Editor's note: Paul R. Mullins is professor and chair of the
Department of Anthropology at Indiana University-Purdue
University, docent in historical archaeology at the University
of Oulu in Finland, and president of the Society for Historical
Archaeology. He is the author of "The Archaeology of Consumer
Culture." (CNN) -- The world now knows that the remains of
Richard III -- the final Plantagenet king of England who fell at
the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 -- were under a parking lot. By
most accounts, the dead monarch's corpse was unceremoniously
carried back to nearby Leicester and buried at the church of the
Greyfriars, where it was lost for more than 500 years. The odds
that archaeologists might recover Richard III's remains more
than a half millennium later were exceptionally slim. After DNA
testing and further analysis, the University of Leicester
Archaeological Services was able to confirm beyond a reasonable
doubt that the skeleton indeed was that of Richard III.
Archaeologists rarely search for indiv