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In praise of … the Mary Rose In praise of … the Mary Rose
(4 months later)
Human civilisation has mostly evolved on land. Occasionally, as at Pompeii or Lishan Garden, that land yields up exceptionally preserved historical evidence. But it is both poignant and ironic that so much of the most revelatory archaeology comes from the sea bed. The new Mary Rose museum in Portsmouth is a stunning addition to the insights to be gleaned from ships that have lain in watery graves for centuries. Terrestrial civilisation is difficult to preserve in an organised way – one reason why women, who rarely went to sea in numbers, are still so often hidden from history. But a sunken ship, falling largely intact to the ocean floor in cold seas, is a tragic time capsule of the life being lived on board before disaster struck. With the Mary Rose, it is not just the survival of so much of a Tudor ship that fascinates, but the profusion of people, objects and materials that have been preserved in it for four and half centuries – until today.Human civilisation has mostly evolved on land. Occasionally, as at Pompeii or Lishan Garden, that land yields up exceptionally preserved historical evidence. But it is both poignant and ironic that so much of the most revelatory archaeology comes from the sea bed. The new Mary Rose museum in Portsmouth is a stunning addition to the insights to be gleaned from ships that have lain in watery graves for centuries. Terrestrial civilisation is difficult to preserve in an organised way – one reason why women, who rarely went to sea in numbers, are still so often hidden from history. But a sunken ship, falling largely intact to the ocean floor in cold seas, is a tragic time capsule of the life being lived on board before disaster struck. With the Mary Rose, it is not just the survival of so much of a Tudor ship that fascinates, but the profusion of people, objects and materials that have been preserved in it for four and half centuries – until today.
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