• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Mystery Of Lead Sarcophagus Buried Beneath Notre-Dame May Finally Be Solved

September 19, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

A team of archaeologists believes they have finally solved the mystery of the lead sarcophagi found beneath Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Advertisement

After the famous Cathedral burned to the ground in 2019, a number of incredible finds were made beneath the scorched ruins. Among them were two unusual lead sarcophagi, buried beneath the cathedral hundreds of years before, and separated by hundreds of years.

Carefully opening up the sarcophagi while wearing clothing to protect them from the lead, researchers from the University of Toulouse found the remains of two wealthy men, showing signs of a tough life. One of the bodies was easily identified, thanks to an epitaph that remained largely intact.

“THIS IS THE BODY OF MESSIRE ANTOINE DE LA PORTE CANOINE DE L’EGLISE,” the epitaph helpfully read. “DECEASED ON 24 DECEMBER 1710 IN HIS 83RD YEAR. RESQUIETCAT IN PACE”.

The coffin was made of lead to help preserve the body, a fate available only to the wealthy of the time – but unfortunately, the coffin was not intact and the body had decomposed significantly, leaving just the bones, hair, and a few fragments of textiles. His bones showed evidence of a sedentary lifestyle, as well as gout, a disease sometimes caused by eating and drinking to excess. 

De la Porte was a canon, the team told Live Science, explaining his placement underneath a central part of the transept, reserved for the important. During his life he was influential and wealthy, commissioning several paintings that now hang in the Louvre, and paying to support the cathedral’s choir.

Advertisement

The occupant of the second sarcophagus remained a mystery – until now, potentially. Early analysis showed the body appeared to be that of a 25- to 40-year-old male, who likely rode horses from an early age, judging by his pelvic bones. 

The bones showed signs of chronic disease, while most of his teeth had been destroyed prior to his death. The aristocrat also showed signs of a deformed skull, likely from wearing a headdress or head band as a baby. As well as this, his body showed signs of reactive bone (the formation of new bone following injury), suggesting that the cause of death could be chronic meningitis resulting from tuberculosis. His skull had also been sawn off after his death, a common practice amongst the nobility in the 16th century.

Following further analysis, the team believes the body could belong to French poet Joachim du Bellay, who lived from 1522 to 1560. Du Bellay matches many of the features found on the body, 

“Our attention was focused on Joachim du Bellay, a distinguished horseman and tubercular poet who died in 1560, whose autopsy revealed signs of chronic meningitis,” the team from the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) explains in a statement. “Buried in the cathedral when he was no longer even a canon, his tomb was not found in 1758 near that of his uncle, although the family wanted him to be buried next to him.”

Advertisement



Though the team believes the body belongs to du Bellay, a mystery still remains about how his body ended up where it did, given that it was recorded that du Bellay’s body was buried in a side chapel.

“Two argued hypotheses are put forward,” the team wrote, “a temporary burial that became permanent or a transfer of his coffin during another burial, in 1569, after the publication of his complete works.”

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Cricket-Manchester test likely to be postponed after India COVID-19 case
  2. EU to attend U.S. trade meeting put in doubt by French anger
  3. Soccer-West Ham win again, Leicester and Napoli falter
  4. Was Jesus A Hallucinogenic Mushroom? One Scholar Certainly Thought So

Source Link: Mystery Of Lead Sarcophagus Buried Beneath Notre-Dame May Finally Be Solved

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • HUNTR/X Or Giant Squid? Following Alien Claims, We Asked Scientists What They Would Like Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS To Be
  • Flat-Earthers Proved Wrong Using A Security Camera And A Garage
  • Earth Breaches Its First Climate Tipping Point: We’re Moving Into A World Without Coral Reefs
  • Cheese Caves, A Proposal, And Chance: How Scientists Ended Up Watching Fungi Evolve In Real Time
  • Lab-Grown 3D Embryo Models Make Their Own Blood In Regenerative Medicine Breakthrough
  • Humans’ Hidden “Sixth Sense” To Be Mapped Following $14.2 Million Prize – What Is Interoception?
  • Purple Earth Hypothesis: Our Planet Was Not Blue And Green Over 2.4 Billion Years Ago
  • Hippos Hung Around In Europe 80,000 Years Later Than We Thought
  • Officially Gone: Slender-Billed Curlew, Once-Widespread Migratory Bird, Declared Extinct By IUCN
  • Watch: Rare Footage Captures Freaky Faceless Cusk Eels Lurking On The Deep-Sea Floor
  • Watch This Funky Sea Pig Dancing Its Way Through The Deep Sea, Over 2,300 Meters Below The Surface
  • NASA Lets YouTuber Steve Mould Test His “Weird Chain Theory” In Space
  • The Oldest Stalagmite Ever Dated Was Found In Oklahoma Rocks, Dating Back 289 Million Years
  • 2024’s Great American Eclipse Made Some Birds Behave In Surprising Ways, But Not All Were Fooled
  • “Carter Catastrophe”: The Math Equation That Predicts The End Of Humanity
  • Why Is There No Nobel Prize For Mathematics?
  • These Are The Only Animals Known To Incubate Eggs In Their Stomachs And Give “Birth” Out Their Mouths
  • Constipated? This One Fruit Could Help, Says First-Ever Evidence-Led Diet Guidance
  • NGC 2775: This Galaxy Breaks The Rules Of “Galactic Evolution” And Baffles Astronomers
  • Meet The “Four-Eyed” Hirola, The World’s Most Endangered Antelope With Fewer Than 500 Left
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version