prisoners in its aftermath. This volume publishes the excavation reports and subsequent research, revealing much information about how and in what circumstances the men died and the fighting techniques, weapons and armour employed. Also discussed are the wider implications of the discovery, both in terms of increasing our understanding of what happened at Towton, and what it contributes to our knowledge of Medieval warfare.

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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A very detailed account of battlefield archaeology, 24 Mar 2002
This is a wonderfully detailed account of the discovery of a mass grave from Towton battlefield. A documentary was made about this, which I believe was shown as a Channel 4 'Secrets of the Dead' programme in 1999. The contents are divided into four sections. Part 1 deals with the discovery of the grave, its excavation, recording and the historical background to the battle. Part 2, which is the largest section, deals with the analysis of the human remains, such as evidence of battlefield trauma on the bones, signs of previous disease, stature and age of the individuals and group as a whole and skeletal change as a result of lifetime physical activity. These characteristics are compared to populations throughout history and to the remains from other mass battlefield graves. Section 3 discusses arms and armour of the C15th, while section 4 deals with wider implications of the discovery such as battlefield protection and implications with regard to current knowledge of medieval warfare.

The book is well illustrated throughout with maps, black and white and colour diagrams and photographs of artifacts found from the battlefield.

The only reservation I have regarding this book is that many of the chapters basically consist of a series of academic style papers. Indeed I suspect that many of the chapters were written specifically for publication in relevant journals and have been placed into the book with little or no modification. For example, section 2 is just a series of paper-like chapters with no introduction or final summary to pool all the main points together (apart from some details in an appendice). This is okay if you are used to reading academic style publications, but might appear a little disjointed otherwise. on the plus side however, each chapter has a bibliography for those interested in reading more about specific related topics.

Finally, although you can't judge a book by its cover, this does have a good one (a skull from one of the casulties showing a major injury) and my four year old daughter's fascination with skeletons meant that she enjoyed looking at the pictures as I read it.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars detailed but uneven, 26 April 2008
This review is from: Blood Red Roses: The Archaeology of a Mass Grave from the Battle of Towton AD 1461 (Paperback)
This book has a fantastic level of detail with regards to the men found in the mass grave at Towton and is nice to see a thorough and highly detailed archaeological book available for the mass market.
Information on the weapons and armour available was also useful though I would have enjoyed seeing some of the primary sources myself (the Bridport muster roll for example.)
Boardmans' history of the battle and events surrounding it was also nicely pitched and informative. I would have quite enjoyed at least a cautious attempt at interpreting the nature of the mass grave and the events that overwhelmed the men there but respect the decison to limit this less scientific avenue of enquiry. I did however get the impression that there had been other academic work done that was not being presented here.
Articles on battle field archaeology were also very rewarding and highlight the rather fragile nature of battlefield preservation.
I was less impressed with the article on combat techniques (which didn't seem to be linked with the archaeology of the site) and was quite uniformative. I found the article on reenactment quite irrelevant in an academic book and would have liked rather more detail in the section on using the battlefield to teach history.
However these really are minor quibbles and the book really should be in the collection of all people interested in history or western martial arts.
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