As every morning I couldn’t wait today to visit the news update on the Greyfriars project in Leicester.  I was especially curious what the press conference yesterday would have brought.  So here is the latest:

Richard Buckley, the archaeologist leading the dig, stated that “Progress in our search for the body of King Richard III is exceeding our expectations. The first week could not have gone better.”

A part of a wall was found, which could have belonged to the church, but also medieval window tracery, fragments glazed floor tiles as well as of a stained glass window, which might have come from the cloisters walk.  According to the BBC, Richard Buckley concluded that

The dimensions of the walls and the association with certain building materials and tiled floors suggests we are looking at a religious house and a high status medieval building.

One of the walls in particular is getting on for two metres thick and it’s on an east-west orientation, so as far as we can tell, and its still early days yet, it might be one of the walls of the Greyfriars church and if that is the case, we are on the right track.

As at the start of the dig the archaeologists were not even sure, where exactly the friary might have been, this is certainly a find exceeding any expectations.

I have been interested in medieval ceramics for some time, so for me the floor tile fragment was of particular interest.  It is of a type which was limited to high-status buildings and was one of the indications that the discovered remains are those of the church.  A photo of the tile fragment on the page of the University of Leicester.

The team is planning to dig a contingency trench over the weekend to confirm that they have indeed found the church, which would give them a clearer understanding of where to look for Richard’s body.

However, even if the body of the king were not found, the dig is a tremendous boost for our understanding of the historic Leicester.  And as for Richard, it seems to help in publicizing a more balanced viewpoint of Richard III, as a recent article in the Catholic Herald in spite of certain shortcomings shows.

In the Southern hemisphere today marks the first day of spring (though present temperatures could have fooled me).   Maybe the winter of our discontent is over in more ways than the one Shakespeare thought.

Tags: Archaeology, Leicester, Leicester Greyfriars Dig, Richard III