Sex and the Neanderthals

The Ghosts of the Mary Rose

Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose, sank in 1545 when its gun ports flooded during an engagement with the French. Because silt preserved the wreck, it became Britain's Pompeii - an historical moment frozen in time. Some 10,000 human bones from the 400 men on board were recovered, which are now giving up their secrets. The captain had described his crew as a bunch of unruly knaves; forensic examination of the enamel from their teeth shows that up to two thirds of these knaves were likely to have been mercenaries from southern Europe. In the chaos of battle, there may have been a language problem over “shut that bloody gun port!”