William Shakespeare's tombstone features a curse to stop people from moving his bones.

Shakespeare is buried at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. His grave sits in a special area called the chancel. The stone slab does not have his name on it. Instead, it has a four-line poem warning people not to dig up his dust.In the 17th century, churchyards became very crowded. Gravediggers would move old bones to a building called a charnel house. Shakespeare likely wrote the curse himself to prevent this from happening to him. The poem promises a blessing for those who leave the stones alone and a curse for anyone who moves his bones.In 2016, archaeologist Kevin Colls and his team from Staffordshire University studied the grave. They used ground-penetrating radar to see underground without digging. This technology uses radio waves to find objects or changes in the soil.The scan showed the grave is only about 3 feet deep. It also suggested Shakespeare was buried in a cloth shroud instead of a heavy coffin. The team found evidence that the head of the grave was disturbed in the past. This supports an old story that someone stole Shakespeare's skull in 1794.