Mary Rose crew 'was from Mediterranean and North Africa'

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The crew on board the sunken Henry VIII ship the Mary Rose was from the Mediterranean, North Africa and beyond, researchers have found.

Bone structure and DNA of 10 skeletons found on board were analysed by team at Cardiff and Portsmouth universities.
They said four of the skeletons were of southern European heritage, and one seems to have hailed from Morocco or Algeria.
The findings cast fresh light on the ethnic makeup of Tudor Britain.

• The Mary Rose: A Tudor ship's secrets revealed
• Mary Rose ship crew 'to be identified using DNA'
• Shipwreck skulls go online in 3D

The Mary Rose sank in 1545 in the Solent during a naval battle with the French, with the loss of between 400 and 600 lives.

Image copyright Geoff Hunt/Mary Rose Trust

Image caption It is not known precisely why the Mary Rose sunk

Dr Nick Owen headed the team at Swansea University which used photogrammetry - a method of producing high definition, photorealistic 3-D images - to visually analyse the remains.
"Having studied the skull of one of the men who went down with the Mary Rose, we found the bone structure was consistent with someone who had North African features, and DNA evidence seems to back this up," he said.
"Today, with a much more mobile world population, it would have been harder to isolate, but in the 16th Century it's easier to pinpoint facial characteristics to a specific location.