Joan of Arc remains 'are fakes'The remains consisted of a charred-looking human rib, chunks of what appeared to be blackened wood, a 15-centimetre fragment of linen, and a cat thigh bone... Recognised as genuine and sacred by the Church, the "remains" are now housed in a museum in Chinon belonging to the Archdiocese of Tours. Dr Charlier... used a range of scientific tests such as spectrometry, electron microscopy, and pollen analysis. Those tests dated the bone to between the seventh and third centuries BC, Dr Charlier said. The cat bone dated from the same period and also was mummified... two smell experts, Sylvaine Delacourte and Jean-Michel Duriez, from the perfume industry... smelled hints of "burnt plaster" and "vanilla" in the samples... But a vanilla smell is inconsistent with cremation. It comes from the compound vanillin, which is released during the decomposition of a body. Analysis of the black crust covering the rib and the cat bone showed that it was not caused by fire, but an embalming mix of wood resins, bitumen and chemicals such as malachite.
BBC
4 April 2007
Really fascinating. When and how did the remains of an Egyptian Mummy get linked to Saint Joan?