I'm reading Ariana Franklin's Mistress of the Art of Death, first in a series of historical mysteries about a female forensic doctor in the 12th century
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No blood-typing, no fingerprinting. Some rudimentary cause of death stuff. Some plant-matching, but that would fall under farmer lore rather than an academic approach. They may have figured out where maggots come from by then, not sure if they'd figured out the life cycle, though.
But no, they weren't investigating deaths in the 1100s, aside from "poisoned king" vs "choked on something king."
I enjoy the books as mysteries; but as historicals I find them less satisfying, and precisely because of this: The detective, Adelia, is clearly a stand-in for us modern readers who are appalled by 12th century England and its mores.
Because when I read a historical, one of the big things I don't want is present-ism. I don't want "these people are just like us, except in funny clothes", because this means that when they do things the modern world -- or at least our part of it -- doesn't approve of, it's because they're stupid and deluded or possibly evil, and this must be signalled by having at least one character who is even more like us (except in funny clothes) to think about things the proper way for our benefit.
I prefer the "these people are not just like us; they're just like us except for the other times when they might as well be space aliens" approach. And for this I don't need a properly enlightened modern character running around thinking things for me.
If I'm remembering my history right, the King of Sicily in the 12th Century was a Norman colonist and pretty closely related to Henry II (maybe 3rd or 4th cousins-- I know one of the Kings of Sicily married the daughter of a Duke of Burgundy-- I once visited a gorgeous Norman castle about 50km from Naples.) There was an incredible amount of infighting in that Kingdom of Sicily, and the kingdom eventually merged into the domains of the Holy Roman Emperor through marriage, which put the southern part of Italy and Sicily under foreign control for another 500 years. Money would definitely play into it.
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But no, they weren't investigating deaths in the 1100s, aside from "poisoned king" vs "choked on something king."
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So far, she's used scarring on bones and similarity of mutilation, plus soil traces.
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Because when I read a historical, one of the big things I don't want is present-ism. I don't want "these people are just like us, except in funny clothes", because this means that when they do things the modern world -- or at least our part of it -- doesn't approve of, it's because they're stupid and deluded or possibly evil, and this must be signalled by having at least one character who is even more like us (except in funny clothes) to think about things the proper way for our benefit.
I prefer the "these people are not just like us; they're just like us except for the other times when they might as well be space aliens" approach. And for this I don't need a properly enlightened modern character running around thinking things for me.
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If I knew this time period better, I would no doubt be cringing a lot more.
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