0:00:01 > 0:00:07At the University of Dundee's Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification
0:00:07 > 0:00:12the History Cold Case team is about to embark on a remarkable new investigation.
0:00:12 > 0:00:18We have got 113 skeletons. All male.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21Signs of unusual conditions.
0:00:21 > 0:00:25We're not talking about one or two skeletons,
0:00:25 > 0:00:30we're talking about hundreds, so it's a very big story.
0:00:30 > 0:00:35The case will be led by forensic anthropologist Professor Sue Black.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38Dr Xanthe Mallett will gather historical evidence,
0:00:38 > 0:00:45while Professor Caroline Wilkinson will rebuild the faces of the dead.
0:00:45 > 0:00:49In York, more than 100 skeletons have been found in ten mass graves.
0:00:49 > 0:00:57It's an extraordinary archaeological find and the biggest case the team has ever had to deal with.
0:00:57 > 0:01:00Why did so many people die here?
0:01:00 > 0:01:02It's very, very unusual, this.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05- I've never seen a grave like that, to be honest with you.- No.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09The trail will transport us back 350 years
0:01:09 > 0:01:15to one of the most traumatic, pivotal events in British history...
0:01:15 > 0:01:19You just lunge forward, straight into the faces of the enemy there. Aargh!
0:01:19 > 0:01:24..to a time when medical intervention could be as dangerous as life on the battlefield...
0:01:24 > 0:01:28If I take it off at the shoulder, the chances are you will die.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32..when men believed they were caught up in Armageddon...
0:01:32 > 0:01:38They thought that they were fighting in the last battle between Christ and the forces of anti-Christ.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42..and to one man's surprising story...
0:01:42 > 0:01:44Oh, boy. That is outrageous!
0:01:44 > 0:01:47..that will not only change our views on how
0:01:47 > 0:01:54the English Civil War was fought, but provide a unique window into the birth of democracy itself.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21In the heart of York the History Cold Case team
0:02:21 > 0:02:29has set up its mobile forensic unit near where the remains of 113 people were recently excavated.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35This is the biggest case the team has ever taken on.
0:02:35 > 0:02:41Members of the local archaeological community lay out a selection of remains from ten mass graves
0:02:41 > 0:02:46discovered in 2008, just beyond the city walls.
0:02:46 > 0:02:51Every single skeleton is male.
0:02:51 > 0:02:55But there are also the boxed remains of two further bodies that have
0:02:55 > 0:02:58especially troubled archaeologists since excavation.
0:03:00 > 0:03:05Their bones show signs of puzzling abnormalities.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09Why did 113 men end up buried together?
0:03:09 > 0:03:12And what's the truth behind the disfigured bodies?
0:03:14 > 0:03:17There's a lot of dead people here and so there needs to be an explanation
0:03:17 > 0:03:22for why you've got so many in one place.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24Every single one of those people will have a story.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28Some of them are going to have a really interesting story to tell.
0:03:33 > 0:03:38Professor Sue Black and Dr Xanthe Mallett fly in from Dundee HQ.
0:03:38 > 0:03:43Together they will carry out a preliminary examination of the recovered bones.
0:03:43 > 0:03:44There's a lot here.
0:03:44 > 0:03:51Immediately they find many signs of healed trauma and bone breaks.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54Oh, look, now look, there's a problem in the elbow.
0:03:54 > 0:03:57Whether it's a dislocation... It's really hard to dislocate that joint.
0:03:57 > 0:03:59Really, really hard to dislocate it.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02It looks as if there's a bit of remodelling going on at the wrist.
0:04:02 > 0:04:04I wonder if that's a previous fracture?
0:04:04 > 0:04:09And there are signs of serious infections.
0:04:09 > 0:04:10Oh, oh, oh. Look at this.
0:04:13 > 0:04:19- Ouch!- Look at the amount of bone that's been laid down.- That is nasty.
0:04:19 > 0:04:23That's very nasty. That's very painful for the time that it's been active.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26- Which is a while.- Whether it's still active or not, I don't know.
0:04:26 > 0:04:27There's a lot of bone been laid down.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30That's infected. You've got nerve endings that are inflamed.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33You've got the pus formation. Oh, it's just not nice at all!
0:04:33 > 0:04:36That goes literally all, look it goes all the way through.
0:04:36 > 0:04:41- But it's localised. A simple course of antibiotics today and that's gone. - Yeah.
0:04:41 > 0:04:47Yet all the bones are of strong, young and middle aged men...
0:04:47 > 0:04:49I think we're looking at male, quite well defined chin.
0:04:49 > 0:04:51- Quite robust. - Yeah, I'm OK with that.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53..with no obvious cause of death.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56They've got previous fractures and
0:04:56 > 0:04:59- they've got trauma associated with their previous life.- Yeah.
0:04:59 > 0:05:01But how did they die?
0:05:01 > 0:05:08- Don't know. Don't know. - There's no evidence of a cause of death on here either.
0:05:08 > 0:05:13- There's no obvious disease process, there's no obvious trauma process, there's nothing.- No.
0:05:13 > 0:05:18So whatever killed him may have killed them, but it hasn't left a mark.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22- We're not seeing it.- And there's lots and lots of things that don't leave a mark.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25They turn their attention to the two boxes that the archaeologists have marked out
0:05:25 > 0:05:28as being particularly strange.
0:05:28 > 0:05:34Inside the first the skeleton of an incredibly muscular male.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37At first glance, consistent with the rest of the group.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41- We're talking about quite a big, robust adult.- Yeah.
0:05:41 > 0:05:43But I tell you what I think is interesting is that that clavicle's
0:05:43 > 0:05:47being bound down onto there really, really tightly.
0:05:47 > 0:05:52- So there's huge muscle mass going on up here. - And this is pretty robust as well.
0:05:52 > 0:05:57- It's not only robust, what you've also got within that bone is a huge amount of torsion...- Yes.
0:05:57 > 0:06:01.. because you can see, and that's the muscle attaching on to there.
0:06:01 > 0:06:03You can see the movement of bio mechanics.
0:06:03 > 0:06:05Trying to get more of a grip. He's very well built.
0:06:05 > 0:06:10But he has one highly unusual feature that sets him apart.
0:06:12 > 0:06:13Oh, wow!
0:06:13 > 0:06:16His hand bones are fused together.
0:06:16 > 0:06:21OK, see that's interesting. OK, I'll tell you why that's interesting
0:06:21 > 0:06:24because that is a congenital
0:06:24 > 0:06:30fusion of the carpals, congenital carpal fusion. Really, really rare.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34But there's not going to have been much in the way of disability.
0:06:34 > 0:06:38You know, all you're losing is a little bit of movement like that.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42So, you know, his little finger gets stuck out there, it doesn't ever come across here.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48Then there is the final set of remains for Sue and Xanthe to examine.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51Oh!
0:06:51 > 0:06:56This man has an even more dramatic bone defect.
0:06:56 > 0:06:57Oh, my!
0:06:59 > 0:07:03Well. Well, well, well.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07Oh, this is very, very, very unusual.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11His elbow AND knee are both fused.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13The bones have grown together.
0:07:13 > 0:07:19To Sue, this does not look like the trauma found on the other bodies.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22Oh, boy. You know, it could be
0:07:22 > 0:07:24so many things.
0:07:24 > 0:07:26If you take the left limb,
0:07:26 > 0:07:30so there's the humerus, sitting like that,
0:07:30 > 0:07:34fused at right angles at the elbow, but look how it's fused.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38And the fused knee joint is even more debilitating.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41I have to say that is outrageous!
0:07:42 > 0:07:48- That is a very odd angle.- But look at that buttress that you've got on here.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51Huge amount of muscle that's reorganised.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55You're not talking somebody who is kind of wasting and not moving.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58- Right. Functionally, that would be better if it was fused vertical. - Yes.
0:07:58 > 0:08:06Sue has found what she thinks might be a rare congenital condition in two different men.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09Her first thought - could they be related?
0:08:09 > 0:08:15That is the singularly most unusual set of carpal coalitions that I have ever seen
0:08:15 > 0:08:23and right next door to it is the most outrageous fusion of an elbow at 90 degrees and a knee at 90 degrees.
0:08:27 > 0:08:29- I'd really like to know if they're related.- Yeah.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33The condition suffered by these two
0:08:33 > 0:08:36men is entirely unexpected, given the nature of the rest of the group.
0:08:38 > 0:08:40He has a distinct disability.
0:08:40 > 0:08:42A distinct disability.
0:08:44 > 0:08:48It's now a two-fold investigation.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52Firstly, the group as a whole, over 100 men.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55Who were they and what killed them all?
0:08:57 > 0:09:04But also what is the story of these two men with their dramatically fused bones?
0:09:04 > 0:09:08The evidence at the moment, if we were looking at this in a purely
0:09:08 > 0:09:14cold light of day forensic scenario, is we have two individuals, male,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17of mature age, adult males, who have
0:09:17 > 0:09:22got congenital abnormalities, or we suspect them to be.
0:09:22 > 0:09:28We can't make any other link at this stage...but watch this space.
0:09:36 > 0:09:44Testing gets underway immediately, including DNA sampling, CT scanning, isotopic analysis and carbon dating.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50So what I'm going to do now is take some samples of this femur,
0:09:50 > 0:09:55which is the right leg bone of the male with the strange development.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57I'm going to take two different samples.
0:09:57 > 0:09:59One's going to be used for the stable isotopes,
0:09:59 > 0:10:01looking at the provenancing.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04Possibly telling us about diet and maybe where they were.
0:10:06 > 0:10:08The other one's going to be used for dating the sample, so that's going
0:10:08 > 0:10:12to really pin down when these people died.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21The team will need to wait some weeks for results to come back.
0:10:26 > 0:10:32In the meantime, Xanthe needs to gather evidence from the area.
0:10:32 > 0:10:37So next morning she meets local archaeologist Graham Bruce, who supervised the excavations.
0:10:42 > 0:10:47Graham had been excavating a site just 100 yards or so outside York's
0:10:47 > 0:10:52city walls - defences that have stood since Roman times.
0:10:52 > 0:10:57OK, here we are. This is the site where we found all the mass graves.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01Back in the Middle Ages, there was a church on this site
0:11:01 > 0:11:05and Graham expected to find a traditional medieval graveyard.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08But instead he was shocked to uncover large pits
0:11:08 > 0:11:11containing the bodies of over 100 men.
0:11:11 > 0:11:16We've got some pictures of the graves themselves in here.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19- See in this one, where you've got... - I see.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21And they're all lined up?
0:11:21 > 0:11:23They're lined up within the graves.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26Where were the mass graves within here?
0:11:26 > 0:11:29They were predominantly within the church itself,
0:11:29 > 0:11:32respecting the main boundary, main wall lines.
0:11:32 > 0:11:38So the walls must've still been standing, at least partially, when the graves were cut into.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41The mass graves were dug inside the church
0:11:41 > 0:11:49and Graham believes this must have been some time after records show it fell into ruins in the 1580s.
0:11:49 > 0:11:54And Graham also believes the graves must date from before the 1700s.
0:11:54 > 0:11:59By the 18th Century in York as well you've got better cartographic sources,
0:11:59 > 0:12:04and the maps show this area as open agricultural land with no other buildings on it.
0:12:04 > 0:12:10- So you haven't got anywhere you'd be wanting to put a major 18th century burial ground here.- Yeah.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14Carbon dating will confirm whether Graham's theory is correct,
0:12:14 > 0:12:18but if the mass graves do date from around the 1600s,
0:12:18 > 0:12:21what does Graham think could be the cause?
0:12:21 > 0:12:26Looking at the actual way in which they've been buried, what are your theories on this?
0:12:26 > 0:12:31When we started finding mass graves, you do start, obviously trying to work out why.
0:12:31 > 0:12:37It's clearly a major, fairly cataclysmic event that has created all these people
0:12:37 > 0:12:42dying the same time and in the mid-17th century you have the English Civil War.
0:12:43 > 0:12:48Graham's theory is that these bodies could have been victims of the English Civil War.
0:12:48 > 0:12:55With no women and children amongst the group, could they in fact have been soldiers
0:12:55 > 0:13:01dating back to one of Britain's most brutal and savage periods of conflict?
0:13:06 > 0:13:12Back at Dundee HQ, Xanthe and Sue get Professor Caroline Wilkinson up to speed,
0:13:12 > 0:13:16using computer graphics of the burial site and the two most curious bodies.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22Now what you can see here is the church.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26- The church was in ruins... - The church was in ruins. - ..when they were buried. Yep.
0:13:26 > 0:13:27So after...
0:13:27 > 0:13:31But they've observed the lines of the ruins.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34- Yes.- I understand. - And these are our two individuals.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37But not treated any differently. They're buried in exactly the same way.
0:13:37 > 0:13:42- Yep, exactly the same way. - There's such a lot of them.- 113.
0:13:42 > 0:13:44You can say the number really quickly,
0:13:44 > 0:13:48but then when you actually see it, it looks like an awful lot of people.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51- And somebody's taken care putting them all in like that.- Mm.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54We'll be getting carbon dates, but we don't have those yet
0:13:54 > 0:13:58so they can help us pin point it but really we're looking at the Civil War,
0:13:58 > 0:14:03simply because of where they are and also the number of people in that type of demographic of population.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06We'll know more, but this is helpful, contextually.
0:14:06 > 0:14:08The team agrees that the obvious starting place
0:14:08 > 0:14:11for the larger investigation is to gather more
0:14:11 > 0:14:17details on the Civil War and how it might have affected The City of York.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21I'm absolutely happy that we can explain it in terms of potential military
0:14:21 > 0:14:26because that fits - that you've got a lot of men of fighting age together.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31And how is it the man with severely fused knee and elbow
0:14:31 > 0:14:35came to be buried amongst what might be a group of soldiers?
0:14:35 > 0:14:38We've got a lot more to find out about this guy.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41What he would have been doing in this population for a start.
0:14:41 > 0:14:43Yeah. Cos he is disabled.
0:14:43 > 0:14:48Yeah, absolutely. There is no getting away from the fact that he's got a physical disability.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51What does a disabled man do in military services?
0:14:51 > 0:14:56And like the others he was strong, sites of muscle attachments.
0:14:56 > 0:14:58- So he was active.- Yeah.- It's a big story.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03Even thinking about the occupations that he might have been involved in
0:15:03 > 0:15:07is quite exciting because why on earth is he buried
0:15:07 > 0:15:10with all these men, who I suspect, you know,
0:15:10 > 0:15:13are relatively healthy, if you can be when you're dead.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17But, you know, relatively healthy young men of fighting age,
0:15:17 > 0:15:21perhaps in a military background. What's he doing there?
0:15:26 > 0:15:30Professor Caroline Wilkinson is going to reconstruct the faces
0:15:30 > 0:15:34of the two men with the puzzlingly fused bones.
0:15:34 > 0:15:40She starts with the man in his early '40s with just the fused hand.
0:15:42 > 0:15:44Hey.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46That might be a nasal bone.
0:15:48 > 0:15:53Excellent. So we've got quite a prominent nose,
0:15:53 > 0:15:57but it doesn't look underdeveloped.
0:15:57 > 0:15:58At this early stage,
0:15:58 > 0:16:01this man's face seems unaffected by his bone condition,
0:16:01 > 0:16:06though Caroline spots something that will affect his appearance.
0:16:06 > 0:16:11He's lost one of his front teeth at the top.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16And that's before he died, so it's well-healed.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20This appears consistent with him being a soldier.
0:16:20 > 0:16:25Losing your front incisors is something that's common with people who fight.
0:16:25 > 0:16:29The teeth next to it look pretty healthy.
0:16:29 > 0:16:33They're not showing signs of decay, so, you know,
0:16:33 > 0:16:36maybe it being knocked out would be the most likely option.
0:16:36 > 0:16:42But what of the more severely affected man with fused elbow and knee?
0:16:42 > 0:16:43Looks significantly younger.
0:16:43 > 0:16:49That's a frontal bone, very pronounced frontal bossing.
0:16:49 > 0:16:53So in other words, this brow ridge - very male characteristic.
0:16:53 > 0:16:56Big nasal bones there,
0:16:56 > 0:16:59similar to the last man.
0:16:59 > 0:17:00And with this skull,
0:17:00 > 0:17:04there are possible signs of abnormal bone development.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06That goes there.
0:17:09 > 0:17:14So the height of the orbit looks very small.
0:17:14 > 0:17:16That is quite a short distance, as well
0:17:16 > 0:17:19between the nose and the mouth.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24It's going to be interesting to put this together
0:17:24 > 0:17:26to see what happens to the rest of the face.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31Caroline scans in the fractured pieces of both skulls
0:17:31 > 0:17:33using a 3D laser scanner.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37Final re-building will happen using computer software.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40Then the full effects of any disorder
0:17:40 > 0:17:42on their faces will start to emerge.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54But how did these two men and 111 others
0:17:54 > 0:17:57end up in mass graves in York?
0:17:57 > 0:18:01And how involved was the city in the Civil War?
0:18:04 > 0:18:09The first English Civil War was fought from 1642 to 1646
0:18:09 > 0:18:13when supporters of parliament rebelled against the tyrannical rule
0:18:13 > 0:18:15of King Charles I.
0:18:15 > 0:18:17At the outset, England was divided
0:18:17 > 0:18:22with Parliamentarian forces controlling the South
0:18:22 > 0:18:24and the North under Royalist control.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26York was seen as the key
0:18:26 > 0:18:28to controlling the entire North of England.
0:18:30 > 0:18:35And historical records recount that in the spring of 1644,
0:18:35 > 0:18:40parliamentary forces pushed North and laid siege to the city.
0:18:41 > 0:18:47So, what impact did this have on York and its population?
0:18:47 > 0:18:48High up on the city's walls,
0:18:48 > 0:18:52Xanthe meets Civil War historian Martin Bennett.
0:18:52 > 0:18:56- Who was fighting?- Inside the city you've got the Royalist army
0:18:56 > 0:18:58of the Earl of Newcastle,
0:18:58 > 0:19:00about 4,000 of his soldiers inside the city.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02So this side, where we are?
0:19:02 > 0:19:04- Yes.- OK. Who's outside?
0:19:04 > 0:19:06Outside are three Parliamentarian armies.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09When all three armies are gathered around
0:19:09 > 0:19:12there's about 30,000, at the most.
0:19:12 > 0:19:16But surely it would be easy then to take the city with 30,000 men?
0:19:16 > 0:19:18There are two ways to take a city -
0:19:18 > 0:19:20one is to storm and the other is to starve it out.
0:19:20 > 0:19:22Both of them carry their risks
0:19:22 > 0:19:25and Parliamentarians initially attempt to starve the garrison out.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28But that wasn't going to be easy.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31It seems that the Royalist soldiers had swept up all crops
0:19:31 > 0:19:34from the surrounding areas and were well prepared.
0:19:34 > 0:19:39For the people inside, in York, it's not as bad as it could be.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42They don't get to the stage of eating dogs and cats and rats
0:19:42 > 0:19:46because there's plenty of food, plenty of water,
0:19:46 > 0:19:48plenty of breweries in town making beer,
0:19:48 > 0:19:50which was safer to drink than water.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54Effectively, they have enough to survive the 11 weeks of this siege.
0:19:54 > 0:19:5730,000 Parliamentarian soldiers
0:19:57 > 0:20:01spent three months camped outside the city walls.
0:20:03 > 0:20:07It seems that this was the critical moment for York's involvement in the Civil War.
0:20:09 > 0:20:14Were our 113 part of this besieging force?
0:20:14 > 0:20:18Amazingly, the siege is particularly well documented.
0:20:18 > 0:20:23At nearby King's Manor, Martin talks Xanthe through who took part.
0:20:23 > 0:20:28Inside you've got the Earl of Newcastle's troops.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31With the Royalists retreating inside the walls,
0:20:31 > 0:20:34Parliamentarian forces gathered around the city.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38What happens first is that the Scots arrive in this area between
0:20:38 > 0:20:42the Ouse as it flows in to the city and the Ouse as it flows out.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45So all this sector here is occupied by Scots' forces.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48And Fairfax's forces occupy this side -
0:20:48 > 0:20:52from the Ouse here, right round to the River Foss.
0:20:52 > 0:20:55What happens is towards the end of May, is the Earl of Manchester's
0:20:55 > 0:20:59army arrives and occupies the Northern territory.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03- Now the city is completely ringed. - Yeah.
0:21:03 > 0:21:05And as soon as that is achieved,
0:21:05 > 0:21:07they move inwards on the walls.
0:21:07 > 0:21:11So the suburbs begin to fall into the hands of Parliament.
0:21:11 > 0:21:17And Martin has a theory about which of these armies our men could have come from.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20Fairfax's forces begin to take over the suburbs outside Walmgate.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24A-ha! So does that mean that our mass grave is over here?
0:21:24 > 0:21:29- It's in this area here, not far from the city walls. - That is close, isn't it?
0:21:29 > 0:21:32Martin believes our men could have been soldiers
0:21:32 > 0:21:35from one very particular part of the Parliamentarian army -
0:21:35 > 0:21:396,000 men under the command of Lord Fairfax.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44It's remarkable progress so early in the case,
0:21:44 > 0:21:47but it will take the results from the isotope testing
0:21:47 > 0:21:49to tell the team exactly where our soldiers came from.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56But what of the injuries to the bones Sue and Xanthe saw in the forensic tent?
0:21:56 > 0:22:01Are these consistent with soldiers fighting in the Civil War?
0:22:02 > 0:22:06Xanthe goes to Heslington Hall where Lord Fairfax
0:22:06 > 0:22:09set up his camp during the siege.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13She meets Graham Webb and Richard Hawes from the Sealed Knot
0:22:13 > 0:22:14to learn about the weaponry,
0:22:14 > 0:22:18roles and injuries typical of 17th century warfare.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22So here we have muzzle loading musket.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26OK, mainly used for firing a lead ball.
0:22:26 > 0:22:28It was inaccurate, so you're unlikely
0:22:28 > 0:22:31to hit anybody with it, although that's no comfort
0:22:31 > 0:22:34to anybody that's standing in front of it.
0:22:34 > 0:22:39Although there are no signs of musket ball damage on our men's bones,
0:22:39 > 0:22:43Richard thinks the musket could still be responsible.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47Occasionally, somebody would get hit and you'd get horrific smash injuries
0:22:47 > 0:22:50and your friends would perhaps be falling down next to you.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53Eventually the morale of the group that you were firing at
0:22:53 > 0:22:56would perhaps break and they would run.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59And at which point, you turn it round the other way
0:22:59 > 0:23:01and you go chasing after them.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04This is the real damage that is done with the butt end of the musket.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07But how would this have actually worked in practise?
0:23:09 > 0:23:11Richard thinks a musket used this way round
0:23:11 > 0:23:15could be responsible for leg breaks, dislocated elbows,
0:23:15 > 0:23:18and broken clavicle bones in the shoulder.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23These are exactly the kind of injuries
0:23:23 > 0:23:26Xanthe and Sue saw on the remains in the tent.
0:23:27 > 0:23:33But what of the large muscle attachments also found on the bones?
0:23:33 > 0:23:35Could this be explained by another weapon
0:23:35 > 0:23:40commonly used by soldiers of the time? The pike.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43The biggest and heaviest men carried these.
0:23:44 > 0:23:49Now, when you charge your pike, if you drop that pike straight down...
0:23:49 > 0:23:51- Do you want to move? - ..with your arm level behind,
0:23:51 > 0:23:53you can then charge your pike at the enemy.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57Don't worry I'm right under it. You feel the weight of that?
0:23:57 > 0:24:00Keep that under your cheek and if you haunch back a bit
0:24:00 > 0:24:02and put your elbow on your hip,
0:24:02 > 0:24:04you should be able to take the weight there.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07- Yes, I can feel that! - You're straining there.
0:24:07 > 0:24:08It's awkward to hold.
0:24:08 > 0:24:10So what you have to do is you just lunge forward,
0:24:10 > 0:24:13- straight into the faces of the enemy there.- Argh!
0:24:13 > 0:24:16And again. Try going, "argh!"
0:24:16 > 0:24:18I would've gone straight for the eyes.
0:24:18 > 0:24:20It takes a lot of strength to wield this,
0:24:20 > 0:24:22as well as balance and technique.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25So you'd expect quite well-built guys.
0:24:25 > 0:24:30The people that used them were particularly selected for their strength, height and stature.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32- The pike men are the brawn of the outfit?- Absolutely.
0:24:32 > 0:24:37All the historical evidence appears to indicate
0:24:37 > 0:24:41our men were soldiers from the Civil War,
0:24:41 > 0:24:45but will the carbon dating results confirm this?
0:24:45 > 0:24:481480 to 1687.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51- Hold on. 1480 to... So that's fine. - Yes.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54These dates cover a broad period,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57with The Civil War lying at the latter end.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00But the team know they can eliminate earlier dates
0:25:00 > 0:25:04because of the archaeological evidence on the ground.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07The church, if you remember, was finished usage in 1580.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10That's why it was ruins when it looks like these men have gone in.
0:25:10 > 0:25:15So we're now 1580 to 1687, and in the middle of that,
0:25:15 > 0:25:19- right slap bang almost in the middle of that is the siege date.- Yes.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21With the siege being the only time in this period
0:25:21 > 0:25:24when so many men were gathered together in York,
0:25:24 > 0:25:29dating the burial to the English Civil War now seems certain.
0:25:31 > 0:25:35What's important is that it supports what everything is telling us.
0:25:35 > 0:25:36So I think those large numbers,
0:25:36 > 0:25:40the regimentation of the burials, the fact that they're in the church
0:25:40 > 0:25:42they're close to the city walls,
0:25:42 > 0:25:45everything it's saying, it's got to be the siege. It's got to be.
0:25:47 > 0:25:52Our 113 men likely never lived long enough to see victory
0:25:52 > 0:25:56when the Royalists gave up and left York in July 1644.
0:25:56 > 0:26:01And whether they were definitely Parliamentarian soldiers
0:26:01 > 0:26:02under Lord Fairfax's command
0:26:02 > 0:26:06will only be confirmed when the isotope results come in.
0:26:08 > 0:26:13The team also still don't know what the cause of death of the men was.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16Although the skeletons showed no fatal wounds,
0:26:16 > 0:26:21many did have healed injury, and there were signs of infection.
0:26:21 > 0:26:26Could infections like these have killed all 113 of the men?
0:26:30 > 0:26:34To help understand what the cause of death might have been,
0:26:34 > 0:26:37Xanthe meets up with historian Rory McCreadie
0:26:37 > 0:26:40in a typical Civil War surgery.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45She starts by showing Rory some of the injuries from our men's bones.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50Here we've got sharp force trauma to the elbows.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53So outside of the elbow, pretty deep, actually.
0:26:53 > 0:26:54What would have caused this?
0:26:54 > 0:26:57That was probably made by a sword. Quite a deep cut.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00Probably in that sort of direction.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03- So some sort of defensive injury. - Yes.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06It seems the surgeons did have some understanding
0:27:06 > 0:27:08of infection and how to manage it.
0:27:08 > 0:27:14What we'd do then is we would get something like oats...
0:27:16 > 0:27:17..and I'm going to get honey.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21I'm going to mix the two together to make it into a paste
0:27:21 > 0:27:24and then this will be put into the wound
0:27:24 > 0:27:27and then we'd sew the wound up with that inside the wound.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30- Why did they leave that in? - Because it helps to heal.
0:27:30 > 0:27:32The honey would be used as an antiseptic.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35We didn't understand that, but we knew that it worked.
0:27:35 > 0:27:39In fact, today in some hospitals when antibiotics don't work
0:27:39 > 0:27:42they're using honey again to fight infections.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48But as these treatments were nowhere near as effective as modern solutions,
0:27:48 > 0:27:50if the infection continued to spread,
0:27:50 > 0:27:53the surgeons had one last resort - amputation.
0:27:53 > 0:27:55If I take your arm off at the elbow,
0:27:55 > 0:28:00you have about a 50/50 chance to survive the operation.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04If I take it off at the shoulder, the chances are you will die.
0:28:04 > 0:28:09Amputation was actually a highly sophisticated procedure
0:28:09 > 0:28:11surgeons were well versed in.
0:28:11 > 0:28:13What we do first of all,
0:28:13 > 0:28:15is we get a dismembering knife like this one here.
0:28:15 > 0:28:20- The cutting edge is on the inside. - That's a pretty serious knife! - It is.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24My assistant would hold your arm extremely tight, act like a tourniquet.
0:28:24 > 0:28:28The surgeon would then plunge the knife into the limb
0:28:28 > 0:28:31until he hits bone and then in a very fast motion
0:28:31 > 0:28:36go round in a circular motion till we come back where we started.
0:28:36 > 0:28:37- Like opening a can.- It is.
0:28:37 > 0:28:41He or she would then yank the skin
0:28:41 > 0:28:45and muscle up the bone to expose the bone.
0:28:45 > 0:28:47The bone saw would then be used
0:28:47 > 0:28:51and as high as possible I would saw through the bones.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54Hopefully, I'm unconscious.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57- Might not necessarily be.- OK.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01When you've sawn through the limb, we then cauterize the wound.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04This would then go on the end of the stump.
0:29:04 > 0:29:08What happens then, if they've done it right,
0:29:08 > 0:29:12the skin and muscle should be longer than the bone.
0:29:12 > 0:29:14This should come down over the end
0:29:14 > 0:29:17- and now I've got squidgy bits to play with.- Yeah.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20This would be pinned through the wound
0:29:20 > 0:29:22and they'd put another pin the other way.
0:29:22 > 0:29:25- Why?- That way you can control the tightness.
0:29:25 > 0:29:27You'd put a figure of eight loop of thread
0:29:27 > 0:29:29- over the two ends of the pin.- Right.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33I'll come along the next day and I'd make that figure of eight
0:29:33 > 0:29:36tighter and tighter and tighter to draw the skin and muscle
0:29:36 > 0:29:39- over the end of the stump. - That's very clever.- Very clever.
0:29:39 > 0:29:43They may not have had today's medical expertise and equipment,
0:29:43 > 0:29:47but Civil War surgeons were certainly competent enough
0:29:47 > 0:29:51to stop all our 113 men dying in one go.
0:29:51 > 0:29:55Simple infection can't be our cause of death.
0:30:04 > 0:30:07Back in Dundee, Sue is taking a closer look at the two skeletons
0:30:07 > 0:30:11with the extraordinary fused bones.
0:30:11 > 0:30:17This individual was exceptional because this is the one where we had
0:30:17 > 0:30:21the most outrageous fusion that occurred at the elbow.
0:30:21 > 0:30:24So the hand permanently fixed in that position,
0:30:24 > 0:30:27and then as if that wasn't enough, quite frankly,
0:30:27 > 0:30:32the absolute and utter piece de resistance - look at that.
0:30:32 > 0:30:36It's just the most outrageous specimen I think I've ever seen.
0:30:36 > 0:30:40So that we've got the long shaft of the femur, the thighbone.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44We've got the tibia, the shinbone at right angles.
0:30:44 > 0:30:49and where there should be a knee, there isn't a knee. It's fixed bone.
0:30:49 > 0:30:52Sue's research has led her to believe
0:30:52 > 0:30:56this could be a condition with the rarest classification possible.
0:30:56 > 0:31:01Occurring in a maximum one person in every 200,000,
0:31:01 > 0:31:05and best illustrated by the other man's fused hand.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09They call it carpal coalition syndrome as
0:31:09 > 0:31:12that's the most common bits that fuse together, all of these bones.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15When bone forms, before it becomes bone,
0:31:15 > 0:31:19it's a big mass of cartilage and if you think of it like cheddar cheese,
0:31:19 > 0:31:22that big lump of cheese was never cut
0:31:22 > 0:31:28and so we think that this is about a malformation of the joints.
0:31:28 > 0:31:31This is a rare genetic condition.
0:31:31 > 0:31:34To find one of those is rare.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37To find two individuals
0:31:37 > 0:31:41that may be displaying the same thing can't be a coincidence.
0:31:41 > 0:31:44It absolutely can't be a coincidence.
0:31:44 > 0:31:47Sue has discovered that the man with the dramatically fused
0:31:47 > 0:31:51knee and elbow also has fused bones in his wrist.
0:31:51 > 0:31:55It's significant new evidence to link the conditions of the two men.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58He has a carpal coalition, too,
0:31:58 > 0:32:01but it's only two of the bones and the bones that it is
0:32:01 > 0:32:05are the bones that are sitting down at the base of the thumb.
0:32:05 > 0:32:09So this one that's called the trapezium and the trapezoid,
0:32:09 > 0:32:11these two little bones have fused together.
0:32:11 > 0:32:14Carpal coalition syndrome
0:32:14 > 0:32:18is a genetic condition that's passed from parent to child.
0:32:18 > 0:32:23It's inherited. If it's in your family,
0:32:23 > 0:32:25it stays in your family.
0:32:25 > 0:32:28And what's the likelihood of that occurring
0:32:28 > 0:32:31randomly alongside somebody else with that?
0:32:31 > 0:32:33You know, I don't like coincidences.
0:32:33 > 0:32:37I don't believe in the tooth fairy and I don't believe in coincidence.
0:32:37 > 0:32:40But Sue has to be sure.
0:32:45 > 0:32:49So the bones are put through a CT scanner,
0:32:49 > 0:32:51which looks inside the bones
0:32:51 > 0:32:54to give detailed images viewable from any angle.
0:32:56 > 0:33:02Will the images confirm or disprove Sue's diagnosis?
0:33:04 > 0:33:08Along with her colleague Dr Roos Eisma,
0:33:08 > 0:33:09she scours the images.
0:33:09 > 0:33:14This is the whole tray laid out as it went through the scanner.
0:33:14 > 0:33:18Isn't that amazing? Look at that knee and look at that elbow.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21This is the knee.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25Ooh! Go back, go back, go back, go back, go back, go back.
0:33:25 > 0:33:28Look. Isn't that interesting?
0:33:28 > 0:33:32When you've got the two pillars of the joint, they're continuous.
0:33:32 > 0:33:34All the other bits of the bone are formed.
0:33:34 > 0:33:36All the normal growing bits are there.
0:33:36 > 0:33:38What isn't there is the joint.
0:33:38 > 0:33:40There's no joint space.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43Now that isn't trauma, that isn't disease.
0:33:45 > 0:33:47That's embryological. Yep.
0:33:47 > 0:33:51That's our multiple sinostosis syndrome.
0:33:51 > 0:33:55That's the most amazing image.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58Sue's instincts are confirmed.
0:33:58 > 0:34:02The only question now is OK, we know they've got that syndrome,
0:34:02 > 0:34:05we've diagnosed the syndrome. Are they related?
0:34:07 > 0:34:13DNA samples have been taken from the bones of the two men under sterile conditions.
0:34:15 > 0:34:19These results could confirm any familial link between the two soldiers,
0:34:19 > 0:34:23but the results are still some days away.
0:34:29 > 0:34:33What is already clear is that the man with the fused arm and leg
0:34:33 > 0:34:36would have had to live with his disability from birth.
0:34:39 > 0:34:41But how would he have coped
0:34:41 > 0:34:44with such severe disability 350 years ago?
0:34:44 > 0:34:48And what function could he have served in a civil war army?
0:34:48 > 0:34:51Xanthe heads to Kent University
0:34:51 > 0:34:56to meet Julie Anderson - specialist in the history of disability.
0:34:56 > 0:35:00Julie has brought along a range of wooden replica crutches and supports
0:35:00 > 0:35:04the disabled soldier could have used.
0:35:04 > 0:35:05They look pretty simple.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08Just whatever's going to help someone get around.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12Yes, crutch design remains very simple until the 20th century.
0:35:12 > 0:35:14They were generally pieces of wood,
0:35:14 > 0:35:18carved with some padding put on the support area under the arm.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21So how mobile would the man have been?
0:35:21 > 0:35:25To find out, Julie's assistant Jack is given replica crutches
0:35:25 > 0:35:29and a knee support the man would likely have used.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32Now, let's see if you can...
0:35:32 > 0:35:34- not fall over, I guess. - I'll go for it.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37Yeah, yeah. Now imagine, if you were like this all the time,
0:35:37 > 0:35:39you'd obviously get a bit more efficient.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42But he's moving all right, isn't he?
0:35:42 > 0:35:45- Yes.- We're not looking at somebody who would have just had to sit down
0:35:45 > 0:35:49and not do anything, and you've still got use of this hand,
0:35:49 > 0:35:51so literally it's here that's fused -
0:35:51 > 0:35:53you could still use all the movement at the shoulder,
0:35:53 > 0:35:56and you've still got a viable wrist joint.
0:35:56 > 0:36:01He wouldn't have fought, but Julie is sure there were plenty of other jobs he could have done.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04His job would have perhaps been an ancillary worker,
0:36:04 > 0:36:06perhaps a cook, or maybe even, as he was a big man,
0:36:06 > 0:36:11guarding the ordinance, where all the munitions and muskets and things like that were kept.
0:36:11 > 0:36:13Despite a permanently fused elbow and knee,
0:36:13 > 0:36:16he could've functioned quite well.
0:36:16 > 0:36:19All right. You're standing at a bench, balancing now,
0:36:19 > 0:36:20what do you think?
0:36:20 > 0:36:22Could you have managed to be a cook or a guard?
0:36:22 > 0:36:26I imagine the balance might have been an issue, but you'd get used to it,
0:36:26 > 0:36:28so with the right arm you can obviously do a lot of things.
0:36:28 > 0:36:30So I imagine so.
0:36:30 > 0:36:33Yeah. It's great to see it first hand, how this could have looked,
0:36:33 > 0:36:35because when you just see the remains,
0:36:35 > 0:36:39you think this guy would have been pretty much stuck doing nothing.
0:36:39 > 0:36:43And Julie has rare illustrations of how people affected by disability
0:36:43 > 0:36:45may have lived around that time.
0:36:45 > 0:36:50I've got some images here of a range of disabled people from the period.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53They've got musical instruments and things.
0:36:53 > 0:36:55Well, they would have been working people.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59You have to remember that there was no institutionalisation
0:36:59 > 0:37:00really before the 19th century,
0:37:00 > 0:37:03so people had to just go out and make their own living,
0:37:03 > 0:37:05which a lot of people did as best they could.
0:37:05 > 0:37:07Some of these are in pairs.
0:37:07 > 0:37:09This person looks blind and is being led by somebody else.
0:37:09 > 0:37:14Yes, that was common, too. They would get together in bands
0:37:14 > 0:37:15and look after each other.
0:37:15 > 0:37:18It's the same for our man in the military.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21He would have been part of a group and they would have looked after him.
0:37:21 > 0:37:23They wouldn't have seen him as unusual?
0:37:23 > 0:37:26No, not at all. In fact the word "normal"
0:37:26 > 0:37:29doesn't really come into common usage in the English language
0:37:29 > 0:37:32until the early part of the 19th century.
0:37:32 > 0:37:34Was there just no purpose for it?
0:37:34 > 0:37:37No. It wasn't necessary, people were just who they were.
0:37:37 > 0:37:42But despite this apparent tolerance, relatives often suffered.
0:37:42 > 0:37:48Extreme religious beliefs saw disability as a sign that the person's family had committed a sin.
0:37:48 > 0:37:50They would be ostracised,
0:37:50 > 0:37:54they would be shunned by their communities and it was difficult.
0:37:54 > 0:37:56Some families had to move away,
0:37:56 > 0:38:00but often when the disabled person grew up, they would leave home.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03And the military could prove useful in these circumstances.
0:38:03 > 0:38:06Would disabled people actually have gone into the military
0:38:06 > 0:38:09to relieve their families of that burden?
0:38:09 > 0:38:12Absolutely, and because unemployment was a problem
0:38:12 > 0:38:14amongst disabled people,
0:38:14 > 0:38:16often the military provided a haven for them
0:38:16 > 0:38:18in order for them to be paid at a job.
0:38:20 > 0:38:24So it's not a surprise to have found the disabled in the army,
0:38:24 > 0:38:26even holding down a key job.
0:38:26 > 0:38:31Nor is it a surprise to find two disabled men grouped together for support.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41Back in Dundee, Caroline and her colleague Chris Rynn
0:38:41 > 0:38:44are close to reconstructing what our two men may have looked like.
0:38:46 > 0:38:51The older man is missing his front tooth from the blow to the face he took, likely in battle.
0:38:53 > 0:38:57But the more severely disabled man's face has been more complicated.
0:38:57 > 0:39:02It's been a really challenging process for me with this one.
0:39:02 > 0:39:05This was very definitely asymmetry that was extreme
0:39:05 > 0:39:08and it's just been really interesting to try and show
0:39:08 > 0:39:10the face of someone with a congenital condition.
0:39:10 > 0:39:15And we're seeing some dysmorphia, some changes to the facial structure
0:39:15 > 0:39:17that may be connected to this condition.
0:39:17 > 0:39:20What I've done is to take in a nose...
0:39:20 > 0:39:25from a database and then try and distort that to fit with the bones.
0:39:25 > 0:39:29You can see that we've got quite a bent shape
0:39:29 > 0:39:34to the lateral nasal bones, the bones on the side of the nose,
0:39:34 > 0:39:36which is suggesting this shape here.
0:39:36 > 0:39:40And one of the things I've noted a lot in the literature for this condition,
0:39:40 > 0:39:44we may have to consider giving him cross eyes,
0:39:44 > 0:39:48because that seems to be a likely option.
0:39:48 > 0:39:53But were these two men really related, as their shared rare condition suggests?
0:40:00 > 0:40:04To find out, the team gather to hear the results of the DNA analysis,
0:40:04 > 0:40:07with Sue especially on tenterhooks.
0:40:09 > 0:40:11A bit frustratingly, they came back as having...
0:40:11 > 0:40:15You see, I don't even like that now. You've already gone too far.
0:40:15 > 0:40:17They don't have the same mother.
0:40:17 > 0:40:18But we've got DNA out of them?
0:40:18 > 0:40:23Yes. DNA was viable. It does not appear to be contaminated.
0:40:23 > 0:40:24OK.
0:40:24 > 0:40:25But..?
0:40:25 > 0:40:30Apparently though, looking for the male lineage on the Y chromosome is much...
0:40:30 > 0:40:35You've got to go right down to the nuclear level and the DNA is not viable at that level.
0:40:36 > 0:40:38Don't look at me like that!
0:40:38 > 0:40:43Well, that's just rubbish, quite frankly! That's unacceptable.
0:40:43 > 0:40:44It's absolutely unacceptable!
0:40:44 > 0:40:48We can't say that they're NOT brothers, fraternal brothers,
0:40:48 > 0:40:52but we can say that they... We can't tell and they're not maternally related.
0:40:53 > 0:40:58Frustratingly for Sue, the DNA shows the two men aren't related by mother
0:40:58 > 0:41:00and it isn't good enough quality
0:41:00 > 0:41:04to prove whether they were related by father or not.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08But Sue's not going to give up on her theory easily.
0:41:08 > 0:41:13So it is possible that they could still be related,
0:41:13 > 0:41:15but we just can't show it.
0:41:15 > 0:41:18I think the chances of having this condition
0:41:18 > 0:41:22in individuals who are not related and are in the same,
0:41:22 > 0:41:25pretty much almost the same grave at same time,
0:41:25 > 0:41:29would be stretching it a bit far.
0:41:30 > 0:41:35They could still be cousins or half brothers, but where were they from?
0:41:35 > 0:41:38The isotope results are also in.
0:41:38 > 0:41:43Will these help to determine whether the men were part of Lord Fairfax's Parliamentary army?
0:41:43 > 0:41:48- The two do have the same isotopic signature.- Good.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51And I've got some interesting data for the diet,
0:41:51 > 0:41:54which is quite specifically interesting to these guys.
0:41:54 > 0:42:00They had a 20 to 25% fish intake in their diet, which is really high.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03Normally we'd be looking at 0 to 5%.
0:42:03 > 0:42:08In York, you're going to have... Unless it's freshwater,
0:42:08 > 0:42:11but these have got a really high fish, both of the brothers.
0:42:11 > 0:42:13So it has to be coastal.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18This is a fascinating discovery for the team.
0:42:18 > 0:42:22The isotopes say both our men had high marine diets.
0:42:22 > 0:42:24But how does this fit with the theory
0:42:24 > 0:42:27they were part of Fairfax's army in York?
0:42:28 > 0:42:32Civil War expert Andrew Hopper thinks he has the answer,
0:42:32 > 0:42:37and has invited Xanthe to the Yorkshire port of Hull to explain.
0:42:37 > 0:42:40Hull was the most important Northern port town
0:42:40 > 0:42:43held by Parliament during the Civil Wars.
0:42:43 > 0:42:44Prior to siege of York,
0:42:44 > 0:42:49it was also the base of the Parliamentarian commander in Yorkshire, Lord Fairfax.
0:42:49 > 0:42:53Quite a large proportion of Lord Fairfax's Parliamentarian army
0:42:53 > 0:42:57from Yorkshire came from Hull and the parishes around it.
0:42:57 > 0:43:00There was a large merchant fleet based here,
0:43:00 > 0:43:04and many of the seamen volunteered to fight for Parliament.
0:43:04 > 0:43:08So you're saying that these guys I've been looking at, that I presumed were soldiers,
0:43:08 > 0:43:11would actually originally have been sailors?
0:43:11 > 0:43:14It's very likely that they had been, yes.
0:43:14 > 0:43:19But why would sailors be useful to Lord Fairfax in the siege of York?
0:43:19 > 0:43:22Hull's sailors would all have been experienced cannoneers,
0:43:22 > 0:43:24experienced artillerymen.
0:43:24 > 0:43:27They would have served on merchant vessels that had been armed
0:43:27 > 0:43:31and they'd also been probably quite hardy folk,
0:43:31 > 0:43:33having sailed across the North Sea.
0:43:33 > 0:43:37So they would have been prized commodities in a siege situation.
0:43:37 > 0:43:41So our men's experience with cannon on board ship
0:43:41 > 0:43:45could have made them highly useful in a siege war.
0:43:47 > 0:43:50Lord Fairfax invested the city from the South East
0:43:50 > 0:43:54between the Rivers Foss and Ouse, and set up his gun batteries
0:43:54 > 0:43:59on Lamel Hill, and from there they would pour down fire where the Royalist defences were.
0:43:59 > 0:44:02Well, that's really interesting, because the mass graves, and specifically
0:44:02 > 0:44:05these two brothers in arms, they were buried very near there.
0:44:05 > 0:44:10So they were probably part of this actual military operation, weren't they?
0:44:10 > 0:44:12Yes, I should think it's very likely.
0:44:12 > 0:44:15Do we have any documentary evidence available from the time?
0:44:15 > 0:44:21Well the garrison accounts of Hull in 1642 and 1643 survive.
0:44:21 > 0:44:22Wow!
0:44:22 > 0:44:26And they're very detailed, and they give us the names
0:44:26 > 0:44:30of three of the gunners, three of the cannoneers in Hull.
0:44:30 > 0:44:33Really? Is this actually from the original document? A copy of it?
0:44:33 > 0:44:37Yes. We have here Thomas Coatsforth in the cannoneers at the block house.
0:44:37 > 0:44:43James Hunter in the cannoneers in the town and another gentleman here -
0:44:43 > 0:44:46Cowling the gunner mentioned in the accounts.
0:44:46 > 0:44:49It's a bit of a reach, but, theoretically, one of these men
0:44:49 > 0:44:53could be one of the men I've been looking at.
0:44:53 > 0:44:56Well, if they weren't one of the men you were looking at, it's very
0:44:56 > 0:45:00likely they would have been very well known, or personally known to them.
0:45:00 > 0:45:02That's pretty close, isn't it?
0:45:03 > 0:45:07But why would a group of sailors give up their livelihoods
0:45:07 > 0:45:10and sign up to fight in Fairfax's land army?
0:45:10 > 0:45:14Was there a greater motivation behind their actions?
0:45:18 > 0:45:21Xanthe meets Civil War specialist Diane Purkiss
0:45:21 > 0:45:23at Holy Trinity in York -
0:45:23 > 0:45:28a simple church she believes the Parliamentarian soldiers would have approved of.
0:45:28 > 0:45:31They felt this was what God wanted.
0:45:31 > 0:45:34Absolute plainness and spareness.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37Anything else was an insult to him.
0:45:37 > 0:45:41This plainness permeated people's whole lives.
0:45:41 > 0:45:45You'd live the right way, you'd be chaste, you'd be abstinent,
0:45:45 > 0:45:48you'd read the Bible every day.
0:45:48 > 0:45:51Many ordinary Englishmen joined the Parliamentarian cause
0:45:51 > 0:45:56because they hated the elaborate, ritualistic church King Charles I stood for,
0:45:56 > 0:46:01as well his belief he was appointed by God to rule by Divine Right.
0:46:03 > 0:46:07He tried to impose on the Church of England
0:46:07 > 0:46:11a much more posh, hierarchical,
0:46:11 > 0:46:15glittering, Bishop-driven kind of model
0:46:15 > 0:46:17of what the Church of England ought to be,
0:46:17 > 0:46:19and these people didn't want a bar of it.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22But they also thought it was icon worship -
0:46:22 > 0:46:25something that pretended to represent God,
0:46:25 > 0:46:28but actually broke the second commandment where God says,
0:46:28 > 0:46:31"Thou shalt not make unto thyself a graven image."
0:46:31 > 0:46:35How do we go from religious fervour to war?
0:46:35 > 0:46:37Well, some of these guys actually thought
0:46:37 > 0:46:42that they were fighting in the last battle between Christ and the forces of Anti-Christ.
0:46:42 > 0:46:46Some of the more radical ones believed that if they acted rightly,
0:46:46 > 0:46:51it would actually inspire Christ to come down from Heaven and rule the world.
0:46:51 > 0:46:54- And save the world.- And save the world, and create an ideal world.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58- That's worth dying for, then. It's a massive cause.- Yeah, exactly.
0:46:59 > 0:47:03And Diane has written evidence of the soldiers' religious fervour.
0:47:04 > 0:47:08This is actually a letter that was sent to London.
0:47:08 > 0:47:12This man plainly thought he was God's soldier. It's actually headed,
0:47:12 > 0:47:15"A relation of the great victory obtained by God's assistance
0:47:15 > 0:47:17"by the Parliament's forces."
0:47:17 > 0:47:19And the letter itself says,
0:47:19 > 0:47:23"Sir, by God's blessing I can tell you I am alive
0:47:23 > 0:47:27"and so are you, and by God's victorious arm,
0:47:27 > 0:47:30"the Church of God is alive."
0:47:30 > 0:47:33So each and every man thought he was God's soldier.
0:47:33 > 0:47:35Yeah, and they thought the army was the Church of God.
0:47:35 > 0:47:39So now the opposing Royalists in the field are God's enemies.
0:47:39 > 0:47:43- They're radicalised. That's how we'd see it today.- That's right, yeah.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46So the experience of serving in this army
0:47:46 > 0:47:50and thinking these kinds of religious thoughts has radicalised this man.
0:47:50 > 0:47:54Was it this same religious conviction that drove our men
0:47:54 > 0:47:57to the siege of York and their eventual demise?
0:47:57 > 0:48:01The team believe they now know where the men were from.
0:48:01 > 0:48:05They know who they were fighting for and what their motivation was.
0:48:05 > 0:48:09But they still don't know how they died.
0:48:11 > 0:48:15There is evidence of having fracture occur to bone,
0:48:15 > 0:48:17but it's very well healed.
0:48:17 > 0:48:20There's an evidence of infection to bone,
0:48:20 > 0:48:23but again, it's very well healed.
0:48:23 > 0:48:26All of this is consistent with them being a fighting force,
0:48:26 > 0:48:30but it's not consistent with what caused their death.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34And if you can rule out the infection side and the trauma side,
0:48:34 > 0:48:39the only thing that's really left as a feasible cause of death
0:48:39 > 0:48:42is going to be...disease.
0:48:42 > 0:48:46It has to be disease is the most likely cause of death for so many individuals.
0:48:51 > 0:48:55How would doctors have dealt with disease back in the 17th Century?
0:48:57 > 0:49:02Xanthe goes to the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford
0:49:02 > 0:49:05to meet medical historian Dr Erica Charters.
0:49:05 > 0:49:07Got an intriguing little box here.
0:49:07 > 0:49:11- Do we need the gloves?- So we need the gloves on to touch some of this.
0:49:11 > 0:49:13Erica has a remarkable device,
0:49:13 > 0:49:17used to treat disease and fever until the late 19th Century
0:49:17 > 0:49:21and similar to those doctors would have used during the English Civil War.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26- This is actually to let blood.- Right.
0:49:26 > 0:49:30Now, this is where the exciting bit happens.
0:49:30 > 0:49:33- This would go right up against your skin.- Yep.
0:49:33 > 0:49:35- MACHINE CLICKS LOUDLY - Ooh!
0:49:35 > 0:49:37Before you know it, it would cut into your skin,
0:49:37 > 0:49:41it would make very small incisions and this would allow you to let some blood out.
0:49:41 > 0:49:45And blood letting was... Well it's been very popular for a long time,
0:49:45 > 0:49:47so in the 17th Century they would have done this.
0:49:47 > 0:49:50Just press the button there and hold it.
0:49:51 > 0:49:55- Ooh! It's quite powerful, isn't it? - It is quite powerful,
0:49:55 > 0:49:58and you can see where it's cut into the paper.
0:49:58 > 0:50:02Was there an idea there were poisons in the blood that you wanted to release by blood letting?
0:50:02 > 0:50:06Very much so, and what we do see, especially for fevers -
0:50:06 > 0:50:09remembering if you think of how someone looks who has a fever,
0:50:09 > 0:50:14they're flushed, they're very warm, their pulse is beating very quickly -
0:50:14 > 0:50:17so it almost looks like they have an excess of blood.
0:50:17 > 0:50:20So it's not surprising that some people felt that letting out
0:50:20 > 0:50:25- some of that excess of blood would return you to health. - Does it actually have any benefits?
0:50:25 > 0:50:28Um...not that we know of, no.
0:50:30 > 0:50:32With little more than blood letting as a treatment,
0:50:32 > 0:50:36and with thousands of men camped closely together during the siege,
0:50:36 > 0:50:40Erica believes she knows what could've killed the 113 men.
0:50:42 > 0:50:46Something like typhus fever, the incubation is probably around three weeks
0:50:46 > 0:50:49and, very commonly, what we see in diaries of sieges
0:50:49 > 0:50:52is that after about three weeks during a siege,
0:50:52 > 0:50:54we see outbreaks of disease.
0:50:54 > 0:50:56- How does it spread? - Well, it's very contagious.
0:50:56 > 0:51:00Typhus is interesting because it's spread through body lice
0:51:00 > 0:51:03and they actually live in the seams of your clothing.
0:51:03 > 0:51:07So it's a particular kind of insect which is a vector for the pathogen.
0:51:07 > 0:51:11And what's interesting about it is the lice only like living at the temperature of your body,
0:51:11 > 0:51:15so they will only stay in your clothes when you're wearing them,
0:51:15 > 0:51:17which is why we often see it in sieges.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20It's very common in winter time when people keep their clothes on.
0:51:20 > 0:51:25- So it could possibly have been there even during the summer in York. - What are the symptoms?
0:51:25 > 0:51:28Well, it's a general fever, a kind of weakening,
0:51:28 > 0:51:32very often a very intense headache. Sometimes you see a rash.
0:51:32 > 0:51:34How many people died of typhus?
0:51:34 > 0:51:37Well, it depends. We know that when we look at case fatalities rates -
0:51:37 > 0:51:41so, if you catch it, what the chances are that you will die -
0:51:41 > 0:51:44- we've seen during the First World War it reached rates of 70%.- Wow!
0:51:44 > 0:51:47As it's so contagious, if you're in a small area together,
0:51:47 > 0:51:50there's a good chance almost everyone will catch it.
0:51:50 > 0:51:54Because it was so contagious, did they die from this more so than from fighting?
0:51:54 > 0:51:59It would be much more likely that you might die of disease, and it's not a very glorious death.
0:51:59 > 0:52:01It's one thing to die on the battlefield -
0:52:01 > 0:52:04it's another thing to die of something like diarrhoea or a fever.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06It's not the way that you want to go.
0:52:07 > 0:52:12The team finally has a plausible, if tragic, explanation
0:52:12 > 0:52:15for how the men in the mass graves died.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18A virulent outbreak of typhus fever -
0:52:18 > 0:52:23a disease that has afflicted besieging armies from ancient times
0:52:23 > 0:52:27right up to Stalingrad in the Second World War.
0:52:40 > 0:52:44With the final part of the puzzle in place,
0:52:44 > 0:52:49it's time for the story the bones have told to be relayed back to the local community.
0:52:54 > 0:52:58The Cold Case team has returned to York.
0:53:00 > 0:53:04There to hear their findings are those who originally excavated the site
0:53:04 > 0:53:08and experts who have assisted the team.
0:53:09 > 0:53:11I'm hoping to find out more of why they died,
0:53:11 > 0:53:14more about why they were buried in that particular spot
0:53:14 > 0:53:18and who buried them and what period of the Civil Wars they were buried in.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22All those questions that purely the historical evidence isn't able to answer.
0:53:22 > 0:53:26The facial reconstructions is something I haven't been involved with before
0:53:26 > 0:53:33and, hopefully, that'll give us an insight - a closer insight - into the people who we're dealing with.
0:53:33 > 0:53:35Ghoulishly exciting.
0:53:35 > 0:53:40Sue reveals the bigger story of the Civil War.
0:53:40 > 0:53:44It's reasonable to suspect that they're going to be fighting men.
0:53:44 > 0:53:47She unpacks how the men would have died...
0:53:47 > 0:53:51What do we find in terms of a cause of death?
0:53:51 > 0:53:52Well, we don't find trauma.
0:53:52 > 0:53:57What we've been told is that, in fact, more people died as a result of disease.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00..the more intimate story of disability...
0:54:00 > 0:54:04His right leg would have been fixed that way.
0:54:04 > 0:54:06A condition that is so rare,
0:54:06 > 0:54:12we don't have an incidence for the rarity of it.
0:54:12 > 0:54:17..and how the science tied two remarkable men's lives together in death.
0:54:17 > 0:54:20So now what we've got are two individuals,
0:54:20 > 0:54:23buried in the same location,
0:54:23 > 0:54:26with the rarest of genetic conditions,
0:54:26 > 0:54:28not with the same mother -
0:54:28 > 0:54:31hopefully their father had a bike, but not with the same mother -
0:54:31 > 0:54:35with exactly the same stable isotopes in terms of where they've come from,
0:54:35 > 0:54:41and with exactly the same unusual marine-based diet of a very high proportion.
0:54:41 > 0:54:44They have GOT to go together!
0:54:46 > 0:54:51The final part of the investigation is to bring these two soldiers back to life,
0:54:51 > 0:54:54beginning with the man with just a fused hand.
0:54:59 > 0:55:01It's a strong face, it's a very strong face.
0:55:01 > 0:55:03It's actually quite a pleasant face.
0:55:05 > 0:55:07He would fit in amongst us, wouldn't he?
0:55:12 > 0:55:14Then there is the more severely affected man.
0:55:23 > 0:55:30Now, I don't know whether his squint eye was inward-pointing or outward-pointing.
0:55:30 > 0:55:34When we looked at the literature, inward-pointing seemed to be more common.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38These guys would've been used to seeing people
0:55:38 > 0:55:40who'd had much more major battlefield wounds
0:55:40 > 0:55:44and, you know, like your face cut in half by a cavalry sabre,
0:55:44 > 0:55:45losing an eye to a pike.
0:55:46 > 0:55:51That asymmetry is relatively slight in comparison with what they would have seen.
0:55:52 > 0:55:57And for Sue, it's this man's story that has been the greatest revelation.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01He was active, so he's not a passive person.
0:56:01 > 0:56:06He's been with the rest of them, treated the same way as the rest of them.
0:56:06 > 0:56:10Whether we now might think of him differently in terms of a disability,
0:56:10 > 0:56:14that disability wasn't being recognised as him being an outcast.
0:56:14 > 0:56:18He was treated very, very much like the others.
0:56:18 > 0:56:23It is an absolutely unique set of remains. It is fascinating.
0:56:31 > 0:56:35They give us that opportunity to bring the science in,
0:56:35 > 0:56:39use the historical background, and it really fleshes out
0:56:39 > 0:56:44those people that we're dealing with during that quite tumultuous period of English history.
0:56:44 > 0:56:47The science gave it everything I was hoping for.
0:56:47 > 0:56:50It gave it that element the historical document can't deal with.
0:56:50 > 0:56:54It gave us something beyond the paper, beyond the page and beyond the text.
0:56:54 > 0:56:56The guy with the disabilities -
0:56:56 > 0:57:01I was just fascinated that such a guy could find a place in Fairfax's army.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04I think that tells us something so important
0:57:04 > 0:57:08about the way this war was developing and the way people were thinking
0:57:08 > 0:57:12because, plainly, we've got an evolving meritocracy here.
0:57:12 > 0:57:14Every man was supposed to be good for their job,
0:57:14 > 0:57:17and if they were good for their job that was good enough.
0:57:17 > 0:57:21And that was what led, really, to the modern parliamentary democracy that we all enjoy.
0:57:23 > 0:57:27The Cold Case Team has uncovered two remarkable tales.
0:57:27 > 0:57:30The larger story of the 113 -
0:57:30 > 0:57:34strong, committed men fighting for a cause,
0:57:34 > 0:57:38tragically cut down by disease before their victory was assured.
0:57:39 > 0:57:45But also the personal story of two men, likely closely related,
0:57:45 > 0:57:50who, despite huge disadvantages, stayed together in life and death.
0:57:50 > 0:57:52Forever brothers in arms.
0:57:54 > 0:58:00The story complete, their remarkable bones are now handed back to the community.
0:58:00 > 0:58:02This has been such an amazing story -
0:58:02 > 0:58:04it brings so many different elements together.
0:58:04 > 0:58:10It is a huge historical story, but it's also an incredibly important story.
0:58:10 > 0:58:17I'm not aware in the literature anywhere of this type of remains ever having been recorded before.
0:58:17 > 0:58:20I think this is a first. I may be wrong, but I think it is a first.