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Subject: Malmesbury on History International
Date: Sun, 1 Jan 2006 20:56:53 EST

I was searching to see if Time Team would be coming back to History
INternational <not soon it seems> but on the 11 there will be an episode of Meet the
Ancestors that is about A Rose Garden <G> and of course ancestors.

Tune In:
Wednesday, January 11 @ 10:30pm ET/PT

Martin Roberts was digging the rose bed in his employer's garden near
Malmesbury Abbey when he uncovered an impressive coffin. But who was the occupant?
Could it be Athelstan, the first Saxon king to unite England and provide a
common currency? Or Elmer, the Flying Monk, who survived his attempt to fly from
the top of the Abbey tower. X-rays show that, as a child, he suffered periods of
arrested growth--probably due to starvation during long, hard winters. Host
and archaeologist Julian Richards suggests it could be a child committed to the
monastery by his parents to ease the burden of poverty. Bone specialist Dr.
Simon Mays detects that the mystery occupant was in his 50s when he died.
Oxford's radiocarbon-dating laboratory takes a tiny sample from a bone to try to
pinpoint the year of his death and runs a test to see if his diet was
particularly unusual. This provides the key to his identity. TVPG cc


[I see the May name all the time in the census for Malmesbury - yes I have a
life LOL but I am transcribing the 1841 for Westport]
Eliz

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