THE SUNDAY TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER
'Compulsive . . . A wonderful display of how modern archaeology can bring hidden histories to life' Daily Telegraph
'Gripping . . . I found it hard to put down' Evening Standard
'Another really good book from archaeologist Alice Roberts . . . Helps you understand the facts on a technical level, but also makes you feel them in your bones' New Scientist
'Robert's reflections on Thomas Becket and Canterbury Cathedral are especially entertaining . . . Fascinating' Spectator
The new book by Sunday Times bestselling author of Ancestors and Buried - the final instalment in Professor Alice Roberts' acclaimed trilogy.
We can unlock secrets from bones preserved for centuries in tombs, graves and crypts.
The history of the Middle Ages is typically the story of the rich and powerful, there’s barely a written note for most people’s lives. Archaeology represents another way of interrogating our history. By using cutting-edge science to examine human remains and burials, it is possible to unearth details about how individuals lived and died that give us a new understanding of the past – one that is more intimate and inclusive than ever before.
The seven stories in Crypt are not comforting tales. We meet the patients at one of the earliest hospitals in England and the victims of the St Brice’s Day Massacre. We see a society struggling to make sense of disease, disability and death, as incurable epidemics sweep through medieval Europe. We learn of a protracted battle between Church and State that led to the murder of Thomas Becket and the destruction of the most famous tomb in England. And we come face to face with the archers who went down with Henry VIII’s favourite ship, the Mary Rose.
Beautifully written and expertly researched by Professor Alice Roberts, Crypt is packed with thrilling discoveries that will make you see the history of Britain afresh.
'An addictive picture of medieval Britain from a cutting edge perspective . . . Roberts is a brilliant guide to the cutting-edge fusion of archaeology and genetics that is doing something special: revealing new facts about a past most people consider dead and buried'
‘Compulsive . . . A wonderful display of how modern archaeology can bring hidden histories to life. Crypt, in fact, is often as much a story about archaeological research techniques as it is one about the Middle Ages. As Roberts surveys the medieval graves, she deftly explains the processes through which the archaeologists working on them came to their discoveries . . . one really gets the sense here of being at the vanguard of the discipline . . . It’s fascinating’
‘Sainthood, leprosy, Paget’s Disease, the Black Death, the drowned archers of the Mary Rose and anchoresses are all given thoughtful scrutiny, and Roberts’s reflections on Thomas Becket and Canterbury Cathedral are especially entertaining . . . Overall the book is fascinating, and you certainly get your money’s worth’
'A gripping set of tales . . . demonstrate[s] how the disciplines of osteoarchaeology, palaeopathology, osteobiology and, newest of all, archaeogenomics, are increasingly used to modify, amplify and even correct written records with all their slant and spin . . . Fascinating'
