There are few authoritative works in print that add significantly to our knowledge of how people fought and died during medieval warefare. Blood Red Roses attempts to do so. I was somewhat put off by the cover illustration of a skull with a big square hole in the side of it. This made me fear that this book was not likely to contain any "real science". In my opinion, serious books don't need to convey their content with gruesome photographs designed to capture "the publics" attention.
This book is a compilation of contributions from people who worked on the site, and/or are "experts" of varying degree in associated fields of study. The benefit of this is that you get different perspectives on the subject. The negative part of this is that all of the authors started out their chapters with very repetitive introductory material. I kept thinking, "gee, this is the same thing I read in the last chapter". What was the editor thinking?
The material presented was, in scope, remarkable. The editors picked a big nut to chew, and their attempt to relate the physical findings to a wider historical, archaeological and social perspective is to be commended.
The actual material presented varied in quality.
Part I, covers the site discovery, some historical background to the battle, excavation technique and the finds themselves. I thought this was by and large, well presented. Some of the authors convinced me they were good thinkers and writers. It was a little disconcerting to see so many footnotes referencing other works by the contributors to this one (they all referenced each other! - usually notes refer to definitive works by acknowledged authorities in the field - which these folks are not, except maybe in the "science" of phrenology).
Part II is the best. It covers the analysis of the human remains. Expertly presented in my opinion. There is even a handy anatomy chart in the appendices for you folks who never bothered to learn anatomy. What I like best about this section is that the author is content to relate what the bones revealed. Other writers in this book were willing to reach beyond what was evident.
Part III is the weakest part of the book. This section deals with arms and armor of the period, and speculation concerning combat techniques. Nice background info, including the bit about how the author has "shot arrows into the air during a snowstorm at night" to verify that arrows are hard to see in flight. There were no weapons found in the grave pit, but this didn't stop the authors from speculating about whether a hole in a skull was made with a pike or a hammer. There was also repetitive speculation as to why these soldiers had head wounds - why weren't they wearing helmets?!!! All the contemporary art shows combatants wearing helmets! Some serious reaching going on here. It's okay, I think to say, "I don't know" from time to time.
Part IV wraps everything up by wondering what it all means. They attempt to discern much from the bones exhumed from the grave. To
a large extent they are successful, although I felt they pushed a little too hard to reach some conclusions.
The appendices are excellent! Case studies, lots of detail data, good reference material.
In conclusion: These folks did a LOT of work putting this book together. It is unique as far as I know in it's attempt to nest a grave exhumation into a wider, more meaningful dissertation.
The line art (illustrations) are really good - the photographs were well chosen and big enough to see detail. Oxbow Books put this out on good white paper. This book is a keeper.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in military history, wound ballistics, or archeology. The good parts are really good, and the not so good parts are still better than some other published works.
