title: Vistula

text: The river forms a wide delta called Żuławy Wiślane, or the "Vistula Fens" in English. The delta currently starts around Biała Góra near Sztum, about from the mouth, where the river Nogat splits off. The Nogat also starts separately as a river named (on this map ) "Alte Nogat" (Old Nogat) south of Kwidzyn, but further north it picks up water from a crosslink with the Vistula, and becomes a distributary of the Vistula, flowing away northeast into the Vistula Lagoon (Polish: Zalew Wiślany) with a small delta. The Nogat formed part of the border between East Prussia and interwar Poland. The other channel of the Vistula below this point is sometimes called the Leniwka.


title: Vistula

text: Various causes (rain, snow melt, ice jams) have caused many severe floods of the Vistula down the centuries. Land in the area was sometimes depopulated by severe flooding, and later had to be resettled.


title: Vistula

text: See (Figure 7, on page 812 at History of floods on the River Vistula) for a reconstruction map of the delta area as it was around the year 1300: note much more water in the area, and the west end of the Vistula Lagoon (Frisches Haff) was bigger and nearly continuous with the Drausen See.


title: Vistula

text: Near the sea, the Vistula was diverted sideways by coastal sand as a result of longshore drift and split into an east-flowing branch (the Elbing (Elbląg) Vistula, Elbinger Weichsel, Szkarpawa, flows into the Vistula Lagoon, now for flood control closed to the east with a lock) and a west-flowing branch (the Danzig (Gdańsk) Vistula, Przegalinie branch, reached the sea in Danzig). Until the 14th century, the Elbing Vistula was the bigger.


title: Vistula

text: According to flood studies carried out by Professor Zbigniew Pruszak, who is the co-author of the scientific paper "Implications of SLR" and further studies carried out by scientists attending Poland's Final International ASTRA Conference, and predictions stated by climate scientists at the climate change pre-summit in Copenhagen, it is highly likely most of the Vistula Delta region (which is below sea level) will be flooded due to the sea level rise caused by climate change by 2100.


title: Vistula

text: The history of the River Vistula and its valley spans over 2 million years. The river is connected to the geological period called the Quaternary, in which distinct cooling of the climate took place. In the last million years, an ice sheet entered the area of Poland eight times, bringing along with it changes of reaches of the river. In warmer periods, when the ice sheet retreated, the Vistula deepened and widened its valley. The river took its present shape within the last 14,000 years, after the complete recession of the Scandinavian ice sheet from the area. At present, along with the Vistula valley, erosion of the banks and collecting of new deposits are still occurring.


title: Vistula

text: As the principal river of Poland, the Vistula is also in the centre of Europe. Three principal geographical and geological land masses of the continent meet in its river basin: the Eastern European Plain, Western Europe, and the Alpine zone to which the Alps and the Carpathians belong. The Vistula begins in the Carpathian mountains. The run and character of the river were shaped by ice sheets flowing down from the Scandinavian peninsula. The last ice sheet entered the area of Poland about 20,000 years ago. During periods of warmer weather, the ancient Vistula, "Pra-Wisła", searched for the shortest way to the sea—thousands of years ago it flowed into the North Sea somewhere at the latitude of contemporary Scotland. The climate of the Vistula valley, its plants, animals, and its very character changed considerably during the process of glacial retreat.


title: Vistula

text: The Vistula is navigable from the Baltic Sea to Bydgoszcz (where the Bydgoszcz Canal joins the river). The Vistula can accommodate modest river vessels of CEMT class II. Farther upstream the river depth lessens. Although a project was undertaken to increase the traffic-carrying capacity of the river upstream of Warsaw by building a number of locks in and around Kraków, this project was not extended further, so that navigability of the Vistula remains limited. The potential of the river would increase considerably if a restoration of the east–west connection via the Narew–Bug–Mukhovets–Pripyat–Dnieper waterways were considered. The shifting economic importance of parts of Europe may make this option more likely.


title: Vistula

text: The Vistula is the northern part of the proposed E40 waterway, continuing eastward into the Bug River, linking the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.


title: Vistula

text: Large parts of the Vistula Basin were occupied by the Iron Age Lusatian and Przeworsk cultures in the first millennium BC.


title: Vistula

text: Genetic analysis indicates that there has been an unbroken genetic continuity of the inhabitants over the last 3,500 years.


title: Vistula

text: The Vistula Basin along with the lands of the Rhine, Danube, Elbe, and Oder came to be called Magna Germania by Roman authors of the first century AD. This does not imply that the inhabitants were "Germanic peoples" in the modern sense of the term;


title: Vistula

text: Tacitus, when describing the Venethi, Peucini and Fenni, wrote that he was not sure if he should call them Germans, since they had settlements and they fought on foot, or rather Sarmatians since they have some similar customs to them. Ptolemy, in the second century AD, would describe the Vistula as the border between Germania and Sarmatia.


title: Vistula

text: The Vistula river used to be connected to the Dnieper River, and thence to the Black Sea via the Augustów Canal, a technological marvel with numerous sluices contributing to its aesthetic appeal. It was the first waterway in Central Europe to provide a direct link between the two major rivers, the Vistula and the Neman. It provided a link with the Black Sea to the south through the Oginski Canal, Dnieper River, Berezina Canal, and Dvina River. The Baltic Sea– Vistula– Dnieper– Black Sea route with its rivers was one of the most ancient trade routes, the Amber Road, on which amber and other items were traded from Northern Europe to Greece, Asia, Egypt, and elsewhere.


title: Vistula

text: The Vistula estuary was settled by Slavs in the seventh and eighth century. Based on archeological and linguistic findings, it has been postulated that these settlers moved northward along the Vistula river. This however contradicts another hypothesis supported by some researchers saying the Veleti moved westward from the Vistula delta.


title: Vistula

text: A number of West Slavic Polish tribes formed small dominions beginning in the eighth century, some of which coalesced later into larger ones. Among the tribes listed in the Bavarian Geographer's ninth-century document was the Vistulans ("Wiślanie") in southern Poland. Kraków and Wiślica were their main centres.


title: Vistula

text: Many Polish legends are connected with the Vistula and the beginnings of Polish statehood. One of the most enduring is that about princess Wanda "co nie chciała Niemca" ("who rejected the German"). According to the most popular variant, popularized by the 15th-century historian Jan Długosz, Wanda, daughter of King Krak, became queen of the Poles upon her father's death. She refused to marry a German prince Rytigier (Rüdiger), who took offence and invaded Poland, but was repelled. Wanda however committed suicide, drowning in the Vistula river, to ensure he would not invade her country again.


title: Vistula

text: For hundreds of years the river was one of the main trading arteries of Poland, and the castles that line its banks were highly prized possessions. Salt, timber, grain, and building stone were among goods shipped via that route between the 10th and 13th centuries.


title: Vistula

text: In the 14th century the lower Vistula was controlled by the Teutonic Knights Order, invited in 1226 by Konrad I of Masovia to help him fight the pagan Prussians on the border of his lands. In 1308 the Teutonic Knights captured the Gdańsk castle and murdered the population. Since then the event is known as "the Gdańsk slaughter". The Order had inherited Gniew from Sambor II, thus gaining a foothold on the left bank of the Vistula. Many granaries and storehouses, built in the 14th century, line the banks of the Vistula. In the 15th century the city of Gdańsk gained great importance in the Baltic area as a centre of merchants and trade and as a port city. At this time the surrounding lands were inhabited by Pomeranians, but Gdańsk soon became a starting point for German settlement of the largely fallow Vistulan country.


title: Vistula

text: Before its peak in 1618, trade increased by a factor of 20 from 1491. This factor is evident when looking at the tonnage of grain traded on the river in the key years of: 1491: 14,000; 1537: 23,000; 1563: 150,000; 1618: 310,000.


title: Vistula

text: In the 16th century most of the grain exported was leaving Poland through Gdańsk, which because of its location at the end of the Vistula and its tributary waterway and of its Baltic seaport trade role became the wealthiest, most highly developed, and by far the largest centre of crafts and manufacturing, and the most autonomous of the Polish cities. Other towns were negatively affected by Gdańsk's near-monopoly in foreign trade. During the reign of Stephen Báthory Poland ruled two main Baltic Sea ports: Gdańsk controlling the Vistula river trade and Riga controlling the Western Dvina trade. Both cities were among the largest in the country. Around 70% the exports from Gdańsk were of grain.


title: Vistula

text: Grain was also the largest export commodity of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The volume of traded grain can be considered a good and well-measured proxy for the economic growth of the Commonwealth.


title: Vistula

text: The owner of a folwark usually signed a contract with the merchants of Gdańsk, who controlled 80% of this inland trade, to ship the grain to Gdańsk. Many rivers in the Commonwealth were used for shipping, including the Vistula, which had a relatively well-developed infrastructure, with river ports and granaries. Most river shipping travelled north, with southward transport being less profitable, and barges and rafts often being sold off in Gdańsk for lumber.


title: Vistula

text: In order to arrest recurrent flooding on the lower Vistula, the Prussian government in 1889–95 constructed an artificial channel about east of Gdańsk (German name: "Danzig")—known as the Vistula Cut (German: "Weichseldurchstich"; Polish: "Przekop Wisły")—that acted as a huge sluice, diverting much of the Vistula flow directly into the Baltic. As a result, the historic Vistula channel through Gdańsk lost much of its flow and was known thereafter as the Dead Vistula (German: "Tote Weichsel"; Polish: "Martwa Wisła"). German states acquired complete control of the region in 1795–1812 (see: Partitions of Poland), as well as during the World Wars, in 1914–1918 and 1939–1945.


title: Vistula

text: From 1867 to 1917, the Russian tsarist administration called the Kingdom of Poland the Vistula Land after the collapse of the January Uprising (1863–1865).


title: Vistula

text: Almost 75% of the territory of interbellum Poland was drained northward into the Baltic Sea by the Vistula (total area of drainage basin of the Vistula within boundaries of the Second Polish Republic was , the Niemen (), the Oder () and the Daugava ().


title: Vistula

text: In 1920 the decisive battle of the Polish–Soviet War Battle of Warsaw (sometimes referred to as the "Miracle at the Vistula"), was fought as Red Army forces commanded by Mikhail Tukhachevsky approached the Polish capital of Warsaw and nearby Modlin Fortress by the river's mouth.


title: Vistula

text: The Polish September campaign included battles over control of the mouth of the Vistula, and of the city of Gdańsk, close to the river delta. During the Invasion of Poland (1939), after the initial battles in Pomerelia, the remains of the Polish Army of Pomerania withdrew to the southern bank of the Vistula. After defending Toruń for several days, the army withdrew further south under pressure of the overall strained strategic situation, and took part in the main battle of Bzura.


title: Vistula

text: The Auschwitz complex of concentration camps was at the confluence of the Vistula and the Soła rivers. Ashes of murdered Auschwitz victims were dumped into the river.


title: Vistula

text: During World War II prisoners of war from the Nazi Stalag XX-B camp were assigned to cut ice blocks from the River Vistula. The ice would then be transported by truck to the local beer houses.


title: Vistula

text: The 1944 Warsaw Uprising was planned with the expectation that the Soviet forces, who had arrived in the course of their offensive and were waiting on the other side of the Vistula River in full force, would help in the battle for Warsaw. However, the Soviets let down the Poles, stopping their advance at the Vistula and branding the insurgents as criminals in radio broadcasts.


title: Vistula

text: In early 1945, in the Vistula–Oder Offensive, the Red Army crossed the Vistula and drove the German Wehrmacht back past the Oder river in Germany.


title: Gungnir

text: In the Poetic Edda poem "Völuspá", the Æsir-Vanir War is described as officially starting when Odin throws a spear over the heads of an assembly of Vanir gods. Whether or not this was specifically Gungnir is, however, unstated. In "Sigrdrífumál", the valkyrie Sigrdrífa advises Sigurd on the magical application of runes. She gives Sigurd advice and shares with him lore, including that runes were carved on the tip of Gungnir.


title: Gungnir

text: According to chapter 51 of the "Prose Edda" book, "Gylfaginning", Odin will ride in front of the Einherjar while advancing on to the battle field at Ragnarök wearing a gold helmet, an impressive cloak of mail and carrying Gungnir. He will then attack the wolf Fenrir with it.


title: Gungnir

text: In "Skáldskaparmál", more information regarding the spear is presented. The spear was fashioned by the dwarves known as the Sons of Ivaldi under the mastery of the blacksmith dwarf Dvalin. The spear was obtained from the dwarves by Loki, the result of a scheme he concocted as a partial reparation for his cutting of the goddess Sif's hair. The spear is described as being so well balanced that it could strike any target, no matter the skill or strength of the wielder.


title: Gungnir

text: If the rider on horseback on the image on the Böksta Runestone has been identified as Odin, then Odin is shown carrying Gungnir while hunting an elk.


title: Gungnir

text: In Richard Wagner's opera cycle, "Der Ring des Nibelungen", Wotan's (Odin's) spear is made from the wood of the world ash-tree and engraved with the contracts from which Wotan's power derives. He uses the spear to break the sword of Siegmund, leading to Siegmund's death. When he later tries to bar Siegmund's son Siegfried from awakening Brünnhilde from her magic sleep, Siegfried breaks the spear in two and Wotan flees. In the concluding opera "Götterdämmerung" Wotan is said to have returned to his stronghold Valhalla with the broken spear and withdrawn from worldly matters.


title: Billy Jack

text: Billy Jack is a 1971 American action drama independent film, the second of four films centering on a character of the same name which began with the movie "The Born Losers" (1967), played by Tom Laughlin, who directed and co-wrote the script. Filming began in Prescott, Arizona, in the fall of 1969, but the movie was not completed until 1971. American International Pictures pulled out, halting filming. 20th Century-Fox came forward and filming eventually resumed but when that studio refused to distribute the film, Warner Bros. stepped forward.


title: Billy Jack

text: Still, the film lacked distribution, so Laughlin booked it into theaters himself in 1971. The film grossed $10 million in its initial run, but eventually added close to $50 million in its re-release, with distribution supervised by Laughlin.


title: Billy Jack

text: Jack defends the hippie-themed Freedom School (inspired by Prescott College) and students from townspeople who do not understand or like the counterculture students. The school is organized by its director, Jean Roberts (Delores Taylor). One of the troubled youths is a girl named Barbara, who became pregnant and was abused by her father.


title: Billy Jack

text: A group of children of various races from the school go to town for ice cream and are refused service and then abused and humiliated by Bernard Posner (David Roya), the son of the county's corrupt political boss Stuart Posner (Bert Freed), and his gang. This prompts a violent outburst by Billy. Billy goes through a Navajo initiation where he is bitten purposely by a large rattlesnake, so that he would become the blood brother to the snake, and survives the ordeal. Meanwhile, Barbara loses her unborn child, when the horse she was riding stumbles on a rock, causing her to fall off the horse. Following an incident involving Jean, Billy gives Bernard a choice of either receiving a dislocated elbow, or driving his Corvette into the lake; Bernard does the latter. Later, Jean is kidnapped and raped by Bernard, who also murders a Native American student. Billy confronts Bernard, whom he catches in bed with a 13-year-old girl, and sustains a gunshot wound before killing him with a hand strike to the throat. After a climactic shootout with the police and pleading from Jean, Billy Jack surrenders to the authorities in exchange for a decade-long guarantee that the school will be allowed to continue to run with Jean as its head. As Billy is driven away in handcuffs, a large crowd of supporters raise their fists as a show of defiance and support.


title: Billy Jack

text: "Billy Jack" holds a 'Fresh' rating of 63% at Rotten Tomatoes based on 16 reviews, with an average grade of 5.37/10.


title: Billy Jack

text: In his "Movie and Video Guide", film critic Leonard Maltin gave "Billy Jack" 1.5 stars out of 4, writing: 'Seen today, its politics are highly questionable, and its 'message' of peace looks ridiculous, considering the amount of violence in the film.' Roger Ebert gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4 and also saw the message of the film as self-contradictory, writing: 'I'm also somewhat disturbed by the central theme of the movie. "Billy Jack" seems to be saying the same thing as "Born Losers"; that a gun is better than a constitution in the enforcement of justice.' Howard Thompson, writing for "The New York Times" agreed, calling the film 'well-aimed but misguided' as he wrote: 'For a picture that preaches pacifism, "Billy Jack" seems fascinated by its violence, of which it is full.' He added that 'some of the non-professional delivery of lines in the script by Mr. Frank and Teresa Christina is incredibly awful." "Variety" magazine opined that 'the action frequently drags' and at nearly two hours' running length, 'The message is rammed down the spectators' throats and is sorely in need of considerable editing to tell a straightforward story.' Gene Siskel gave "Billy Jack" 3.5 stars out of 4, calling it 'a film that tries to say too many things in too many ways within an adequate story line, but it has such freshness, original humor and compassion that one is frequently moved to genuine emotion'. Kevin Thomas, in the "Los Angeles Times", also liked "Billy Jack", praising its 'searing tension that sustains it through careening unevenness to a smash finish. Crude and sensational yet urgent and pertinent, this provocative Warners release is in its unique, awkward way one of the year's important pictures.'


title: Billy Jack

text: Gary Arnold, writing for "The Washington Post" panned "Billy Jack" as 'horrendously self-righteous and devious', explaining: 'Every social issue is dramatized in terms of absolute, apolitical good and evil. The good guys...are next to angelic, while the bad guys are, according to the needs of the moment, utter buffoons or utter devils. Anyone with the slightest trace of skepticism or sophistication would tend to reject the movie out of hand and with good reason, since this kind of simplification is dramatically and socially deceitful.' David Wilson, in "The Monthly Film Bulletin" wrote: 'If in the end "Billy Jack" is as much a sell-out as any glossier version of commercialised iconoclasm (Billy Jack is persuaded to accept guarantees which a hundred years of Indian history have repudiated), there is enough innocent sincerity in the film to demonstrate that Tom Laughlin at least has the courage of his convictions, even if those convictions are scarcely thought out.'


title: Billy Jack

text: Delores Taylor received a Golden Globe nomination as Most Promising Newcoming Actress. Tom Laughlin won the grand prize for "Billy Jack" at the 1971 Taormina International Film Festival in Italy.


title: Billy Jack

text: A direct sequel followed with "The Trial of Billy Jack" (1974). "Billy Jack Goes to Washington" (1977) followed three years later, but without a formal release. Plans for "The Return of Billy Jack" came and went in the mid 1980s.


title: Billy Jack

text: The film score was composed, arranged and conducted by Mundell Lowe and the soundtrack album was originally released on the Warner Bros. label.


title: Billy Jack

text: The Allmusic review states "a strange and striking combination of styles that somehow is effective... a listenable disc whose flaws only add to the warmth". A cover of Canadian band The Original Caste, the film's theme song, "One Tin Soldier" was recorded by Jinx Dawson, of the band Coven, with session musicians providing the backing and later a re-recording, renamed as "One Tin Soldier (The Legend of Billy Jack)", credited to the band Coven, became a Top 40 hit in 1971 and, again, in 1973.


title: Billy Jack

text: Marketed as an action film, the story focuses on the plight of Native Americans during the civil rights era. It attained a cult following among younger audiences due to its youth-oriented, anti-authority message and the then-novel martial arts fight scenes which predate the Bruce Lee/kung fu movie trend that followed. The centerpiece of the film features Billy Jack, enraged over the mistreatment of his Native American friends, fighting racist thugs using hapkido techniques.


title: Billy Jack

text: In 2019, it was revealed that writer-director Quentin Tarantino and actor Brad Pitt used the film and Laughlin's performance as an influence while developing Pitt's character Cliff Booth in "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood".


title: Chinese gods and immortals

text: Chinese traditional religion is polytheistic; many deities are worshipped in a pantheistic view where divinity is inherent in the world. The gods are energies or principles revealing, imitating and propagating the way of Heaven ("Tian" ), which is the supreme godhead manifesting in the northern culmen of the starry vault of the skies and its order. Many gods are ancestors or men who became deities for their heavenly achievements; most gods are also identified with stars and constellations. Ancestors are regarded as the equivalent of Heaven within human society, and therefore as the means connecting back to Heaven, which is the "utmost ancestral father" ( "zēngzǔfù").


title: Chinese gods and immortals

text: Gods are innumerable, as every phenomenon has or is one or more gods, and they are organised in a complex celestial hierarchy. Besides the traditional worship of these entities, Confucianism, Taoism and formal thinkers in general give theological interpretations affirming a monistic essence of divinity. "Polytheism" and "monotheism" are categories derived from Western religion and do not fit Chinese religion, which has never conceived the two things as opposites. Since all gods are considered manifestations of "qì", the "power" or "pneuma" of Heaven, some scholars have employed the term "polypneumatism" or "(poly)pneumatolatry", first coined by Walter Medhurst (1796–1857), to describe the practice of Chinese polytheism. In the theology of the classic texts and Confucianism, "Heaven is the lord of the hundreds of deities". Modern Confucian theology compares them to intelligence, substantial forms or entelechies (inner purposes) as explained by Leibniz, generating all types of beings, so that "even mountains and rivers are worshipped as something capable of enjoying sacrificial offerings".


title: Chinese gods and immortals

text: Unlike in Hinduism, the deification of historical persons and ancestors is not traditionally the duty of Confucians or Taoists. Rather depends on the choices of common people; persons are deified when they have made extraordinary deeds and have left an efficacious legacy. Yet, Confucians and Taoists traditionally may demand that state honour be granted to a particular deity. Each deity has a cult centre and ancestral temple where he or she, or the parents, lived their mortal life. There are frequently disputes over which is the original place and source temple of the cult of a deity.


title: Chinese gods and immortals

text: In Chinese language there is a terminological distinction between "shén", "dì" and "xiān". Although the usage of the former two is sometimes blurred, it corresponds to the distinction in Western cultures between "god" and "deity", Latin "genius" (meaning a generative principle, "spirit") and "deus" or 'Deva' (Sanskrit) and "divus"; "dì", sometimes translated as "thearch", implies a manifested or incarnate "godly" power. It is etymologically and figuratively analogous to the concept of "di" as the base of a fruit, which falls and produces other fruits. This analogy is attested in the "Shuowen Jiezi" explaining "deity" as "what faces the base of a melon fruit". The latter term "xiān" unambiguously means a man who has reached immortality, similarly to the Western idea of "hero".


title: Chinese gods and immortals

text: Chinese traditional theology, which comes in different interpretations according to the classic texts, and specifically Confucian, Taoist and other philosophical formulations, is fundamentally monistic, that is to say it sees the world and the gods who produce it as an organic whole, or cosmos. The universal principle that gives origin to the world is conceived as transcendent and immanent to creation, at the same time. The Chinese idea of the universal God is expressed in different ways; there are many names of God from the different sources of Chinese tradition.


title: Chinese gods and immortals

text: The radical Chinese terms for the universal God are "Tiān" and "Shàngdì" (the "Highest Deity") or simply "Dì" ("Deity"). There is also the concept of "Tàidì" (the "Great Deity"). "Dì" is a title expressing dominance over the all-under-Heaven, that is all things generated by Heaven and ordered by its cycles and by the stars. "Tiān" is usually translated as "Heaven", but by graphical etymology it means "Great One" and a number of scholars relate it to the same "Dì" through phonetic etymology and trace their common root, through their archaic forms respectively "*Teeŋ" and "*Tees", to the symbols of the squared north celestial pole godhead ("Dīng" ). These names are combined in different ways in Chinese theological literature, often interchanged in the same paragraph if not in the same sentence.


title: Chinese gods and immortals

text: Besides "Shangdi" and "Taidi", other names include "Yudi" ("Jade Deity") and "Taiyi" ("Great Oneness") who, in mythical imagery, holds the ladle of the Big Dipper (Great Chariot) providing the movement of life to the world. As the hub of the skies, the north celestial pole constellations are known, among various names, as "Tiānmén" ("Gate of Heaven") and "Tiānshū" ("Pivot of Heaven").


title: Chinese gods and immortals

text: Other names of the God of Heaven are attested in the vast Chinese religio-philosophical literary tradition:


title: Chinese gods and immortals

text: "Tian" is both transcendent and immanent, manifesting in the three forms of dominance, destiny and nature of things. In the "Wujing yiyi" (, "Different Meanings in the Five Classics"), Xu Shen explains that the designation of Heaven is quintuple:


title: Chinese gods and immortals

text: Many classical books have lists and hierarchies of gods and immortals, among which the "Completed Record of Deities and Immortals" (, "Shénxiān Tōngjiàn") of the Ming dynasty, and the "Biographies of the Deities and Immortals" or "Shenxian Zhuan" by Ge Hong (284–343). There's also the older "Collected Biographies of the Immortals" or "Liexian Zhuan". Couplets or polarities, such as Fuxi and Nuwa, Xiwangmu and Dongwanggong, and the highest couple of Heaven and Earth, all embody yin and yang and are at once the originators and maintainers of the ordering process of space and time.


title: Chinese gods and immortals

text: In mythology, Huangdi and Yandi fought a battle against each other; and Huang finally defeated Yan with the help of the Dragon (the controller of water, who is Huangdi himself). This myth symbolises the equipoise of yin and yang, here the fire of knowledge (reason and craft) and earthly stability. "Yan" is flame, scorching fire, or an excess of it (it is important to note that graphically it is a double "huo", "fire"). As an excess of fire brings destruction to the earth, it has to be controlled by a ruling principle. Nothing is good in itself, without limits; good outcomes depend on the proportion in the composition of things and their interactions, never on extremes in absolute terms. Huangdi and Yandi are complementary opposites, necessary for the existence of one another, and they are powers that exist together within the human being.


title: Chinese gods and immortals

text: The worship of mother goddesses for the cultivation of offspring is present all over China, but predominantly in northern provinces. There are nine main goddesses, and all of them tend to be considered as manifestations or attendant forces of a singular goddess identified variously as Bixia Yuanjun (the Lady of the Blue Dawn, , also known as the "Tiānxiān Niángniáng" , "Heavenly Immortal Lady", or "Tàishān Niángniáng" , "Lady of Mount Tai", or also "Jiǔtiān Shèngmǔ" , "Holy Mother of the Nine Skies") or Houtu, the goddess of the earth. Bixia herself is identified by Taoists as the more ancient goddess Xiwangmu, The general Chinese term for "goddess" is "nǚshén", and goddesses may receive many qualifying titles including "mǔ" ( "mother"), "lǎomǔ" ( "old mother"), "shèngmǔ" ( "holy mother"), "niángniáng" ( "lady"), "nǎinai" ( "granny").


title: Chinese gods and immortals

text: Altars of goddess worship are usually arranged with Bixia at the center and two goddesses at her sides, most frequently the Lady of Eyesight and the Lady of Offspring. A different figure but with the same astral connections as Bixia is the Goddess of the Seven Stars ( "Qīxīng Niángniáng"). There is also the cluster of the Holy Mothers of the Three Skies ( "Sānxiāo Shèngmǔ"; or "Sānxiāo Niángniáng", "Ladies of the Three Stars"), composed of "Yunxiao Guniang", "Qiongxiao Guniang" and "Bixiao Guniang". The cult of Chenjinggu present in southeast China is identified by some scholars as an emanation of the northern cult of Bixia.


title: Chinese gods and immortals

text: Other goddesses worshipped in China include "Cánmǔ" ( Silkworm Mother) or "Cángū" ( Silkworm Maiden), identified with "Léizǔ" (, the wife of the Yellow Emperor), "Mágū" ( "Hemp Maiden"), "Sǎoqīng Niángniáng" ( Goddess who Sweeps Clean), "Sānzhōu Niángniáng" ( Goddess of the Three Isles), and Wusheng Laomu. Mother goddess is central in the theology of many folk religious sects.


title: Chinese gods and immortals

text: Northeast China has clusters of deities which are peculiar to the area, deriving from the Manchu and broader Tungusic substratum of the local population. Animal deities related to shamanic practices are characteristic of the area and reflect wider Chinese cosmology. Besides the aforementioned Fox Gods ( "Húxiān"), they include:


title: Chinese gods and immortals

text: Gods who have been adopted into Chinese religion but who have their origins in the Indian subcontinent or Hinduism:


title: Dental braces

text: Dental braces (also known as braces, orthodontic cases, or cases) are devices used in orthodontics that align and straighten teeth and help position them with regard to a person's bite, while also aiming to improve dental health. They are often used to correct underbites, as well as malocclusions, overbites, open bites, gaps, deep bites, cross bites, crooked teeth, and various other flaws of the teeth and jaw. Braces can be either cosmetic or structural. Dental braces are often used in conjunction with other orthodontic appliances to help widen the palate or jaws and to otherwise assist in shaping the teeth and jaws.


title: Dental braces

text: The application of braces moves the teeth as a result of force and pressure on the teeth. There are traditionally four basic elements used: brackets, bonding material, arch wire, and ligature elastic (also called an “O-ring”). The teeth move when the arch wire puts pressure on the brackets and teeth. Sometimes springs or rubber bands are used to put more force in a specific direction.


title: Dental braces

text: Braces have constant pressure which, over time, move teeth into the desired positions. The process loosens the tooth after which new bone grows in to support the tooth in its new position. This is called bone remodeling. Bone remodeling is a biomechanical process responsible for making bones stronger in response to sustained load-bearing activity and weaker in the absence of carrying a load. Bones are made of cells called osteoclasts and osteoblasts. Two different kinds of bone resorption are possible: direct resorption, which starts from the lining cells of the alveolar bone, and indirect or retrograde resorption, which occurs when the periodontal ligament has been subjected to an excessive amount and duration of compressive stress. Another important factor associated with tooth movement is bone deposition. Bone deposition occurs in the distracted periodontal ligament. Without bone deposition, the tooth will loosen, and voids will occur distal to the direction of tooth movement.


title: Dental braces

text: Orthodontic services may be provided by any licensed dentist trained in orthodontics. In North America most orthodontic treatment is done by orthodontists, who are dentists in diagnosis and treatment of "malocclusions"—malalignments of the teeth, jaws, or both. A dentist must complete 2–3 years of additional post-doctoral training to earn a specialty certificate in orthodontics. There are many general practitioners who also provide orthodontic services.


title: Dental braces

text: The first step is to determine whether braces are suitable for the patient. The doctor consults with the patient and inspects the teeth visually. If braces are appropriate, a records appointment is set up where X-rays, molds, and impressions are made. These records are analyzed to determine the problems and the proper course of action. The use of digital models is rapidly increasing in the orthodontic industry. Digital treatment starts with the creation of a three-dimensional digital model of the patient's arches. This model is produced by laser-scanning plaster models created using dental impressions. Computer-automated treatment simulation has the ability to automatically separate the gums and teeth from one another and can handle malocclusions well; this software enables clinicians to ensure, in a virtual setting, that the selected treatment will produce the optimal outcome, with minimal user input.


title: Dental braces

text: Typical treatment times vary from six months to two and a half years depending on the complexity and types of problems. Orthognathic surgery may be required in extreme cases. About 2 weeks before the braces are applied, orthodontic spacers may be required to spread apart back teeth in order to create enough space for the bands.


title: Dental braces

text: Teeth to be braced will have an adhesive applied to help the cement bond to the surface of the tooth. In most cases, the teeth will be banded and then brackets will be added. A bracket will be applied with dental cement, and then cured with light until hardened. This process usually takes a few seconds per tooth. If required, orthodontic spacers may be inserted between the molars to make room for molar bands to be placed at a later date. Molar bands are required to ensure brackets will stick. Bands are also utilized when dental fillings or other dental works make securing a bracket to a tooth infeasible. Orthodontic tubes (stainless steel tubes that allow wires to pass through them), also known as molar tubes, are directly bonded to molar teeth either by a chemical curing or a light curing adhesive. Usually molar tubes are directly welded to bands, which is a metal ring that fits onto the molar tooth. Directly bonded molar tubes are associated with a higher failure rate when compared to molar bands cemented with glass ionomer cement. Failure of orthodontic brackets, bonded tubes or bands will increase the overall treatment time for the patient. There is evidence suggesting that there is less enamel decalcification associated with molar bands cemented with glass ionomer cement compared with orthodontic tubes directly cemented to molars using a light cured adhesive. Further evidence is needed to withdraw a more robust conclusion due to limited data.


title: Dental braces

text: An archwire will be threaded between the brackets and affixed with elastic or metal ligatures. Ligatures are available in a wide variety of colours, and the patient can choose which colour they like. Arch wires are bent, shaped, and tightened frequently to achieve the desired results.


title: Dental braces

text: Modern orthodontics makes frequent use of nickel-titanium arch wires and temperature-sensitive materials. When cold, the arch wire is limp and flexible, easily threaded between brackets of any configuration. Once heated to body temperature, the arch wire will stiffen and seek to retain its shape, creating constant light force on the teeth.


title: Dental braces

text: Brackets with hooks can be placed, or hooks can be created and affixed to the arch wire to affix rubber bands to. The placement and configuration of the rubber bands will depend on the course of treatment and the individual patient. Rubber bands are made in different diameters, colours, sizes, and strengths. They are also typically available in two versions: Coloured or clear/opaque.


title: Dental braces

text: The fitting process can vary between different types of braces, though there are similarities such as the initial steps of molding the teeth before application. For example, with clear braces, impressions of a patient's teeth are evaluated to create a series of trays, which fit to the patient's mouth almost like a protective mouthpiece. With some forms of braces, the brackets are placed in a special form that is customized to the patient's mouth, drastically reducing the application time.


title: Dental braces

text: In many cases, there is insufficient space in the mouth for all the teeth to fit properly. There are two main procedures to make room in these cases. One is extraction: teeth are removed to create more space. The second is expansion, in which the palate or arch is made larger by using a palatal expander. Expanders can be used with both children and adults. Since the bones of adults are already fused, expanding the palate is not possible without surgery to separate them. An expander can be used on an adult without surgery, but would be used to expand the dental arch, and not the palate.


title: Dental braces

text: Sometimes children and teenage patients, and occasionally adults, are required to wear a headgear appliance as part of the primary treatment phase to keep certain teeth from moving (for more detail on headgear and facemask appliances see Orthodontic headgear). When braces put pressure on one's teeth, the periodontal membrane stretches on one side and is compressed on the other. This movement needs to be done slowly or otherwise, the patient risks losing their teeth. This is why braces are worn as long as they are and adjustments are only made every so often.


title: Dental braces

text: Braces are typically adjusted every three to six weeks. This helps shift the teeth into the correct position. When they get adjusted, the orthodontist removes the coloured or metal ligatures keeping the arch wire in place. The arch wire is then removed and may be replaced or modified. When the archwire has been placed back into the mouth, the patient may choose a colour for the new elastic ligatures, which are then affixed to the metal brackets. The adjusting process may cause some discomfort to the patient, which is normal.


title: Dental braces

text: Patients may need post-orthodontic surgery, such as a fiberotomy or alternatively a gum lift, to prepare their teeth for retainer use and improve the gumline contours after the braces come off. After braces treatment, patients can use a transparent plate to keep the teeth out of alignment for a certain period of time. After treatment, patients usually use transparent plates for 6 months. In patients with long and difficult treatment, a fixative wire is attached to the back of the teeth to prevent the teeth from returning to their original state.


title: Dental braces

text: In order to prevent the teeth from moving back to their original position, retainers are worn once the treatment is complete. Retainers help in maintaining and stabilizing the position of teeth long enough to permit reorganization of the supporting structures after the active phase of orthodontic therapy. If the patient does not wear the retainer appropriately and/or for the right amount of time, the teeth may move towards their previous position. For regular braces, Hawley retainers are used. They are made of metal hooks that surround the teeth and are enclosed by an acrylic plate shaped to fit the patient's palate. For Invisalign braces, an Essix retainer is used. This is similar to the regular Invisalign braces; it is a clear plastic tray that is firmly fitted to the teeth, which stays in place without a plate fitted to the palate. There is also a bonded retainer where a wire is permanently bonded to the lingual side of the teeth, usually the lower teeth only.


title: Dental braces

text: Headgear needs to be worn between 12–22 hours each day to be effective in correcting the overbite, typically for 12 to 18 months depending on the severity of the overbite, how much it is worn and what growth stage the patient is in. Typically the prescribed daily wear time will be between 14 and 16 hours a day and is frequently used as a post-primary treatment phase to maintain the position of the jaw and arch. Headgear can be used during the night while the patient sleeps.


title: Dental braces

text: The headgear application is one of the most useful appliances available to the orthodontist when looking to correct a Class II malocclusion. See more details in the section Orthodontic headgear.


title: Dental braces

text: The pre-finisher is moulded to the patient's teeth by use of extreme pressure to the appliance by the person's jaw. The product is then worn a certain amount of time with the user applying force to the appliance in their mouth for 10 to 15 seconds at a time. The goal of the process is to increase the exercise time in applying the force to the appliance. If a person's teeth are not ready for a proper retainer the orthodontist may prescribe the use of a preformed finishing appliance such as the pre-finisher. This appliance fixes gaps between the teeth, small spaces between the upper and lower jaw, and other minor problems.


title: Dental braces

text: A group of dental researchers, Fatma Boke, Cagri Gazioglu, Selvi Akkaya, and Murat Akkaya, conducted a study titled: “Relationship between orthodontic treatment and gingival health.” The results indicated that some orthodontist treatments result in gingivitis, also known as gum disease. The researchers concluded that functional appliances used to harness natural forces (such as improving the alignment of bites) do not usually have major effects on the gum after treatment. However, fixed appliances such as braces, which most people get, can result in visible plaque, visible inflammation, and gum recession in a majority of the patients. The formation of plaques around the teeth of patients with braces is almost inevitable regardless of plaque control and can result in mild gingivitis. But if the someone with braces does not clean their teeth carefully, plaques will form, leading to a more severe gingivitis and gum recession.


title: Dental braces

text: Experiencing some pain following fitting and activation of fixed orthodontic braces is very common and several methods have been suggested to tackle this. Pain associated with orthodontic treatment increases in proportion to the amount of force that is applied to the teeth. When a force is applied to a tooth via a brace, there is a reduction in the blood supply to the fibres that attach the tooth to the surrounding bone. This reduction in blood supply results in inflammation and the release of several chemical factors, which stimulate the pain response. Orthodontic pain can be managed using pharmacological interventions, which involves the use of analgesics applied locally or systemically. These analgesics are divided into four main categories, including opioids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), paracetamol and local anesthesia. The first three of these analgesics are commonly taken systemically to reduce orthodontic pain.


title: Dental braces

text: A Cochrane Review in 2017 evaluated the pharmacological interventions for pain relief during orthodontic treatment. The study concluded that there was moderate-quality evidence that analgesics reduce the pain associated with orthodontic treatment. However, due to a lack of evidence, it was unclear whether systemic NSAIDs were more effective than paracetamol, and whether topical NSAIDs were more effective than local anaesthesia in the reduction of pain associated with orthodontic treatment. More high-quality research is required to investigate these particular comparisons.


title: Dental braces

text: The dental displacement obtained with the orthodontic appliance determines in most cases some degree of root resorption. Only in a few cases is this side effect large enough to be considered real clinical damage to the tooth. In rare cases, the teeth may fall out or have to be extracted due to root resorption.


title: Dental braces

text: According to scholars and historians, braces date back to ancient times. Around 400-300 BC, Hippocrates and Aristotle contemplated ways to straighten teeth and fix various dental conditions. Archaeologists have discovered numerous mummified ancient individuals with what appear to be metal bands wrapped around their teeth. Catgut, a type of cord made from the natural fibres of an animal's intestines, performed a similar role to today's orthodontic wire in closing gaps in the teeth and mouth.


title: Dental braces

text: The Etruscans buried their dead with dental appliances in place to maintain space and prevent the collapse of the teeth during the afterlife. A Roman tomb was found with a number of teeth bound with gold wire documented as a ligature wire, a small elastic wire that is used to affix the arch wire to the bracket. Even Cleopatra wore a pair. Roman philosopher and physician Aulus Cornelius Celsus first recorded the treatment of teeth by finger pressure. Unfortunately, due to lack of evidence, poor preservation of bodies, and primitive technology, little research was carried out on dental braces until around the 17th century, although dentistry was making great advancements as a profession by then.


title: Dental braces

text: Orthodontics truly began developing in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1669, French dentist Pierre Fauchard, who is often credited with inventing modern orthodontics, published a book entitled ""The Surgeon Dentist"" on methods of straightening teeth. Fauchard, in his practice, used a device called a "Bandeau", a horseshoe-shaped piece of iron that helped expand the palate. In 1754, another French dentist, Louis Bourdet, dentist to the King of France, followed Fauchard's book with "The Dentist's Art", which also dedicated a chapter to tooth alignment and application. He perfected the "Bandeau" and was the first dentist on record to recommend extraction of the premolar teeth to alleviate crowding and to improve jaw growth.


title: Dental braces

text: Although teeth and palate straightening and/or pulling was used to improve alignment of remaining teeth and had been practised since early times, orthodontics, as a science of its own, did not really exist until the mid-19th century. Several important dentists helped to advance dental braces with specific instruments and tools that allowed braces to be improved.


title: Dental braces

text: In 1819, Christophe François Delabarre introduced the wire crib, which marked the birth of contemporary orthodontics, and gum elastics were first employed by Maynard in 1843. Tucker was the first to cut rubber bands from rubber tubing in 1850. Dentist, writer, artist, and sculptor Norman William Kingsley in 1858 wrote the first article on orthodontics and in 1880, his book, "Treatise on Oral Deformities", was published. A dentist named John Nutting Farrar is credited for writing two volumes entitled, "A Treatise on the Irregularities of the Teeth and Their Corrections" and was the first to suggest the use of mild force at timed intervals to move teeth.


title: Dental braces

text: In the early 20th century, Edward Angle devised the first simple classification system for malocclusions, such as Class I, Class II, and so on. His classification system is still used today as a way for dentists to describe how crooked teeth are, what way teeth are pointing, and how teeth fit together. Angle contributed greatly to the design of orthodontic and dental appliances, making many simplifications. He founded the first school and college of orthodontics, organized the American Society of Orthodontia in 1901 which became the American Association of Orthodontists (AAO) in the 1930s, and founded the first orthodontic journal in 1907. Other innovations in orthodontics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries included the first textbook on orthodontics for children, published by J.J. Guilford in 1889, and the use of rubber elastics, pioneered by Calvin S. Case, along with Henry Albert Baker.


title: Dental braces

text: Today, space age wires (also known as dental arch wires) are used to tighten braces. In 1959, the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) made an alloy of nickel and titanium called Nitinol to be utilized for solar panels and antennae on their satellites. In 1979, Dr. George Andreasen developed a new method of fixing braces with the use of the Nitinol wires because they had super-elasticity. Andreasen used the wire on some patients and later found out that he could use it for the entire treatment. Andreasen then began using the nitinol wires for all his treatments and as a result, dental doctor visits were reduced, cost for dental treatment was reduced, and patients reported less discomfort.


title: Glyn Johns

text: Glyn Thomas Johns (born 15 February 1942) is an English musician, recording engineer and record producer.


title: Glyn Johns

text: Johns was born in Epsom, Surrey, England. He had three siblings, two older sisters and a younger brother, Andy. When Johns was 8 years old his mother enrolled him in the parish church choir where he eventually became head chorister. Johns expressed a fondness for his experience in the church choir commenting that it led to his further involvement in music and a career he had never expected to be involved in. Aside from the choir, his mother's brother, Robert, and the choirmaster/organist at St. Martin's Parish Church, Felton Rapley, also influenced and encouraged his interest in music.


title: Glyn Johns

text: Johns produced and/or engineered with artists such as Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles ("Get" "Back" sessions), the Who, Eagles, Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Hallyday, the Band, Eric Clapton, the Clash, Ryan Adams, the Steve Miller Band, Small Faces, Spooky Tooth, the Easybeats, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Blue Öyster Cult, Emmylou Harris, Midnight Oil, New Model Army, Belly, Joe Satriani, Ronnie Lane, Rod Stewart with Faces, John Hiatt, Joan Armatrading, Buckacre, Gallagher and Lyle, Georgie Fame, Family, Helen Watson, Fairport Convention, Humble Pie, and many others.


title: Glyn Johns

text: In the 1960s, while associated with the UK rock band the Presidents, Johns began working as a recording studio engineer at IBC Studios in Portland Place, London and was able to take the band in during weekends and try his skills at production and recording. Around 1964 Johns began his long association with the Rolling Stones, engineering every album release from "December's Children (And Everybodys)" through to the 1976 release "Black and Blue". During 1969, Johns was called upon to rescue the troubled "Get Back" sessions for the Beatles. Johns compiled several versions of the album, which were all rejected by the band, before the project was eventually turned over to producer Phil Spector. Spector's version became the released album, which was retitled "Let It Be" which Johns called "a syrupy load of bullshit". During shooting, John Lennon famously referred to him as "Glynis" (with reference to the actress Glynis Johns).


title: Glyn Johns

text: In 1971, he produced, recorded and mixed The Who's "Who's Next", continuing with the group until their album "It's Hard". His influence on Faces' 1971 album "A Nod Is as Good as a Wink... to a Blind Horse", which he co-produced with the band, can be gauged from the message that follows the credits: "Thank you Glyn, you made all the difference." Johns produced the first two albums by the Eagles. Though they were successful, the band, especially Glenn Frey, clashed with Johns over the direction of their sound. After recording two songs for their third album (including their first No. 1 single "Best of My Love"), they dismissed Johns and returned to California to finish the album. Johns' output slowed in the mid 1980s, although he undertook work with Midnight Oil, Nanci Griffith, and Belly.


title: Glyn Johns

text: Johns also produced the 1977 Eric Clapton album "Slowhand", including the popular hit "Wonderful Tonight", written by Clapton.


title: Glyn Johns

text: In 2011, after a couple of decades spent largely away from production, Johns produced and engineered Ryan Adams' album, "Ashes & Fire". In February 2012, Johns began work on the Band of Horses album, "Mirage Rock".


title: Glyn Johns

text: Johns and Eric Clapton collaborated once again for Clapton's 2016 release "I Still Do", Clapton's 23rd album.


title: Glyn Johns

text: Johns is the father of Ethan Johns and Abigail Amelia Claire Johns, the older brother of Andy Johns, and uncle of Will Johns. Ethan Johns has worked as an engineer and/or producer with artists such as Ryan Adams, Paul McCartney, Laura Marling, Ray LaMontagne and Kings of Leon, while Andy Johns has engineered with the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix, either on his own or under the tutelage of Eddie Kramer. Glyn's daughter Charley is a music publicist living in Los Angeles.


title: Glyn Johns

text: Johns developed a unique approach to the recording of drums, often referred to as the "Glyn Johns Method". This technique usually employs three microphones:


title: Glyn Johns

text: The key to the method is to keep both the overhead mic and the side-mic equidistant from, and pointed at, the centre of the snare, aimed in such a way that a triangular pattern is formed, with the three corners being the snare, the side-mic, and the overhead mic.


title: Glyn Johns

text: Johns himself says he places the mics equidistant within an inch or two, and places the overhead mic a little taller than his head when standing up. He recommends overdriving the mic preamps for the pair by 10 dB, and subsequently reducing the faders by the same amount.


title: Glyn Johns

text: Johns has written a book about his life titled "Sound Man" published by Blue Rider Press on 13 November 2014.


title: Glyn Johns

text: On 14 April 2012, Johns was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was honoured for musical excellence.


title: Violet Jessop

text: Violet Constance Jessop (2 October 1887 – 5 May 1971), often referred to as the ""Queen of sinking ships"" or ""Miss Unsinkable,"" was an Argentine woman of Irish heritage who worked as an ocean liner stewardess, memoirist, and nurse in the early 20th century. Jessop is most well known for having survived the sinking of both the in 1912 and her sister ship the in 1916, as well as having been onboard the eldest of the three sister ships, the , when it collided with the British warship in 1911.


title: Violet Jessop

text: Born on 2 October 1887, near Bahía Blanca, Argentina, Violet Constance Jessop was the oldest daughter of Irish immigrants William and Katherine Jessop. She was the first of nine children, six of whom survived. Jessop spent much of her childhood caring for her younger siblings. She became very ill as a child with what is presumed to have been tuberculosis, which she survived despite doctors' predictions that her illness would be fatal. When Jessop was 16 years old, her father died of complications from surgery and her family moved to England, where she attended a convent school and cared for her youngest sister while her mother was at sea working as a stewardess. When her mother became ill, Jessop left school and, following in her mother's footsteps, applied to be a stewardess. Jessop had to dress down to make herself less attractive to be hired. At age 21, her first stewardess position was with Royal Mail Line aboard "Orinoco" in 1908.


title: Violet Jessop

text: In 1911, Jessop began working as a stewardess for the White Star liner . "Olympic" was a luxury ship that was the largest civilian liner at that time. Jessop was on board on 20 September 1911, when "Olympic" left from Southampton and collided with the British warship . There were no fatalities and, despite damage, the ship was able to make it back to port without sinking. Jessop chose not to discuss this collision in her memoirs. She continued to work on "Olympic" until April 1912, when she was transferred to sister ship "Titanic".


title: Violet Jessop

text: Jessop boarded as a stewardess on 10 April 1912, at age 24. Four days later, on 14 April, it struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank about two hours and forty minutes after the collision. Jessop described in her memoirs how she was ordered up on deck to serve as an example of how to behave for the non-English speakers who could not follow the instructions given to them. She watched as the crew loaded the lifeboats. She was later ordered into lifeboat 16, and as the boat was being lowered, one of "Titanic"s officers gave her a baby to look after. The next morning, Jessop and the rest of the survivors were rescued by the and taken to New York City on April 18. According to Jessop, while on board "Carpathia", a woman, presumably the baby's mother, grabbed the baby she was holding and ran off crying, without saying a word. After arriving in New York City, she later returned to Southampton.


title: Violet Jessop

text: In the First World War, Jessop was a stewardess for the British Red Cross. On the morning of 21 November 1916, she was aboard , the younger sister ship of "Olympic" and "Titanic" that had been converted into a hospital ship, when it sank in the Aegean Sea after an unexplained explosion. "Britannic" sank within 55 minutes, killing 32 of the 1,066 people on board. British authorities hypothesized that the ship had either been struck by a torpedo or had hit a mine planted by German forces. Conspiracy theories have even circulated that suggest the British were responsible for sinking their own ship. In a major diving expedition on the wreck in 2016, however, it was determined that the ship had struck a deep sea mine. This was shown in the documentary film of that dive, "The Mystery of the Britannic".


title: Violet Jessop

text: While "Britannic" was sinking, Jessop and other passengers were nearly killed by the ship's propellers that were shredding lifeboats that collided with the propellers. Jessop had to jump out of her lifeboat, resulting in a traumatic head injury which she survived. In her memoirs, she described the scene she witnessed as "Britannic" went under: "The white pride of the ocean's medical world ... dipped her head a little, then a little lower and still lower. All the deck machinery fell into the sea like a child's toys. Then she took a fearful plunge, her stern rearing hundreds of feet into the air until with a final roar, she disappeared into the depths." Arthur John Priest and Archie Jewell, two other survivors of the "Titanic", were also onboard and both survived.


title: Violet Jessop

text: Jessop returned to work for White Star Line in 1920, before joining Red Star Line and then Royal Mail Line again. During her tenure with Red Star, Jessop went on two cruises around the World on the company's largest ship, . When Jessop was 36, she married John James Lewis, a fellow White Star Line steward. Lewis had served aboard the "Olympic" and the RMS "Majestic". They divorced around a year later. In 1950, she retired to Great Ashfield, Suffolk. Years after her retirement, Jessop claimed to have received a telephone call, on a stormy night, from a woman who asked Jessop if she had saved a baby on the night that "Titanic" sank. "Yes," Jessop replied. The voice then said "I was that baby," laughed, and hung up. Her friend and biographer John Maxtone-Graham said it was most likely some children in the village playing a joke on her. She replied, "No, John, I had never told that story to anyone before I told you now." Records indicate that the only baby on lifeboat 16 was Assad Thomas, who was handed to Edwina Troutt, and later reunited with his mother on "Carpathia".


title: Violet Jessop

text: In the 1958 film "A Night To Remember", a scene depicts naval architect Thomas Andrews (played by Michael Goodliffe) instructing a stewardess to be seen wearing her life jacket as an example to the other passengers. Several scenes from this film inspired later depictions of the sinking; in James Cameron's later 1997 blockbuster "Titanic", a similar encounter takes place involving Andrews and a stewardess named Lucy, who is also told to wear her life jacket in order to convince the passengers to do the same.


title: Violet Jessop

text: In the 1979 television movie "S.O.S. Titanic", she was portrayed as an elderly stewardess played by Madge Ryan.


title: Violet Jessop

text: In the 2000 television movie "Britannic", the main character is Vera Campbell (played by Amanda Ryan), a woman who is apprehensive about travelling on "Britannic" because she had survived the sinking of "Titanic" four years earlier.


title: Violet Jessop

text: In 2006, "Shadow Divers" John Chatterton and Richie Kohler led an expedition to dive HMHS "Britannic." The dive team needed to accomplish a number of tasks including reviewing the expansion joints. The team was looking for evidence that would change the thinking on RMS "Titanic"s sinking. During the expedition, Rosemary E. Lunn played the role of Violet Jessop, re-enacting her jumping into the water, from her lifeboat which was being drawn into "Britannic"s still turning propellers.


title: Violet Jessop

text: The character of Jessop is featured in the Chris Burgess stage play "Iceberg – Right Ahead!", staged for the first time Upstairs at the Gatehouse in Highgate, March 2012, to commemorate the centenary of the sinking of "Titanic". Jessop's role was played by Amy-Joyce Hastings.


title: Violet Jessop

text: In the 2020 Alma Katsu historical horror novel "The Deep", Jessop is a secondary character. The fictional main character meets Jessop while working on the "Titanic", who offers her a job and subsequently works with her on the "Britannic".


title: Exhumation and reburial of Richard III of England

text: The remains of Richard III, the last English king killed in battle, were discovered within the site of the former Grey Friars Priory in Leicester, England, in September 2012. Following extensive anthropological and genetic testing, the remains were ultimately reinterred at Leicester Cathedral on 26 March 2015.


text: Richard III, the final ruler of the Plantagenet dynasty, was killed on 22 August 1485 in the Battle of Bosworth Field, the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses. His body was taken to Greyfriars, Leicester, where it was buried in a crude grave in the friary church. Following the friary's dissolution in 1538 and subsequent demolition, Richard's tomb was lost. An erroneous account arose that Richard's bones had been thrown into the River Soar at the nearby Bow Bridge.


text: A search for Richard's body began in August 2012, initiated by the "Looking for Richard" project with the support of the Richard III Society. The archaeological excavation was led by the University of Leicester Archaeological Services, working in partnership with Leicester City Council. On the first day a human skeleton belonging to a man in his thirties was uncovered showing signs of severe injuries. The skeleton, which had several unusual physical features, most notably scoliosis, a severe curvature of the back, was exhumed to allow scientific analysis. Examination showed that the man had probably been killed either by a blow from a large bladed weapon, probably a halberd, which cut off the back of his skull and exposed the brain, or by a sword thrust that penetrated all the way through the brain. Other wounds on the skeleton had probably occurred after death as "humiliation injuries", inflicted as a form of posthumous revenge.


text: The age of the bones at death matched that of Richard when he was killed; they were dated to about the period of his death and were mostly consistent with physical descriptions of the king. Preliminary DNA analysis showed that mitochondrial DNA extracted from the bones matched that of two matrilineal descendants, one 17th-generation and the other 19th-generation, of Richard's sister Anne of York. Taking these findings into account along with other historical, scientific and archaeological evidence, the University of Leicester announced on 4 February 2013 that it had concluded beyond reasonable doubt that the skeleton was that of Richard III.


text: As a condition of being allowed to disinter the skeleton, the archaeologists agreed that, if Richard were found, his remains would be reburied in Leicester Cathedral. A controversy arose as to whether an alternative reburial site, York Minster or Westminster Abbey, would be more suitable. A legal challenge confirmed there were no public law grounds for the courts to be involved in that decision. Reinterment took place in Leicester on 26 March 2015, during a televised memorial service held in the presence of the Archbishop of Canterbury and senior members of other Christian denominations.


text: King Richard III of England was killed fighting the forces of Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, the last major battle of the Wars of the Roses. The Welsh poet Guto'r Glyn credited Richard's death to Sir Rhys ap Thomas, a Welsh member of Henry's army who was said to have struck the fatal blow. Richard III was the last English king to be killed in battle.


text: Richard's body was stripped naked and taken to Leicester where it was put on public display. The anonymous "Ballad of Bosworth Field" says that "in Newarke laid was hee, that many a one might looke on him" —almost certainly a reference to the collegiate Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady of the Newarke, a Lancastrian foundation on the outskirts of medieval Leicester. According to the chronicler Polydore Vergil, Henry VII "tarried for two days" in Leicester before leaving for London, and on the same date as Henry's departure—25 August 1485—Richard's body was buried "at the convent of Franciscan monks ["sic"] in Leicester" with "no funeral solemnity". The Warwickshire priest and antiquary John Rous, writing between 1486 and 1491, recorded that Richard had been buried "in the choir of the Friars Minor at Leicester". Although later writers ascribed Richard's burial to other places, the accounts of Vergil and Rous were seen by modern investigators as the most credible.


text: In 1495, ten years after the burial, Henry VII paid for a marble and alabaster monument to mark Richard's grave. Its cost is recorded in surviving legal papers relating to a dispute over payment showing that two men received payments of £50 and £10.1s, respectively, to make and transport the tomb from Nottingham to Leicester. No first-person descriptions of the tomb survive, but Raphael Holinshed wrote in 1577 (perhaps quoting someone who had seen it in person) that it incorporated "a picture of alabaster representing [Richard's] person". Forty years later, Sir George Buck wrote that it was "a fair tomb of mingled colour marble adorned with his image". Buck also recorded the epitaph inscribed on the tomb.


text: Following the dissolution of Greyfriars in 1538, the friary was demolished and the monument was either destroyed or slowly decayed as a result of being exposed to the elements. The site of the friary was sold to two Lincolnshire property speculators and was later acquired by Robert Herrick, the mayor of Leicester (and eventual uncle of the poet Robert Herrick). The Lord Mayor Herrick built a mansion close to Friary Lane, on a site now buried under the modern Grey Friars Street, and turned the rest of the land into gardens. Although Richard's monument had evidently disappeared by this time, the site of his grave was still known. The antiquary Christopher Wren (father of Sir Christopher Wren the architect) recorded that Herrick erected a monument on the site of the grave in the form of a stone pillar three feet (1 m) high carved with the words, "Here lies the Body of Richard III, Some Time King of England." The pillar was visible in 1612 but had disappeared by 1844.


text: The cartographer and antiquarian John Speed wrote in his "Historie of Great Britaine" (1611) that local tradition held that Richard's body had been "borne out of the City, and contemptuously bestowed under the end of Bow-Bridge, which giveth passage over a branch of Soare upon the west side of the town." His account was widely accepted by later authors. In 1856 a memorial plaque to Richard III was erected next to Bow Bridge by a local builder, stating, "Near this spot lie the remains of Richard III the last of the Plantagenets 1485". The discovery of a skeleton in 1862 in the river sediments near the bridge led to claims that Richard's bones had been found, but closer examination showed they were probably those of a man in his early 20s and not Richard's.


text: The origin of Speed's claim is unclear; it was not attributed to any source, nor did it have any antecedents in other written accounts. The writer Audrey Strange suggests that the account may be a confused retelling of desecration of the remains of John Wycliffe in nearby Lutterworth in 1428, when a mob disinterred him, burned his bones and threw them into the River Swift. The independent British historian John Ashdown-Hill proposes that Speed made a mistake over the location of Richard's grave and invented the story to account for its absence. If Speed had been to Herrick's property he would surely have seen the commemorative pillar and gardens, but instead he reported that the site was "overgrown with nettles and weeds" and there was no trace of Richard's grave. The map of Leicester drawn by Speed incorrectly shows Greyfriars where the former Blackfriars was, suggesting that he had looked for the grave in the wrong place.


text: Another local legend arose about a stone coffin that supposedly held Richard's remains, which Speed wrote was "now made a drinking trough for horses at a common Inn". A coffin certainly seems to have existed; John Evelyn recorded it on a visit in 1654, and Celia Fiennes wrote in 1700 that she had seen "a piece of his tombstone ["sic"] he lay in, which was cut out in exact form for his body to lie in; it remains to be seen at ye Greyhound [Inn] in Leicester but is partly broken." William Hutton found in 1758 that the coffin, which had "not withstood the ravages of time", was kept at the White Horse Inn on Gallowtree Gate. Although the coffin's location is no longer known, its description does not match the style of late 15th-century coffins, and it is unlikely to have had any connection with Richard. It is more likely that it was salvaged from one of the religious establishments demolished following the Dissolution.


text: Herrick's mansion, Greyfriars House, remained in the possession of his family until his great-grandson Samuel sold it in 1711. The property was subsequently divided and sold in 1740; three years later, New Street was built across the western part of the site. Many burials were discovered when houses were laid out along the street. A townhouse, 17 Friar Lane, was built on the eastern part of the site in 1759 and survives today. During the 19th century, the site was increasingly built on. In 1863 Alderman Newton's Boys' School built a schoolhouse on part of the site. Herrick's mansion was demolished in 1871, the present Grey Friars Street was laid through the site in 1873, and more commercial developments, including the Leicester Trustee Savings Bank, were built. In 1915 the rest of the site was acquired by Leicestershire County Council which built offices on it in the 1920s and 1930s. The county council relocated in 1965 when its new County Hall opened, and Leicester City Council moved in. The rest of the site, where Herrick's garden had once been, was turned into a staff car park in about 1944, but was not otherwise built on.


text: In 2007, a single-storey building from the 1950s was demolished on Grey Friars Street giving archaeologists the opportunity to excavate and search for traces of the medieval friary. Very little was unearthed, except for a fragment of a post-medieval stone coffin lid. The results of the dig suggested that the remains of the friary church were farther west than previously thought.


text: The location of Richard III's body had long been of interest to the members of the Richard III Society, a group established to bring about a reappraisal of the King's tarnished reputation. In 1975 an article by Audrey Strange was published in the society's journal, "The Ricardian", suggesting that his remains were buried under Leicester City Council's car park. The claim was repeated in 1986, when historian David Baldwin suggested that the remains were still in the Greyfriars area. He speculated, "It is possible (though now perhaps unlikely) that at some time in the twenty-first century an excavator may yet reveal the slight remains of this famous monarch."


text: Although the Richard III Society remained interested in discussing the possible location of the king's grave, they did not search for his remains. Individual members suggested possible lines of investigation, but neither the University of Leicester nor local historians and archaeologists took up the challenge, probably because it was widely thought that the grave site had been built over or the skeleton had been scattered, as John Speed's account suggested.


text: In 2004 and 2005, Philippa Langley, secretary of the Scottish Branch of the Richard III Society, carried out research in Leicester in connection with a biographical Richard III screenplay and became convinced that the car park was the key location for investigation. In 2005, John Ashdown-Hill announced that he had discovered the mitochondrial DNA sequence of Richard III after identifying two matrilineal descendants of Richard III's sister Anne of York. He also concluded, from his knowledge of the layout of Franciscan priories, that the ruins of the priory church at Greyfriars were likely to lie under the car park and had not been built over. After hearing of his research, Langley urged Ashdown-Hill to contact the producers of Channel 4's "Time Team" archaeology series to propose an excavation of the car park, but they declined as the dig would take longer than the standard three-day window for "Time Team" projects.


text: Three years later, writer Annette Carson, in her book "Richard III: The Maligned King" (the History Press 2008, 2009, page 270), published her independent conclusion that his body probably lay under the car park. She joined forces with Langley and Ashdown-Hill to carry out further research. By now Langley had found what she called a "smoking gun"—a medieval map of Leicester showing the Greyfriars Church at the north end of what was now the car park.


text: In February 2009, Langley, Carson and Ashdown-Hill teamed up with Richard III Society members David Johnson and his wife Wendy to launch a project with the working title "Looking for Richard: In Search of a King". Its premise was a search for Richard's grave "while at the same time telling his real story", with an objective "to search for, recover and rebury his mortal remains with the honour, dignity and respect so conspicuously denied following his death at the battle of Bosworth." To ensure support from decision makers in Leicester, Langley had secured interest from Darlow Smith Productions for a televised documentary, which Langley envisaged as a "landmark TV special".


text: The project gained the backing of several key partners—Leicester City Council, Leicester Promotions (responsible for tourist marketing), the University of Leicester, Leicester Cathedral, Darlow Smithson Productions (responsible for the planned TV show) and the Richard III Society. Funding for the initial phase of pre-excavation research came from the Richard III Society's bursary fund and members of the "Looking for Richard" project, with Leicester Promotions agreeing to pick up the £35,000 cost of the dig. The University of Leicester Archaeological Services—an independent body with offices at the university—was appointed as the project's archaeological contractor.


text: In March 2011 an assessment of the Greyfriars site began to identify where the monastery had stood, and which land might be available for excavation. A desk-based assessment was conducted to determine the archaeological viability of the site, followed by a survey in August 2011 using ground-penetrating radar (GPR). The GPR results were inconclusive; no clear building remains could be identified owing to a layer of disturbed ground and demolition debris just below the surface. The survey was useful in finding modern utilities crossing the site, such as pipes and cables.


text: Three possible excavation sites were identified: the staff car park of Leicester City Council Social Services, the disused playground of the former Alderman Newton's School and a public car park on New Street. It was decided to open two trenches in the Social Services car park, with an option for a third in the playground. Because most of the Greyfriars site had been built on, only seventeen per cent of its former area was available to excavate; the area to be investigated amounted to just one per cent of the site, owing to the limitations of the project's funding.


text: The proposed excavation was announced in the June 2012 issue of the Richard III Society's magazine, the "Ricardian Bulletin", but a month later one of the main sponsors pulled out, leaving a £10,000 funding shortfall; an appeal resulted in members of the several Ricardian groups donating £13,000 in two weeks. A press conference held in Leicester on 24 August announced the start of the work. Archaeologist Richard Buckley admitted the project was a long shot: "We don't know precisely where the church is, let alone where the burial site is." He had earlier told Langley that he thought the odds were "fifty-fifty at best for [finding] the church, and nine-to-one against finding the grave."


text: Digging began the next day with a trench wide by long, running roughly north-south. A layer of modern building debris was removed before the level of the former monastery was reached. Two parallel human leg bones were discovered about from the north end of the trench at a depth of about , indicating an undisturbed burial. The bones were covered temporarily to protect them while excavations continued further along the trench. A second, parallel trench was dug next day to the south-west. Over the following days, evidence of medieval walls and rooms was uncovered, allowing the archaeologists to pinpoint the area of the friary. It became clear that the bones found on the first day lay inside the east part of the church, possibly the choir, where Richard was said to have been buried. On 31 August, the University of Leicester applied for a licence from the Ministry of Justice to permit the exhumation of up to six sets of human remains. To narrow the search, it was planned that only the remains of men in their thirties, buried within the church, would be exhumed.


text: The bones found on 25 August were uncovered on 4 September and the grave soil dug back further over the next two days. The feet were missing, and the skull was found in an unusual propped-up position, consistent with the body being put into a grave that was slightly too small. The spine was curved in an S-shape. No sign of a coffin was found; the skeleton's posture suggested the body had not been put in a shroud, but had been hurriedly dumped into the grave and buried. As the bones were lifted from the ground, a piece of rusted iron was found underneath the vertebrae. The skeleton's hands were in an unusual position, crossed over the right hip, suggesting they were tied together at the time of burial, although this could not be established definitively. After the exhumation, work continued in the trenches over the following week, before the site was covered with soil to protect it from damage and re-surfaced to restore the car park and playground to their former condition.


text: On 12 September, the University of Leicester team announced that the human remains were a possible candidate for Richard's body, but emphasised the need for caution. The positive indicators were that the body was of an adult male; it was buried beneath the choir of the church; it had severe scoliosis of the spine, possibly making one shoulder higher than the other. An object that appeared to be an arrowhead was found under the spine and the skull had severe injuries.


text: After the exhumation the emphasis shifted from the excavation to laboratory analysis of the bones. Ashdown-Hill had used genealogical research to track down matrilineal descendants of Anne of York, Richard's older sister, whose matrilineal line of descent is extant through her daughter Anne St Leger. Academic Kevin Schürer subsequently traced a second individual in the same line.


text: Ashdown-Hill's research came about as a result of a challenge in 2003 to provide a DNA sequence for Richard's sister Margaret, to identify bones found in her burial place, the Franciscan priory church in Mechelen, Belgium. He tried to extract a mitochondrial DNA sequence from a preserved hair from Edward IV held by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, but the attempt proved unsuccessful, owing to degradation of the DNA. Ashdown-Hill turned instead to genealogical research to identify an all-female-line descendant of Cecily Neville, Richard's mother. After two years he found that a British-born woman who had emigrated to Canada after World War II, Joy Ibsen (née Brown), was a direct descendant of Richard's sister, Anne of York, and therefore Richard's 16th generation great-niece. Ibsen's mitochondrial DNA was tested and found to belong to mitochondrial DNA Haplogroup J, which by deduction should be Richard's mitochondrial DNA haplogroup. The mtDNA obtained from Ibsen showed that the Mechelen bones were not those of Margaret.


text: Joy Ibsen, a retired journalist, died in 2008, leaving three children: Michael, Jeff, and Leslie. On 24 August 2012, her son Michael (born in Canada in 1957, a cabinet maker based in London, England) gave a mouth-swab sample to the research team to compare with samples from the human remains found at the excavation. Analysts found a mitochondrial DNA match among the exhumed skeleton, Michael Ibsen, and a second direct maternal line descendant, who shares a relatively rare mitochondrial DNA sequence, mitochondrial DNA haplogroup J1c2c.


text: The other living female-line relative of Richard III is Wendy Duldig, an Australian resident in England and a 19th generation descendant of Anne of York. Duldig, who has no surviving children, is connected to the Ibsen family through Anne's granddaughter Catherine Constable, née Manners. Descendants of Constable, including one of Duldig's ancestors reportedly emigrated to New Zealand. Duldig's mitochondrial DNA is reportedly a close match, i.e. it features one mutation.


text: Despite the matching mitochondrial DNA, geneticist Turi King continued to pursue a link between the paternally-inherited Y DNA and that of descendants of John of Gaunt. Four living male-line descendants of Gaunt have been located, and their results are a match to each other. The Y DNA from the skeleton is somewhat degraded, but proved not to match any of the living male-line relatives, showing that a false-paternity event had happened somewhere in the 19 generations between Richard III and Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort; work by Turi King and others has shown that historical rates of false paternity are around 1–2% per generation.


text: Professor Michael Hicks, a Richard III specialist, has been particularly critical of the use of the mitochondrial DNA to argue that the body is Richard III's, stating that "any male sharing a maternal ancestress in the direct female line could qualify". He also criticises the rejection by the Leicester team of the Y chromosomal evidence, suggesting that it was not acceptable to the Leicester team to conclude that the skeleton was anyone other than Richard III. He argues that on the basis of the present scientific evidence "identification with Richard III is more unlikely than likely". However, Hicks draws attention to the contemporary view held by some that Richard III's grandfather, Richard, Earl of Cambridge, was the product of an illegitimate union between Cambridge's mother Isabella of Castile and John Holland (brother in law of Henry IV of England), rather than Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York (Edward III's fourth son). If that was the case then the Y chromosome discrepancy with the Beaufort line would be explained but obviously still fail to prove the identity of the body. Hicks suggests alternative candidates descended from Richard III's maternal ancestress for the body (e.g. Thomas Percy, 1st Baron Egremont, and John de la Pole, 1st Earl of Lincoln) but does not provide evidence to support his suggestions. Philippa Langley refutes Hicks's argument on the grounds that he does not take into account all the evidence.


text: An osteological examination of the bones by Jo Appleby showed them to be in generally good condition and largely complete except for the missing feet, which may have been destroyed by Victorian building work. It was immediately apparent that the body had suffered major injuries, and further evidence of wounds was found as the skeleton was cleaned. The skull shows signs of two lethal injuries; the base of the back of the skull had been completely cut away by a bladed weapon, which would have exposed the brain, and another bladed weapon had been thrust through the right side of the skull, striking the inside of the left side through the brain. Elsewhere on the skull, a blow from a pointed weapon had penetrated the crown of the head. Bladed weapons had clipped the skull and sheared off layers of bone, without penetrating it. Other holes in the skull and lower jaw were found to be consistent with dagger wounds to the chin and cheek. The multiple wounds on the king’s skull indicated that he was not wearing his helmet at the time, which he may have either removed or lost when he was on foot after his horse had become stuck in the marsh. One of his right ribs had been cut by a sharp implement, as had the pelvis. There was no evidence of the withered arm that afflicted the character in William Shakespeare's play "Richard III".


text: Taken together, the injuries appear to be a combination of battle wounds, which were the cause of death, followed by post-mortem humiliation wounds inflicted on the corpse. The body wounds show that the corpse had been stripped of its armour, as the stabbed torso would have been protected by a backplate and the pelvis would have been protected by armour. The wounds were made from behind on the back and buttocks while they were exposed to the elements, consistent with the contemporary descriptions of Richard's naked body being tied across a horse with the legs and arms dangling down on either side. There may have been further flesh wounds not apparent from the bones.


text: The head wounds are consistent with the narrative of a 1485 poem by Guto'r Glyn in which a Welsh knight, Sir Rhys ap Thomas, killed Richard and "shaved the boar's head". It had been thought that this was a figurative description of Richard being decapitated, but the skeleton's head had clearly not been severed. Guto's description may instead be a literal account of the injuries that Richard suffered, as the blows sustained to the head would have sliced away much of his scalp and hair, along with slivers of bone. Other contemporary sources refer explicitly to head injuries and the weapons used to kill Richard; the French chronicler Jean Molinet wrote that "one of the Welshmen then came after him, and struck him dead with a halberd", and the "Ballad of Lady Bessie" recorded that "they struck his bascinet to his head until his brains came out with blood". Such accounts would certainly fit the damage inflicted on the skull.


text: Sideways curvature of Richard's spine was evident as the skeleton was excavated. It has been attributed to adolescent-onset scoliosis. Although it was probably visible in making his right shoulder higher than the left and reducing his apparent height, it did not preclude an active lifestyle, and would not have caused what modern medicine describes as a "hunchback". The bones are those of a male with an age range estimation of 30–34, consistent with Richard, who was 32 when he died.


text: Two radiocarbon datings to find the age of the bones suggested dates of 1430–1460 and 1412–1449 – both too early for Richard's death in 1485. Mass spectrometry carried out on the bones found evidence of much seafood consumption, which is known to make radiocarbon dating samples appear older than they are. A Bayesian analysis suggested there was a 68.2% probability that the true date of the bones was between 1475–1530, rising to 95.4% for 1450–1540. Although by itself not enough to prove that the skeleton was Richard's, it was consistent with the date of his death. The mass spectrometry result indicating the rich seafood diet was confirmed by a chemical isotope analysis of two teeth, a femur, and a rib. From the isotope analysis of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in the teeth and bones the researchers discovered the diet included much freshwater fish and exotic birds such as swan, crane, and heron, and a vast quantity of wine – all items at the high end of the luxury market. Close analysis of the soil immediately below the skeleton revealed that the man had been infested with roundworm parasites when he died.


text: The excavators found an iron object under the skeleton's vertebrae and speculated it might be an arrowhead that had been embedded in its back. An X-ray analysis showed it was a nail, probably dating to Roman Britain, that had been in the ground by chance immediately under the grave, or was in soil disturbed when the grave was dug, and had nothing to do with the body.


text: On 4 February 2013, the University of Leicester confirmed that the skeleton was that of Richard III. The identification was based on mitochondrial DNA evidence, soil analysis, dental tests, and physical characteristics of the skeleton consistent with contemporary accounts of Richard's appearance. Osteoarchaeologist Jo Appleby commented: "The skeleton has a number of unusual features: its slender build, the scoliosis, and the battle-related trauma. All of these are highly consistent with the information that we have about Richard III in life and about the circumstances of his death."


text: Caroline Wilkinson, Professor of Craniofacial Identification at the University of Dundee, led the project to reconstruct the face, commissioned by the Richard III Society. On 11 February 2014, the University of Leicester announced a project headed by Turi King to sequence the entire genome of Richard III and Michael Ibsen—a direct female-line descendant of Richard's sister, Anne of York—whose mitochondrial DNA confirmed the identification of the excavated remains. Richard III is thus the first ancient person with known historical identity whose genome has been sequenced. A study published in "Nature Communications" in December 2014 confirmed a perfect whole-mitochondrial genome match between Richard's skeleton and Michael Ibsen and a near-perfect match between Richard and his other confirmed living relative. However, Y chromosome DNA inherited via the male line found no link with five other claimed living relatives, indicating that at least one "false-paternity event" occurred in the generations between Richard and these men. One of these five was found to be unrelated to the other four, showing that another false-paternity event had occurred in the four generations separating them.


text: The story of the excavation and subsequent scientific investigation was told in a Channel 4 documentary, "Richard III: The King in the Car Park", broadcast on 4 February 2013. It proved a ratings hit for the channel, watched by up to 4.9 million viewers, and won a Royal Television Society award. Channel 4 subsequently screened a follow-up documentary on 27 February 2014, "Richard III: The Untold Story", which detailed the scientific and archaeological analyses that led to the identification of the skeleton as Richard III.


text: The site was re-excavated in July 2013 to learn more about the friary church, before building work on the adjacent disused school building. In a project co-funded by Leicester City Council and the University of Leicester, a single trench about twice the area of the 2012 trenches was excavated. It succeeded in exposing the entirety of the sites of the Greyfriars presbytery and choir sites, confirming archaeologists' earlier hypotheses about the layout of the church's east end. Three burials identified but not excavated in the 2012 project were tackled afresh. One burial was found to have been interred in a wooden coffin in a well-dug grave, while a second wooden-coffined burial was found under and astride the choir and presbytery; its position suggests that it pre-dates the church.


text: A stone coffin found during the 2012 excavation was opened for the first time, revealing a lead coffin inside. An investigation with an endoscope revealed the presence of a skeleton along with some head hair and fragments of a shroud and cord. The skeleton was at first assumed to be male, perhaps that of a knight called Sir William de Moton who was known to have been buried there, but later examination showed it to be of a woman—perhaps a high-ranking benefactor. She may not necessarily have been local, as lead coffins were used to transport corpses over long distances.


text: The University of Leicester's plan to inter Richard's body in Leicester Cathedral was in keeping with British legal norms which hold that Christian burials excavated by archaeologists should be reburied in the nearest consecrated ground to the original grave and was a condition of the licence granted by the Ministry of Justice to exhume any human remains found during the excavation. The British royal family made no claim on the remains – Queen Elizabeth II was reportedly consulted but rejected the idea of a royal burial – so the Ministry of Justice initially confirmed that the University of Leicester would make the final decision on where the bones should be re-buried. David Monteith, Canon Chancellor of Leicester Cathedral, said Richard's skeleton would be reinterred at the cathedral in early 2014 in a "Christian-led but ecumenical service", not a formal reburial but rather a service of remembrance, as a funeral service would have been held at the time of burial.


text: The choice of burial site proved controversial and proposals were made for Richard to be buried in places which some felt were more fitting for a Roman Catholic and Yorkist monarch. Online petitions were launched calling for Richard to be buried in Westminster Abbey, where 17 other English and British kings are interred; York Minster, which some claimed was Richard's own preferred burial site; the Roman Catholic Arundel Cathedral; or in the Leicester car park in which his body was found. Only two options received significant public support, with Leicester receiving 3,100 more signatures than York. The issue was discussed in the Houses of Parliament; the Conservative MP and historian Chris Skidmore proposed that a state funeral should be held, while John Mann, the Labour MP for Bassetlaw, suggested that the body should be buried in Worksop in his constituency—halfway between York and Leicester. All options were rejected in Leicester, whose mayor Peter Soulsby retorted: "Those bones leave Leicester over my dead body."