The remains of Captain Matthew Flinders (1774-1814), the first navigator and explorer in the united kingdom to have completed the tour of the australian continent and to popularize the name of the country, have been discovered near one of the train stations london’s busiest.
The archaeologists responsible for the excavation of a vast burial site near the railway station Euston in London have discovered, Friday, January 25, a plastron funeral identifying the last remains of the famous cartographer in the Royal Navy. Australia issued, in the 1960s, a ticket of ten shillings to his effigy.
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captain Flinders was buried on 23 July 1814, but had had the time to publish a book major scientific A Voyage to Terra Australis , who described his circumnavigation in 1802-1803, thus proving that it was a continent.
«captain Flinders has put Australia on the map thanks to his tenacity and to his expertise as a navigator and explorer,» says in a press release Helen Wass, the archaeologist in charge of excavations at the site of the giant project of high-speed rail line HS2. According to archaeologists, the explorer is also deemed to have given its name to the Australia. «Even if it was not the first to use the term, his work has popularized its use,» says the researcher.
The skeleton of Flinders will be studied
The number of corpses on the site is estimated to be 40,000, and the archaeologists were far from be sure to find the one the browser, of which the burial place had been the object of numerous speculations. «We had the chance, continued Ms. Wass. He had a breastplate of lead, which means that it could not be corroded. «We will now be able to study the skeleton to see if life at sea has left traces and what we can know about him.»
The explorer is a hero for many Australians of european origin. Multiple streets, stations, places and cities bear his name across the huge country. The discovery was announced on the eve of the national holiday commemorating the arrival of the first british settlers in 1788 in this country, where lived the Aboriginal and torres strait Islander women for tens of thousands of years.
the landing of the first british fleet, and incursions of browsers such as captain Flinders were, for the whistle blowers of the british rule, the prelude to the destruction of societies and cultures the aboriginal. This controversy is fuelled by the role played by a support aboriginal Flinders named Bungaree, eclipsed by the british captain, but according to some historians, would have been crucial for the scientific success of his explorations.
● Report on the discovery of the remains of Captain Flinders