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“Queerness as an interpretative tool” seems to be no more than the blunt assertion that today’s questions are the only ones worth asking and today’s categories the only ones worth applying. Never mind that when the ship sank, the crew drowned and that these artifacts spoke of real human lives that were lost and families that were presumably devastated. It is all about today’s categories such as gender and queerness. Difference need not be respected. Perspectives unsanctioned by modern Western progressivism need not apply.

The crown jewel of Henry VIII’s 16th century fleet was its flagship, the venerable Mary Rose. More than 500 years after its launch, the vessel remains a precious cultural treasure. Though she ploughed the Atlantic and battled with her heavy cannons for 34 years – and laid buried beneath the turbulent English Channel for 437 more, bacteria and chemicals have begun eating away at her remnants, on display at the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth, England. Thankfully, the ship’s conservators have received a helping hand.A new X-ray method has allowed an international team of researchers to identify zinc-sulfide nanoparticles in...

"Having studied the skull of one of the men who went down with the Mary Rose, we found the bone structure was consistent with someone who had North African features, and DNA evidence seems to back this up," he said. "Today, with a much more mobile world population, it would have been harder to isolate, but in the 16th Century it's easier to pinpoint facial characteristics to a specific location. "Henry, as we've named him, had a broad nose bridge and wide cheek bones which are far more similar to skeletons found in Morocco or Algeria than those of the...

Thousands of shipwrecks litter the seafloor all over the world, preserved in sediments and cold water. But when one of these ships is brought up from the depths, the wood quickly starts deteriorating. Today, scientists report a new way to use "smart" nanocomposites to conserve a 16th-century British warship, the Mary Rose, and its artifacts. The new approach could help preserve other salvaged ships by eliminating harmful acids without damaging the wooden structures themselves. The Mary Rose sank in 1545 off the south coast of England and remained under the seabed until she was salvaged in 1982, along with over...

The Tudor battleship has been stabilised and is now on display in a new museum. Jon Evans explores the chemistry stopping those timbers shivering To avoid potentially damaging shrinkage, the hull was sprayed with water for about 12 years, then with PEG for 19 years © Peter Phipp / Travelshots.com / Alamy In many ways, the sea has not been particularly kind to the Mary Rose, the flagship of Henry VIII’s navy when it faced an invading French fleet at the mouth of Portsmouth Harbour in July 1545. For a start, it engulfed the ship, with the loss of over 350...

They spent nearly 500 years in a watery grave with no record of who they were, but now the crew of the Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s ill fated flagship, could finally be identified. Scientists have begun work to extract DNA from the bones that were found on board the Tudor warship when it was raised from the bottom of The Solent 30 years ago. They hope to use the genetic information to identify the men who perished on the vessel when it sank and perhaps even trace their living relatives. It comes as a new £23 million museum built around...

Divers find piece of Henry VIII's warship August 19 2003 at 03:45AM London - Divers may have found the missing front section of the Tudor warship the Mary Rose, marine archaeologists said Monday. Alex Hildred, the dive's project manager, said that if the find was confirmed it would be "the most important maritime archaeology find in England in the last 20 years." Experts have been diving to the wreck off Portsmouth on the southern English coast for the past month, and have excavated a five-metre long piece of wood they believe is the front stem of the ship's keel. The...

Most of my readers may be familiar with the fact that pre-reformation England had a number of diocesan uses and variations in the liturgy. It was the same in most European countries. The Use of Sarum became increasingly standardised in the early sixteenth century, and the Convocation of Canterbury imposed its use to replace the other uses in 1544. It was replaced by Cranmer's first Prayer Book in 1549. The Use of Sarum had a great deal in common with the Norman rites, such as those of Rouen and Bayeux, though Sarum kept some of the old Gallican and Celtic...

Time changes modern human's face By Rebecca Morelle BBC News science reporter Our ancestors had more prominent features but lower foreheads Researchers have found that the shape of the human skull has changed significantly over the past 650 years. Modern people possess less prominent features but higher foreheads than our medieval ancestors. Writing in the British Dental Journal, the team took careful measurements of groups of skulls spanning across 30 generations. The scientists said the differences between past and present skull shapes were "striking". Plague victimsThe team used radiographic films of skulls to record extensive measurements taken by a computer....

Just what did the Mary Rose tell us? By Finlo Rohrer BBC News Magazine The Mary Rose in dry dock The raising of the Mary Rose in 1982 was greeted with feverish excitement, but what has this landmark find actually told us in the 25 years since? At the tail end of 1982 it seemed like you couldn't switch on Newsround without seeing something to do with Mary Rose. Our fascination with the ship that met a sticky end while firing at a French invasion fleet in 1545 has flared at times in the years since. It is almost a...

For almost 500 years, the sinking of the Mary Rose has been blamed on poor seamanship and the fateful intervention of a freak gust of wind which combined to topple her over. Now, academics believe the vessel, the pride of Henry VIII's fleet, was actually sunk by a French warship – a fact covered up by the Tudors to save face. Academics have found that the Mary Rose may have been sunk by a French warship The Mary Rose, which was raised from the seabed in 1982 and remains on public display in Portsmouth, was sunk in 1545, as Henry...