William Shakespeare’s skull stolen from grave

Shakespeare’s skull appears to be missing, a British archaeologist has claimed using new scanning technology, giving new credence to a centuries-old tale that grave robbers stole the English playwright’s skull from its burial place.

Radar scans of Shakespeare’s tomb have led experts to conclude his skull appears to be missing, and was probably stolen in the 18th century. “This is the first archaeological investigation ever of Shakespeare’s burial, and what we found was quite surprising,” Kevin Colls, the archaeologist who led the study, said ahead of the 400th anniv-ersary of Shakespeare’s death in April. Using radar scans, the team found “an odd disturbance at the head end” of the grave, he said. “Our equipment could identify a change of material in the burial,” said Colls, adding that the discovery suggested this foreign material was used to repair damage of the grave. Colls said that the findings matched several details of a robbery story published in British magazine, Argosy, in 1879. According to the magazine, almost a century earlier in 1794 grave robbers stole Shakespeare’s head from the Holy Trinity church in Stratford-upon-Avon. “It is very likely to me that the skull is not there,” Colls was quoted as saying by CNN.

Apparently, the inscription on Shakespeare’s grave stone, which has no name on it, was not enough to keep tomb raiders away. Part of the inscription on Shakespe-are’s grave reads: “Blessed be the man that spares these stones, and cursed be he that moves my bones.” It is not surprising that grave robbers targeted Shakespeare’s final resting place, according to Colls. “At the time, stealing skulls from graves was common practice,” he said. People wanted the skulls of geniuses and famous people to analyse them and trying to figure out what made them special, the researcher explained. Or they were simply trophy hunters looking for money. The underground investigation also debunked several myths surrounding the burial.