Tony catches up with Alice Roberts to talk about her new book ‘Crypt’ and what developments in the extraction of ancient DNA from bones can tell us about the humans they once belonged to.

They cover the syphilitic anchoress of All Saints Church, Fishergate, York; new findings about the Black Death and the bones in the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Braemore, Hampshire; damage to the bones of the Mary Rose crew; 'the cockle amongst the wheat’ and new finds relating to the St Brice’s Day Massacre via isotopic analysis of human bones at St John’s College, Oxford as well as revisiting their Time Team days.

‘We experience the world through our bodies, and our lives are written into those bodies and into our bones. And this is what the skeletons of the dead say to us when we find them: listen to us, we have stories to tell.’ (‘Crypt’ 2024, Alice Roberts)

Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson

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With

Professor Alice Roberts

Biological anthropologist, author and broadcaster. Alice’s new book ‘Crypt: Life, Death and Disease in the Middle Ages and Beyond’ is available from the 29th Feb, 2024.

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Credits:

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald X @melissafitzg

Executive Producer: Dominic de Terville

Cover Art: The Brightside

A Zinc Media Group production

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