DORSET, ENGLAND—Human remains have been unearthed at the site of Dorchester Prison, where the writer Thomas Hardy, who was 16 years old at the time, witnessed the hanging of Martha Brown in August 1856. Brown had been convicted of killing her violent husband, and some think that her story inspired Hardy’s novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles, which was published in 1891. Hardy enthusiasts reportedly think that the newly discovered remains may be Brown. “At this stage, it is not possible to determine whether the remains are male or female, as the remains have not been removed for recording or analysis,” a spokesperson for Cotswold Archaeology told The Guardian. To read more about historical archaeology in Britain, go to "Haunt of the Resurrection Man."
