Bones tell the story of medieval mystery

MEDIEVAL BONE fragments discovered beneath the Palace of Westminster in 1992 have finally given up their astonishing story, thanks to the “Bradford tooth fairy”.

The mystery of the fragments, previously stored in boxes on a shelf at the Museum of London for 29 years, was solved through the help of Dr Julia Beaumont, from the University of Bradford.

The former dentist of 30 years, who is now a forensic archaeologist, re-examined the two shoebox-sized collections of mismatched bone fragments. The boxes contained bones from nine individuals who were the only human remains recovered from the historically significant Medieval site of St Stephen’s Chapel, beneath the Palace of Westminster.

By examining micro-thin sections of the teeth, the academic was able to discover much about the diet of each person, including what they ate and when, and even how long each was breastfed for as a child. Results revealed that some of the fragments belonged to men who were inducted into the priesthood during childhood, as evidenced by a sudden improvement in their diet. Dr Beaumont said: “It’s fascinating to be able to discover the possible life stories of people who died 800 years ago, just by looking at their teeth.”

For the investigation the academic used her own ‘‘Beaumont Method’’, to extract tiny sections of collagen from teeth.

She then looked for changes in the ratio of carbon and nitrogen isotopes to determine what a person ate during the period of tooth development. Typically, each one-millimetre section represents about nine months of life.

The former dentist is known affectionately as the “Bradford tooth fairy” as she has collected 200 children’s teeth over the years as part of her work for the Ethical Tissue bank and the Born in Bradford health project.