Research and Projects | The Mary Rose
Research & Projects

The Mary Rose Trust supports a wide range of research projects to further understanding of underwater archaeology and the conservation of artefacts

ProjectsBooksAcademic papersConference proceedings
The Mary Rose research team examine human remains so we can better understand the men of Tudor England
Research projects
Since the project began, a number of research projects have focused on the Mary Rose and her treasures. Published papers include:
  • Passive storage of waterlogged archaeological wood
  • Radiosensitivity of microbes and insects
  • Research studies involving PEG
  • Optimising freeze drying of waterlogged archaeological wood
  • University of Portsmouth – exploring the biological contribution to sulfate production
  • University of Kent – development of strontium carbonate nanoparticle treatment to sequester sulfate and neutralise the wood / exploration of chelating agents to remove iron from the wood and therefore eliminate the catalyst for sulphur oxidation and acid production
  • University of Cambridge – development of new polymers for the treatment of waterlogged archaeological wood
Books

Marsden, Peter. (2003) Sealed by Time: The Loss and Recovery of the Mary Rose (The Archaeology of the Mary Rose). Mary Rose Trust: United Kingdom.

Marsden, Peter. (2009) Your Noblest Shippe: Anatomy of a Tudor Warship (Archaeology of the Mary Rose: Volume 2). Mary Rose Trust: United Kingdom.

Hildred Alexzandra. (2011) Weapons of Warre: The Armaments of the Mary Rose (Archaeology of the Mary Rose: Volume 3). Mary Rose Trust: United Kingdom.

Gardiner, J. (2005) Before the Mast: Life and Death Aboard the Mary Rose, (Archaeology of the Mary Rose: Volume 4). Mary Rose Trust: United Kingdom.

Jones, Mark. (2011) For Future Generations: Conservation of a Tudor Maritime Collection (Archaeology of the Mary Rose: Volume 5). Mary Rose Trust: United Kingdom.

Childs, David. (2007) The Warship Mary Rose: The Life and Times of King Henry VIII’s Flagship. Greenhill Books: United Kingdom.

 

 

Academic papers

Bell, L. S. and Elkerton, A. 2008 Unique Marine Taphonomy in Human Skeletal Material Recovered from the Medieval Warship Mary RoseInternational Journal of Osteoarchaeology  18 5   Pages:523-535

Berenguer, M. A., Monachon, M., Jacquet, C., Junier, P., Rémazeilles, C., Schofield, E. J. and Joseph, E. 2018. Biological oxidation of sulfur compounds in artificially degraded wood International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibiod.2018.06.009

Berko, A., Smith, A.D. Jones, A. M., Schofield, E.J., Mosselmans, J. F. W. and Chadwick, A.V. XAS studies of the effectiveness of iron chelating treatments of Mary Rose timbers, Journal of Physics Conference Series: 14th International Conference on X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (XAFSI 4), Vol 190, 012147, 2009

Chadwick, A.V., Berko, A., Schofield, E.J., Jones, A.M., Mosselmans, J. F. W., Smith, A. D. How X-rays are helping defeat the effects of micro-organisms in the preservation of Mary Rose. L’Actualite Chimique, Vol 356-357, Pages 106-108, 2011

Chadwick, A. V. ,Berko, A., Schofield, E.J., Jones, A. M., Mosselmans, J. F. W., Smith, A. D. The Application of Microfocus X-ray Beams from Synchrotrons in Heritage Conservation International Journal of Architectural Heritage, Vol 6 (2), Pages 228-258, 2012

Chadwick, A V., Berko, A., Schofield, E. J., Smith, A., Mosselmans, J.W.F., Jones, A. M., and Cibin, G. 2016. The application of X-ray absorption spectroscopy in archaeological conservation: Example of an artefact from Henry VIII warship, the Mary Rose. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, Vol 451, Pages 49-55.

Chadwick, A. V., Schofield, E.J., Jones, A. M., Mosselmans, J. W. F. and Cibin, G., 2012 Ionic Nanoparticles in Heritage Conservation; Treatments for the Mary Rose Timbers,  Solid State Ionics, Vol 225, Pages 742-746 

Collett, Hugh, Florian Bouville, Finn Giuliani, and Eleanor Schofield. 2021. "Structural Monitoring of a Large Archaeological Wooden Structure in Real Time, Post PEG Treatment" Forests 12, no. 12: 1788. https://doi.org/10.3390/f12121788

Dobbs, C.T.C. 1995 The Raising of the Mary-Rose – Archaeology and Salvage CombinedUnderwater Technology  21, 1   Pages: 29-35

Hildred, A. 1988 ‘The King’s Ship; a study in strategic ordnance’. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology : 17:1:55

Hildred, A. and Vine, S. ‘The Evidence of the Mary Rose Excavation’ In: The Anthony Roll of Henry VIII’s Navy, Navy Records Society Occasional Publication, Vol 2

Hildred, A. 1997 The Material culture of the Mary Rose (1545) as a fighting vessel: the uses of wood. In: ‘Artefacts from Wrecks Dated Assemblages from the Late Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution’. Oxbow Monograph, 84

Hildred, A., 2003.  ‘A gunner’s rule from the Mary Rose’. Journal of the Ordnance Society 12, 31-47

Jones, A.M. and Jones, E.B.G. 1993 Observations on the marine gasteromycete Nia vibrissa. Mycological Research, Volume 97, Issue 1, January 1993, Pages 1-6

Jones, S. P. P., Slater, N. K. H., Jones, M., Ward, K. and Smith, A. D. 2009 Investigating the processes necessary for satisfactory freeze-drying of waterlogged archaeological wood Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 36, Issue 10, October 2009, Pages 2177-2183

Joyeux, D, Schofield. E. J. and Dobbs, C., 2018. Raising and Conserving the Mary Rose. Ingenia, Issue 74.

Kerns, J. G., Buckley, B., Anthony W. Parker, A. W., Bircha, H. L., Matousek, P., Hildred, A. and Goodship, A. E. The use of laser spectroscopy to investigate bone disease in King Henry VIII’s sailors. Journal of Archaeological Science
Volume 53, January 2015, Pages 516–520 2015

Lipkowitz, Gabriel, Karoline S. Hennum, Eleonora Piva, and Eleanor Schofield. 2021. "Numerical Modelling of Moisture Loss during Controlled Drying of Marine Archaeological Wood" Forests 12, no. 12: 1662. https://doi.org/10.3390/f12121662

Panter, I. 1982 The Conservation of Leather Artefacts Recovered from The Mary Rose Journal of The Society Of Leather Technologists and Chemists 66, 2   Pages: 30-31

Pointing, S., Jones, E. B. G. J. and Jones, M.  1996 Radiosensitivity of fungi isolated from waterlogged archaeological wood Mycoscience, Volume 37, Issue 4, 15 December 1996, Pages 455-458

Pournou, A., Jones, A. M. and  Moss, S.T. 2001. Biodeterioration dynamics of marine wreck-sites determine the need for their in situ protection. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, Volume 30, Issue 2, December 2001, Pages 299-305

Preston J, Smith AD, Schofield EJ, Chadwick AV, Jones MA, et al. 2014 The Effects of Mary Rose Conservation Treatment on Iron Oxidation Processes and Microbial Communities Contributing to Acid Production in Marine Archaeological Timbers. PLoS ONE 9(2): e84169. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0084169

Preston, J., Watts, J. E. M. and  Jones, M. 2012 Novel Bacterial Community Associated with 500-Year-Old Unpreserved Archaeological Wood from King Henry VIII’s Tudor Warship the Mary Rose Applied and Environmental Microbiology  Volume: 78   Issue: 24   Pages:8822-8828

Ryder, M.L. 1984 Wools from textiles in the Mary Rose, a sixteenth-century English warship. Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 11, Issue 4, July 1984, Pages 337-343

Schofield, E. J., 2018. Illuminating the past: X-ray analysis of our cultural heritage Nat. Rev. Mater. 3, 285-287, 2018

Schofield, E.J., Delaveris, C. and Sarangi. R. 2016 Alkaline earth carbonates for the treatment of problematic sulfur associated with marine archeological wood. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 4 (2015) 427–433

Schofield, E.J., Sarangi, R., Mehta, A., Jones, A. M. and Chadwick, A. V. 2011. Nanoparticle de-acidification of the Mary Rose. Materials Today, Vol 14 (7-8) Pages: 354-358

Schofield, E. J., Sarangi, R., Mehta, A., Jones, A. M., Smith, A., Mosselmans, J. F. W., and Chadwick, A.  2016. Strontium carbonate nanoparticles for the surface treatment of problematic sulfur and iron in waterlogged archaeological wood Journal of Cultural Heritage 18  306–312 

Scorrer Jessica, Faillace Katie E., Hildred Alexzandra, Nederbragt Alexandra J., Andersen Morten B., Millet Marc-Alban, Lamb Angela L. and Madgwick Richard 2021 Diversity aboard a Tudor warship: investigating the origins of the Mary Rose crew using multi-isotope analysis R. Soc. open sci.8 202106202106 http://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202106

Simon, H., Cibin, G., Robbins, P., Day, S., Tang, C., Freestone, I., and Schofield, E. 2018 A Synchrotron-Based Study of the Mary Rose Iron Cannonballs. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 57(25), Pages 7390-7395,

Starley, D. and Hildred, A. 2002 ‘Technical Examination of a Mary Rose Hailshot Piece; New Evidence for Early Iron Gun Casting’. Royal Armouries Yearbook.

Stirland, A.J. and Waldron T. 1997 Evidence for Activity Related Markers in the Vertebrae of the Crew of the Mary Rose. Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 24, Issue 4, April 1997, Pages 329-335

Walker, R, Dunham, R., Hildred, A. and Rule, M.1989 ‘Analytical Study of Composite Shot from the Mary Rose’. Journal of the Historical Metallurgy Society, 23.2, 84- 90.

Walker, R. and Hildred, A. 2000 Quantitative non-destructive analysis of metals in artefacts The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, Volume 29, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 163-166

Walker, R; Hildred, A. 2000 Manufacture and corrosion of lead shot from the flagship Mary Rose Studies in Conservation 45, 4   Pages: 217-225

Wetherall, K. M., Moss, R.M. Jones, A.M. Smith, A.D. Skinner, T. Pickup, D.M. Goatham, S.W. Chadwick, A.V. and Newport R.J. 2008  Sulfur and iron speciation in recently recovered timbers of the Mary Rose revealed via X-ray absorption spectroscopy Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 35, Issue 5, May 2008, Pages 1317-1328

Zouganelis, G.D., Ogden, R., Nahar, N., Runfola,V., Bonab, M., Ardalan, A., Radford, D., Barnett, R., Larson, G., Hildred, A., Jones, M, and Scarlett, G. 2014 An old dog and new tricks: Genetic analysis of a Tudor dog recovered from the Mary Rose wreck Forensic Science International, Vol 245, December 2014, Pages 51-57

 

 

Conference Proceedings

‘The Mary Rose: A Tale of Two Centuries’. Hildred, A. Heirs of Archimedes: Technology, Science and Strategic Power, 1300-1800 Proceedings of Conference,’Colonels and Quartermasters: War and Technology During the Old Regime’. The Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1999, Published 2005. MIT Press.

'A New Museum for an Old Ship – The Mary Rose’ Hildred, A. Context Peace in East Asia and the Korean Peninsula in the US-Japan New Alliance Era Busan International Symposium 2015; 249-281

‘It Couldn’t Have Been Done Without Them: Amateur Divers and the Mary Rose’ Hildred, A. Proceedings of the Historical Diving Society Conference, 2017 p. 21-47

‘Structural considerations in the conservation of the Tudor warship Mary Rose’ Piva, E., Begg, D., Nano, N., and Schofield, E. J. Proceedings of the 14th ICOM-CC WOAM conference Florence 2016,

‘Discussion on the practicalities and effectiveness of re-treating a wooden gun carriage with DTPA ’Pearson, D, Butler, H. and Schofield E. J. Proceedings of the 14th ICOM-CC WOAM conference Florence 2016,

'Investigating the use of cellulose for the application of carbonate particles to neutralise acids in waterlogged woods' Sandstrom, J and Schofield E. J.  Proceedings of the 14th ICOM-CC WOAM conference Florence 2016

‘Conservation of Mary Rose timbers’, Schofield E. J. and Chadwick, A. V. C., Proceedings of the 11th ICOM-CC WOAM conference Greenville 2010, Pg. 419

'Air drying of the Mary Rose hull’, Schofield, E. J., McConnachie, G. and Jones, M. Proceedings of the 12th ICOM-CC WOAM conference Istanbul 2013, Pg. 398