South African anthropologist wants to dig up William Shakespeare's bones to find out if he smoked po - Polidicks

[quote=Livescience] A South African anthropologist has asked permission to open the graves of William Shakespeare and his family to determine, among other things, what killed the Bard and whether his poems and plays may have been composed under the influence of marijuana. But while Shakespeare's skeleton could reveal clues about his health and death, the question of the man's drug use depends on the presence of hair, fingernails or toenails in the grave, said Francis Thackeray, the director of the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, who floated the proposal to the Church of England. Thackeray conducted a study in 2001, which found evidence of marijuana residueon pipe fragments found in Shakespeare's garden. Cannabis was grown in England at the time and was used to make textiles and rope. Some Shakespearian allusions, including a mention of a "noted weed" in Sonnet 76, spurred Thackeray's inquiry into whether Shakespeare may have used the mind-altering drug for inspiration. "If there is any hair, if there is any keratin from the fingernails or toenails, then we will be in a position to undertake chemical analysis on extremely small samples for marijuana," Thackeray told LiveScience. A poet's curse Whether or not Shakespeare smoked pot, he certainly didn't want his remains disrupted. The stone covering the poet's grave carries an engraved curse for any would-be intruders. "Blessed be the man that spares these stones," the engraving reads, "And cursed be he who moves my bones." [8 Grisly Archaeological Discoveries] Thackeray said he has a way around the Bard's curse. "We don't want to move any of the bones," he said. Instead, Thackeray said, the team plans to use a technique called laser surface scanning. With a portable device, he said, the anthropologists can open the graves and digitally scan the skeletons of buried in the graves that are supposed to belong to Shakespeare, his wife Anne Hathaway and his daughter Susanna without moving the bones. The scans could then be turned into three-dimensional computer models of the bones and skulls. From this information, the researchers can build facial reconstructions to confirm the skeletons' identities and look for markers of health and signs of disease in the bones. Thackeray also pointed out a loophole in Shakespeare's curse. "He does not refer to teeth," he said. A very small sample of the inner portion of Shakespeare's tooth could provide DNA to definitively link him to the skeletons of his wife and daughter, Thackeray said. Chemical analysis of teeth can also reveal details about a person's diet as well as their smoking habits, though not whether he preferred tobacco or Mary Jane. Skeletons from Virginia of people who lived during Shakespeare's time show grooves between the canine and incisor teeth from habitual chewing on a pipe, Thackeray said. If Shakespeare was a habitual smoker, his own teeth might bear such grooves. Digging up Shakespeare A Church of England spokesperson told FoxNews.com last week that they had not received a petition from Thackeray to open the grave, which is located in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford-upon-Avon. But Thackeray said the paperwork is in. "The application has been submitted," he told LiveScience. "We are now just simply waiting for a formal response. … We respect the fact that it will take time to have our proposal examined and assessed." Uncovering Shakespeare's bones could provide more information about the man behind "Hamlet" and "King Lear"than ever before, Thackeray said, adding that "there is very little known about his life." But other anthropologists are skeptical. Analyzing the skeleton could reveal whether Shakespeare had certain conditions such as osteoporosis, Kristina Killgrove, a professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, told LiveScience. But determining cause of death is more difficult, unless the disease or disorder is one that affects the bones, she said. And while the public may clamor for more information on historical icons, the scientific knowledge gleaned from such projects doesn't always add much to what is already known about an era, Killgrove said. "I'm not a big fan of opening up the tombs of Mona Lisa or Shakespeare to see how they died," she said. "I'm not really sure what it will tell us other than the lifestyle of somebody in Elizabethan England." [/quote] Source: [url]http://www.livescience.com/14797-shakespeare-bones-smoked-pot.html[/url] Most likely a yes. :v: Also, sorry for the long thread title.

can we stop defiling graves just to give potheads a stupid argument as to why its so cool i wonder if in a hundred years we'll dig up presidents to find out if they smoked cigarettes or not oh and feel free to tell me what exactly is dumb about my comment, ghostraters.

This is the dumbest shit I've ever heard.

More elitism fuel so people can be pretentious about pot since Shakespeare is apparently some epitome of higher culture?

[QUOTE=Kopimi;30777329]can we stop defiling graves just to give potheads a stupid argument as to why its so cool i wonder if in a hundred years we'll dig up presidents to find out if they smoked cigarettes or not[/QUOTE] Why do you always shit post ; - ; I think it's quite interesting that they're going to scan the grave of arguably the worlds best known writer, no matter their reason for it. Also what do you mean can we stop doing it, who else have they done it to ?

[QUOTE=Spawndex;30777388]Why do you always shit post ; - ; I think it's quite interesting that they're going to scan the grave of arguably the worlds best known writer, no matter their reason for it. Also what do you mean can we stop doing it, who else have they done it to ?[/QUOTE] how is expressing an honest opinion shitposting? fyi: just because you disagree with a post doesn't mean its a shitpost. i don't see why it's necessary to uproot the remains of william shakespeare and possibly lose/damage his remains all to prove whether or not he smoked pot? sorry that i don't approve defiling the grave of history's greatest playwright to see if it smoked weed or not jesus fucking christ his grave even has an engraved curse on it

[QUOTE=Kopimi;30777425]how is expressing an honest opinion shitposting? fyi: just because you disagree with a post doesn't mean its a shitpost. i don't see why it's necessary to uproot the remains of william shakespeare and possibly lose/damage his remains all to prove whether or not he smoked pot? sorry that i don't approve defiling the grave of history's greatest playwright to see if it smoked weed or not jesus fucking christ his grave even has an engraved curse on it[/QUOTE] Oh no a curse, how frightening!

the joke is you have to be fucking stoned to think about this in the first place "dude you know what we should do man?" "what" "we should like, dig up shakespeare and find it out if he smoked or not" "yeah dude fuck yeah pound it" *brofist*

Really shitty loopholes IMO Imagine if the ghost of shakespeare showed up and was like HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING and they said chill dude, we're just SCANNING!

he just wants an excuse to see if there were any secret plays buried with him

Now [i]that[/i] would be really cool

[QUOTE=Kopimi;30777329]can we stop defiling graves just to give potheads a stupid argument as to why its so cool i wonder if in a hundred years we'll dig up presidents to find out if they smoked cigarettes or not oh and feel free to tell me what exactly is dumb about my comment, ghostraters.[/QUOTE] I rated your comment dumb because it only seem you read the title and probably not even the first line of the article.

brb digging jesus' grave to find out if he smoked pot

[QUOTE=Ninja Duck;30780858]brb digging jesus' grave to find out if he smoked pot[/QUOTE] But Jesus flew to heaven :downs:

THE FOOLS. THE CURSE CAN'T BE LOOPHOLED. YOU MOVE A SINGLE SPECK OUT OF PLACE AND THERE SHALT BE DOOM [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USHHQRodF88[/media]

Wouldn't doing this, you know, be illegal and stuff.

Oh my god that's hilarious.

[QUOTE=carcarcargo;30782410]Wouldn't doing this, you know, be illegal and stuff.[/QUOTE] If he gets a permission to open the graves, then no, it won't be illegal. I'm suprised they didn't researched stuff like this before.

Why would digging up a guy who's been dead for hundreds of years disturb his bones? He's gone. Dead. Who gives a fuck? It's not like his "spirit" or "soul" remains with him in that grave, It's not like he's going to come from the grave and rape your grandma or something. Open it up! Who cares if it's some hippies who want to see if he 'asmokadaganja' or not. At least we will see if anything interesting was buried with him. Other researchers would probably want to take a look inside before it's closed again for however the fuck long. What about the other bodies that were dug up for any other research that could have happened? It's not like they were "sacred" Oh no!

[QUOTE=Squarebob;30777350]This is the dumbest shit I've ever heard.[/QUOTE] Seriously. It's pretty fucking obvious Shakespere rolled J's in his spare time.

[QUOTE=Stormcharger;30777790]Oh no a curse, how frightening![/QUOTE] wow what a zinger, good job perhaps my concern was not the effects of the curse but the fact that shakespeare didn't WANT his grave to be uprooted

[QUOTE=Kopimi;30783658]wow what a zinger, good job perhaps my concern was not the effects of the curse but the fact that shakespeare didn't WANT his grave to be uprooted[/QUOTE] Oh wow, who cares. He's been dead for hundreds of years. I'm sure he won't mind people poking around at his skeleton in 2011 for the sake of science OR to find out what he did or what he ate and such.

[QUOTE=Ninja Duck;30780858]brb digging jesus' grave to find out if he smoked pot[/QUOTE] Jesus would have almost certainly been a stoner

This thread is a disaster. Anyways, as I'm sure has been said before, digging up his skeletal remains for a legitimate scientific endeavor would be perfectly acceptable, but I don't see this as having any kind of scientific merit whatsoever. I don't see anything wrong with people really wanting to know, but it's not worth desecrating his grave over. I plan to be cremated when I die, but even if I was to be buried, I really would prefer not to be dug up for something so silly. I'm not religious or spiritual in any way, I just think it's outright bad taste.

[QUOTE=RoflKawpter;30783786]Oh wow, who cares. He's been dead for hundreds of years. I'm sure he won't mind people poking around at his skeleton in 2011 for the sake of science OR to find out what he did or what he ate and such.[/QUOTE] Respect. You have yet to earn some yourself.

[QUOTE=RoflKawpter;30783786]Oh wow, who cares. He's been dead for hundreds of years. I'm sure he won't mind people poking around at his skeleton in 2011 for the sake of science OR to find out what he did or what he ate and such.[/QUOTE] there's no legitimate reason to desecrate his grave and possibly lose/damage his remains

I wonder how many years somebody has to be dead before people will stop acting like self-righteous children about it? 1,000 years, maybe?

[QUOTE=Kopimi;30777329]can we stop defiling graves just to give potheads a stupid argument as to why its so cool i wonder if in a hundred years we'll dig up presidents to find out if they smoked cigarettes or not oh and feel free to tell me what exactly is dumb about my comment, ghostraters.[/QUOTE] You're getting dumbs for assuming potheads give a fuck. You're getting dumbs for just being flat out rude and assuming what you're assuming.

[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;30784428]You're getting dumbs for assuming potheads give a fuck. You're getting dumbs for just being flat out rude and assuming what you're assuming.[/QUOTE] it's dumb to assume that it's unnecessary to uproot his grave to see if he smoked pot? yeah ok

[QUOTE=Kopimi;30785112]it's dumb to assume that it's unnecessary to uproot his grave to see if he smoked pot? yeah ok[/QUOTE] They also want to dig him up to examine how he died and how healthy he was prior to his death. Yeah you forgot that little tidbit of information didn't you.