First came the dramatic discovery of the long-lost remains of King Richard III.
Now, there’s the mystery of the coffin within the coffin.
Archaeologists working at the site in central England where Richard III’s body was found underneath a parking lot are currently puzzling over a sealed lead coffin containing the remains of a yet-to-be-identified person.
The lead coffin was found encased in a larger stone coffin.
The smaller coffin is intact “except for a hole at one end of the casket through which we could tantalizingly see someone’s feet,” said Mathew Morris, the fieldwork director at the site.
The archaeologists who undertook a new dig this summer think the double coffin, located near Richard’s grave, was buried during the 14th century, more than 100 years before Richard was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.
Of the coffin’s three likely occupants, Swynsfeld died in 1272, William of Nottingham died in 1330 and Sir William de Moton died between 1356 and 1362.
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