Mary Rose crew 'was from Mediterranean and North Africa'

BBC ^ | March 16, 2019 | unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

Definitely. Maritime people really got around. The post-Roman British Isles enjoyed the fruits of Byzantine trade, even though the local population shifts were continual. The Vikings wound up in pockets around Europe, including Sicily and southern Italy, thanks in part to their mercenary service for the Byzantine Empire, and of course their having carved out fiefs for themselves throughout the British Isles, and France. Scandinavian DNA generally shows up as a surprise finding when people interested in their English genealogy get theirs done, and it's not at all rare to find it north of 30%, even though they'd previously had no paperwork to indicate any such thing. During the Middle Ages, Vikings were settled in the Shetlands and the Orkneys when the Scots finally visited those places. The British Empire ruled a decent fraction of the world's population, and even during the later Commonwealth there was a lot of freedom of movement. Still is.

[SunkenCiv]

River Hunters: The Bronze Age Axe!!! | Aquachigger | March 14, 2019

[centurion316]

Thanks, very good summary. A ship’s company, of any age, are almost among the most diverse of any group of people than can be imagined. On the other hand, the soldiers aboard Mary Rose were likely English, especially the archers. I’m guessing that this individual was a mariner.

[SunkenCiv]

Archers must have been transitioned to rifles in a fairly short interval, after having been crucial so many times. The Battle of Towton featured I forget how many archers, and the eventual winning side was firing with the wind, and recycling opponents’ arrows. That’s one reason it was such a bloodbath. Oh, and it was snowing, and the snow was blowing right in the losing side’s faces.

[centurion316]

When I visited the Mary Rose, I was struck by the large numbers of brand new longbows were found on the ship. Archer bodies are easily identified, their forearms (usually the right arm)are very different from the other arm. While Mary Rose had a large battery of cannon of various sizes, matchlock firearms were not so abundant.

[SunkenCiv]

Close-quarters fighting followed the disabling of one side or the other via the destruction of the sails, makes sense that the bows would be available. Sounds like a great thing to see, btw. :^)