King Edward II’s indecorous end — reputedly spitted on a red-hot iron in the dungeons of Berkeley Castle — contrasts dramatically with the calm elegance of his tomb at Gloucester, the nearest locale to his place of death deemed suitable for a royal burial. A fairytale arched crocketed canopy rises above the grave itself, and a study has shown in detail how it was assembled.

After Edward’s death in September 1327 his body, embalmed and sealed into a lead coffin, was brought to St Peter’s Abbey, now Gloucester Cathedral, and, after lying in state — with so many viewers that oak barriers were needed to corral the crowds — was buried there, 680 years ago this month.

The grave was positioned just north of the altar, and marked initially by a slab of dark grey-green Purbeck stone from Dorset. On it may have lain the painted wooden effigy of the dead king used in the funeral obsequies. Over the next decade a magnificent tomb was raised above and around the slab. It used three kinds of stone: the Purbeck “marble”, a local oolitic limestone, and Nottingham alabaster for the effigy. This fine translucent stone was already in use for small sacred images, but, according to the study, the Gloucester effigy “represents the earliest use of this material for the tomb of an English monarch”.

The grave was first enclosed with a kerb of limestone, then a Purbeck plinth was added up to the top of the slab. A solid core of limestone with deep inset arches was then built on it, with a surrounding set of Purbeck arches keyed in and carved in intricate detail with plant forms. Above these arches were metal coats of arms of Edward’s relatives. The larger niches held statues of them, so-called “weepers”; 12 smaller niches may have held the Apostles.

Amid these symbolic figures was laid the life-sized alabaster effigy of the king. “The face is not intended to be a realistic portrait”, the study says. “Instead, the sculptor has transferred into stone a conventional representation of God” derived from medieval manuscript illumination. His pillow is supported by angels, his crown was originally set with jewels.

Above the effigy was raised a triple canopy on slender columns. Within its upper portion was a “hall” with dowel holes that may have held angel figures, the study suggests. “Perhaps the upper tier was intended to represent the heavenly region, the ‘Halls of Heaven’ at which the king appears to be gazing.”

Three elaborate openwork spires, each with four corner turrets, crown the ensemble. “Each corner turret is almost entirely carved from one piece of stone: to make one would take 500 hours, and the 12 would thus have taken three years of a mason’s time”, the study calculates.

The final addition, a decade later, was an offertory table set into the north side, which may have held a golden ship given by Edward’s son and successor, Edward III, in about 1350. Repairs in stone and plaster over the past two centuries have been identified, but in essence Edward II’s tomb remains the monument raised within a few years of his death. Inglorious that event may have been, but not its enduring commemoration in stone.

The Tomb of Edward II: a Royal Monument in Gloucester Cathedral by R. M. Bryant, G. N. H. Bryant, Carolyn M. Heighway. Price £4.95, ISBN 9780955709302.

Nautical archaeology takes a leap forward

For centuries the harbour of Ancient Constantinople, modern Istanbul, was the inlet of the Golden Horn, running north between the peninsula on which the city’s core stands and the commercial and foreign quarter of Galata and Pera to the east. A boom across the inlet protected the city from attack, although the Ottoman troops of Mehmet II stormed across the Golden Horn in 1453 to end the Byzantine Empire.

A second, mainly commercial, harbour, in use from the 5th-10th centuries AD, has been found on the south shore of the peninsula, on the Sea of Marmara. Yenikapi was discovered four years ago during construction of a rail link between Europe and Asia across the Bosphorus: it had become filled in with silt and forgotten.

Now one of the largest archaeological investigations in Europe, Yenikapi has produced waterlogged finds ranging in date from 7,000 years ago to the Ottoman age. Two dozen or so Byzantine ships are among the most important, says James Delgado of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) at Texas A&M University.

“This is one of the greatest nautical archaeological sites of all time, a repository of forgotten Byzantine shipbuilding,” he says. “After analysis, the work at Yenikapi should rewrite the book on Byzantine shipbuilding, and the role of maritime trade in the history of Constantinople.”

Some of the vessels are merchantmen, with cargoes preserved by the thick mud, while others may be warships. One ship, Hull 6, dates from the 7th century and will allow important comparisons with the coeval Yassiada ship. Excavated more than 40 years ago, this is an example of nautical technology at the pinnacle of Byzantine power.

Yenikapi has ushered in a new age of nautical archaeology, hitherto concentrated on shipwrecks and upstanding harbour works. “Dry excavations of silted harbours are poised to tell us more about naval technology and hull construction than we might ever learn from a single shipwreck”, says Deborah Carlson of the INA. An on-site museum is planned, which will add an extra strand to the rich culture of modern Istanbul and the understanding of its Greek precursors.

www.ina.tamu.edu