3-D Skull from Doomed Henry VIII Warship Goes Online

Analysis of a ship carpenter's remains showed that he was a muscular man of about 5 feet 7 inches tall in his mid- to late-thirties. His dental health was poor and an abscess in his jaw left him able to chew only on his right side.

British archaeologists on Monday published detailed 3D models of skulls and artifacts found on board English king Henry VIII's warship as part of a digital experiment designed to share knowledge of major historical finds.

One skull, reproduced in a fully interactive model, belonged to a carpenter on board the Mary Rose, the flagship of England's navy when it sank in 1545 as heartbroken Henry VIII watched from the shore.

"An abscess in his upper jaw meant he could only chew on the right side," said details on the website, www.virtualtudors.org. "He also had arthritis in his spine, ribs and left clavicle and a lesion across his right eyebrow which may be the result of an old wound."

More than 280 intact leather shoes were found during the Mary Rose excavation, This one was found near the body of the carpenter.

Relics from the ship, including the carpenter's tools, are also available for fellow archaeologists and scientists to study on the website following lengthy work by scientists at Swansea University in Wales.

The technique is known as photogrammetry, using high-resolution 2D photographs to produce detailed 3D models.

"This digital resource enables researchers around the world to join the project and study virtual 3D reconstructions," said professor Catherine Fletcher.

"Once fully developed, this technology can be applied to many more historic objects, bringing them to an even wider community of researchers while preventing damage to the original remains and artifacts."

The researchers captured 1,000 images of 10 skulls found on the ship to create navigable online models, which they hope other researchers will analyse to eventually recreate full skeletons of some of the 500 men who perished.

The Mary Rose fought three wars with the French but mysteriously keeled over and sank off Portsmouth on July 19, 1545, while fighting off a French invasion fleet.

This small octagonal mirror made of beech wood was one of only two found. Traces of corrosion and a white substance may be the remains of the mirror and fixative.

After a six-year search, the legendary ship was definitively identified in 1971 and around a third of it was raised in 1982, watched live by millions on television.

The public can view a sample of the objects such as a mirror, rigging or a leather shoe on the Virtual Tudors website—a collaboration between Swansea University, the Mary Rose Trust and Oxford University.

Read more at Discovery News