Perimortem trauma in King Richard III: a skeletal analysis

skeleton was excavated in Leicester that was identifi ed as Richard. We investigated the trauma to the skeleton with modern forensic techniques, such as conventional CT and micro-CT scanning, to characterise the injuries and establish the probable cause of death. Methods We assessed age and sex through direct analysis of the skeleton and from CT images. All bones were examined under direct light and multi-spectral illumination. We then scanned the skeleton with whole-body post-mortem CT. We subsequently examined bones with identifi ed injuries with micro-CT. We deemed that trauma was perimortem when we recorded no evidence of healing and when breakage characteristics were typical of fresh bone. We used previous data to identify the weapons responsible for the recorded injuries. Findings The skeleton was that of an adult man with a gracile build and severe scoliosis of the thoracic spine. Standard anthropological age estimation techniques based on dry bone analysis gave an age range between 20s and 30s. Standard post-mortem CT methods were used to assess rib end morphology, auricular surfaces, pubic symphyseal face, and cranial sutures, to produce a multifactorial narrower age range estimation of 30–34 years. We identifi ed nine perimortem injuries to the skull and two to the postcranial skeleton. We identifi ed no healed injuries. The injuries were consistent with those created by weapons from the later medieval period. We could not identify the specifi c order of the injuries, because they were all distinct, with no overlapping wounds. Three of the injuries—two to the inferio