Nearly 500 years ago, an English warship sank during a battle against the French. In the late 20th century, artifacts and human skeletal remains were recovered from the 16th-century shipwreck.
The well-preserved bones are providing detailed information about what life was like for the crew of the Mary Rose and offering insights about changes in bone chemistry that could have implications for medical research today.
The Mary Rose was one of the largest warships of the Tudor Navy during King Henry VIII’s reign. On July 19, 1545, it sank while fighting French ships in the Battle of the Solent.
Hundreds of men were on board when the vessel went down in the Solent, a strait between the Isle of Wight and mainland Great Britain.
There were few access points on deck, and a heavy net was spread across the open upper deck, making escape impossible.
The only survivors were those on the uppermost decks within the bow and stern castles or in the rigging. The ship’s hull, artifacts, and the remains of its 179 crew members were excavated from the Solent in 1982.
The remains were so well-preserved due to a layer of sediment that buried the ship, creating an oxygen-free environment and preventing the bones from degrading.
The hull and a collection of 19,000 items are on display at the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth, England. Currently, research is underway on the remains to learn more about the identities, appearances, health, and lifestyles of the crew members.
Researchers have analyzed the collarbones of a dozen men between the ages of 13 and 40 who sank with the Mary Rose.
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The study explored how the men’s tasks on the ship may have shaped the chemistry of their bones. The team also looked for signs of aging and handedness.
The team used a non-destructive laser technique called Raman spectroscopy to reveal bone chemistry. The analysis showed that the balance of minerals and proteins changed with aging.
Among the 12 men, the mineral content of their bones increased with age, while protein content decreased. Minerals provide bones with strength, resistance, and rigidity. Protein provides flexibility and resistance to fractures.
The changes were most pronounced in the right collarbones, suggesting that the crew members were right-handed. In general, more people are naturally right-handed than left-handed.
But at the time the Mary Rose sank, left-handedness had associations with witchcraft in medieval England, so it was strongly discouraged. As a result, those who were naturally left-handed would’ve been forced to be right-handed.
The finding indicates that handedness affected the crew’s clavicle chemistry since they put more stress on their right sides during repetitive tasks on the ship.
Overall, the study could contribute to ongoing scientific investigations into the link between handedness and age-related changes in bone chemistry. The clavicle is also one of the most commonly fractured bones.
“Advancing our knowledge of bone chemistry is crucial for understanding how our skeletons age and how medical conditions affect the bones,” said Dr. Sheona Shankland, the lead author of the study and a research associate with the Lancaster Medical School at the U.K.’s Lancaster University.
“Understanding these changes could allow us to be more informed about fracture risk and on the causes of conditions like osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, which are commonly experienced with aging.”
Next, the researchers want to examine the remains of the archers on board the ship to see what impacts ship activities had on their spines.
The study was published in PLOS One.