“None of us in the team have ever seen a lead coffin within a stone coffin before,” site director Mathew Morris of the University of Leicester Archaeological Services said in a written statement. “We will now need to work out how to open it safely, as we don’t want to damage the contents when we are opening the lid.”

The team announced their plans to pull the lid off the tomb — the only intact stone coffin uncovered at the site — earlier this month. At the time, Morris and his colleagues speculated that the coffin might contain the remains of a knight, such as Sir William de Moton of Peckleton, or one of two high-status friars.

The researchers decided to excavate the site after finding the remains of King Richard III in an unmarked grave beneath a parking lot last September. However, it wasn’t until earlier this year that tests confirmed the identity of the skeleton as the English king who ruled from from 1483 to 1485.

.

!!!Coffin RichardIIIBurialSite1

.

.Click link below for story and slideshow:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/29/coffin-richard-iii-burial-site-inside-tomb_n_3671397.html?ref=topbar

.

______________________________________________________________________________