Archaeologists working in the aftermath of the fire that consumed Paris’ Notre-Dame have identified the other mystery remains found in a lead coffin underneath the cathedral floor.
On April 15, 2019, Notre-Dame suffered an electrical fire that toppled its centuries-old spire and destroyed its “forêt” or “the forest,” the cathedral’s monumental 13th century roof structure. In the aftermath of the blaze, INRAP (short for National Institute of Preventative Archaeological Research) researchers worked to preserve as much of the historic site as they could and prepare it for the reconstruction of the spire. In the process of the work, archaeologists stumbled across lead sarcophagi underneath the church floor.
The team announced the discovery of two of those sarcophagi in 2022, where they were found amidst 18th-century plumbing under the cathedral. The team put a small camera into a hole of one of the 700-year-old sarcophagi to examine its contents. They found (surprise!) human remains, as well as “pieces of fabric, hair and above all a pillow of leaves on top of the head, a well-known phenomenon when religious leaders were buried,” as one expert told Reuters at the time.
Later in the year, one set of the remains was identified as Antoine de la Porte, a church authority with “extraordinarily good teeth” who died in 1710. (The identification wasn’t difficult—de la Porte had a plaque on his coffin.) But identifying the remains in the other sarcophagus proved more difficult. Until now!
The team announced its new findings—including the presumptive identity of the other individual—in a press conference earlier this month. The team believes those remains belong to Joachim du Bellay, a horseman and poet who died in 1560. An autopsy of the remains suggested that the deceased had chronic meningitis and tuberculosis.
The team had been pursuing multiple leads on the identity of the individual in the second sarcophagus, according to the release. The team concluded the remains belonged to du Bellay given the age and afflictions of the remains, as well as the nearby burial of du Bellay’s uncle in the church. Du Bellay may have been transferred to his eventual burial site following the publication of his complete works in 1569.
In an INRAP release summing those findings, the institute states that the team found more than 100 graves, 80 of which were excavated, and wooden coffins. Some of those individuals were buried in shrouds, of which some fabric scraps remain. The orientation of those graves may indicate whether the deceased were lay people (with their heads facing west) or members of the clergy (facing east, towards the faithful). Besides the human remains on the site, the archaeological excavations uncovered some remarkable sculptures and pieces of masonry, some of which still retain their original polychromy after eight centuries. You can see more photos of what the archaeologists found here.
The oldest levels of Notre Dame belong to a 1st century dwelling on the site, according to the INRAP release. Later in the archaeological layers—which is to say, more recently—the team found evidence of a “vast Carolingian building and one or more monumental buildings.”
The venerated cathedral will reopen to the public later this year, after an intense five years of renovations.
+ There are no comments
Add yours