Medieval Dead

In 2009 excavations at Tadcaster Castle in Yorkshire recovered a series of medieval graves – among which one stood out. It contained what appeared to be the body of a woman. Tests established that she was at least 46 years old when she died - yet she was much taller and more robust than the average female of the medieval era. That grave dating from the medieval period found outside a northern town posed a tantalising question – who was the Woman of Tadcaster? Why was she buried alone? And why was she buried there? The story has long intrigued both the history community and our forensic metal detector Simon Richardson who now teams up with Tim and Malin to find out more about the mysterious skeleton. Malin suspects that she may have succumbed to the Black Death and is determined to prove her theory by extracting a tooth from the skeleton and sending it to Canada for special DNA tests. We’ll find out the results as we attempt to unravel a genuine medieval mystery.