The Remains of Joan of Arc
Revised:
Recently, the remains of Joan of Arc were studied by Egyptian experts. The remains, as recognized by the church, are now housed in a museum in Chinon. Experts now say that the relics are actually made from the remains of an Egyptian mummy. Joan was burned at the stake in 1431 in Rouen, Normandy. The supposed remains were discovered in 1867 in a jar in the attic of a Paris pharmacy, with the inscription "Remains found under the stake of Joan of Arc, virgin of Orleans".
Philippe Charlier, a forensic scientist at Raymond Poincaré Hospital in Garches, near Paris, obtained permission to study the relics from the French church last year. Charlier and his colleagues only had a charred-looking human rib, chunks of carbonized wood, a 15-centimetre fragment of linen and a cat femur, which had to do with the medieval practice of throwing black cats onto the pile for burning witches.
To study the remains, the researchers conducted a series of tests, including: mass, infrared and atomic-emission spectrometry, electron microscopy, and pollen analysis. However, they also used an unusual technique known as Odor analysis. To help them in this technique, they called upon Sylvaine Delacourte from Guerlain, and Jean-Michel Duriez from Jean Patou, who are leaders in the perfume industry. Delacourte and Duriez sniffed the relics and nine other samples of bone and hair from Charlier’s lab without being told what the samples were. They were also not allowed to confer with each other. They both smelled hints of burnt-plaster and vanilla.
The plaster smell was consistent with the fact that Joan of Arc was burnt on a plaster stake, not a wooden one. However, vanilla is not a product of cremation. It is produced during decomposition. That means that it would not be found on someone who was burnt.
Microscopic and chemical analysis of the black crust on the rib and the cat femur showed that they were not burnt but were infused with a mineral matrix; and had no trace of muscle, skin, fat or hair. "I see burnt remains all the time in my job, it was obviously not burnt tissue." says Charlier. The cloth used for mummy wrappings were coated with a similar substance. The material used in wrappings was also consistent with gypsum, which causes the plaster smell.
The researchers also dated the remains using Carbon-14. The results stated that the remains came from between the third and sixth centuries BC. Spectrometry profiles of the rib, femur, and black chunks matched those of Egyptian mummies from that period. They did not match those of burnt bones.
Even though the remains were shown to be those of a mummy, I don't think it will change peoples' opinion on whether the story of Joan of Arc really happened or not.
http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070402/full/446593a.html
-WildThing
posted by PWH @ 3:19 PM
13 comments
13 Comments:
Very interesting topic. Although, right as it sucked me in, you closed quickly with the researchers' last method. Maybe put in how this relates to our world...in biology at least.
I think its amazing the spectrum of tests that are used to determine information on old remains or fossils. It is also interesting that the sense of smell is something that can be used as a tool. By using smell as a tool it seems as though they were able to prove that these were not Joan of Arc's remains. What made people believe originally that they were? Since they are not her remains than what are they? Are they a part of an old mummy? Or just random bones from a grave?
WildThing,
This is a really interesting subject! I expected the pH, mass, IR and atomic-emission specctometry, electron microscopy, and pollen analysis, but the odor analysis is certainly an interesting technique to use! I'm not too sure how scientific that technique is-- it doesn't involve a measurement of any sort. However, the people who did the judging of the samples' odors must have been highly trained in smells-- I know that from visiting a perfume factory in France that "the Nose" is pretty much the most valuable person there, and they spend all day smelling and analyzing samples of perfume. The vanilla smell found by both of these "odor analyzers" and the presence of vanilla substance in mummies is certainly interesting!
Because of the results of these tests in comparison to those of Egyptian mummies, do you think the ideas about Joan of Arc's bones will change? Is there going to be a further investigation into this seeming "hoax"? Are a lot of myths like this being dispelled today with modern techniques of examining tissues?
This will be an interesting story to follow-- thank you for your research!
-Nicole
zarban6
It’s amazing how much science is involved in analyzing remains with such potentially historical significance. I never realized that historians and scientists had access to such specific and disturbing details about Joan’s death, such as the plaster stake or the black cats. I have one suggestion- your opening sentence leads the reader to believe that scientists did indeed find Joan of Arc. Maybe change it to something along the lines of “the potential remains of Joan..”, staying true to the rest of your piece.
The fact that odor analysis may have provided some of the most valuable evidence is bizarre, but I would be interested to know more about the actual process and perhaps what else it is used for. It’s a shame that we did not in fact find the remains of Joan of Arc, but is there any other information on these Egyptian mummies? Their story is probably not quite as well known, but I bet it is equally fascinating. Really interesting subject here! Great job!
ohearnt6
I thought the article was very interesting and tied in with a new field of Biology that is really emerging called Forensics. I found it really fascinating how researchers did not check the remains earlier and when they did check the remains the body turned out not to be Joan or Arc. I was a little confused at the end of the blog because I felt the ending was a little short. Additionally, did anyone dispute the findings by the researchers arose at and believe that the body is still Joan of Arcs? ~*lubina6
Forensic technology has come a very long way recently, as this essay proves. My question is why these remains were considered to be those of Joan of Arc in the first place? Were they found near where her body was burnt originally? Apparently not, if these bones date back to B.C. All that aside, I think it's very interesting that people from the perfume industry were used for the smell test. Those people have what the French consider "le cadeau du nez" [the gift of the nose], as they are able to smell on a much wider range than most people. This is how they gain jobs in perfume making due to their ability to smell very minute differences in odors.
What a strange and interesting investigation! I wonder why Egyptian experts believed the remains of Joan of Arc were from a mummy in the first place? I was very surprised, not by the first tests done but by the last technique called the Odor analysis. I think the information from this technique would be a little unstable to use as real data because there is no solid proof that it's even what the remains smelled like. However the outcome was quite amazing. Thanks to modern biological technology, I believe scientists will uncover many more of these false relics and many more mysteries. I wonder what the story is of the mummy that was used as Joan of Arc's relics? With all of our technology can we say any more about that person? Your topic brings a lot of questions to my mind. I also hope to learn more about the uses of Odor analysis. Thank you for your topic! It was excellent!
I am impressed with the technology we have today to study the remains from ancient bodies. I did not know such prodecures to determine how a body was preserved and how it expired was possible. I thought it was incredible that the 2 men were able to smell the plaster and vanilla. It must be nice to get paid to sniff and determine the smell of different things!
livesey5
I thought this was a great article. As a history buff myself I couldnt help but comment on this blog post. I thought it was so interesting how the scientists used different techniques to test and date the samples they had. Its a shame that they couldn't prove this to be the actual burning site of Joan of Arc, that would of been a huge step in the field of history and science. Using similar techniques, hopefully in the future scientists will be able to further study historical sites and get a better understanding of the past. Great work!
This comment has been removed by the author.
PWH said...
What a great post!
Joan of Arc..controversial in life, an enigma in death. There are numerous interpretations of the Joan or Arc story: The Roman Catholic Church views her as a saint, publicly sacrificed in the interest of political expediency and from the vantage point of non-religious people, her tale is evidence of a religious institution with a long history of willingness to sacrifice someone because they didn't subscribe to the appropriate belief system of the time. Over the years she has been analysed and thought to be a true schizophrenic, adopted by various feminist factions as symbolic of either exloitation or some amazon-warrior type and suspected of being a lesbian because she refused to stop wearing men's clothes.
The idea that her remains, afforded holy relic status by the Vatican have come into question under scientific scrutinty is extremely interesting!
Personally, I don't care if the Joan of Arc legend is fact, fiction or a combination thereof, I am just thrilled to see that a scientific appraoch was allowed to be undertaken to prove the veracity of claims surrounding this specific set of relics. Good Job!
Catherine S
Course Participant
It was really interesting how they can use a whole bunch of tests to figure out what they were looking at even though it was really really old. I would think that it would be kind of embarassing for the museum to be displying these artifacts under a false name. It surprised me that they were able to use people to detect the different smells. The link they were able to find between the smells of these remains and the mummies of the 6th century is amazing!
This article is so interesting! I have never heard about an odor test. And the fact that these people can actually smell different materials is amazing. The results of the odor test actually helped with the investigation too. I would never would have thought that such a test could or would help in this case. It is a well written segment!
- talebza6
Post a Comment
<< Home