The French media like to call him the “Indiana Jones of the graveyards,” but perhaps a better tag would be the Sherlock Holmes of forensic science.
With powerful microscopes and high-tech diagnostics that tease out chemical signatures and DNA telltales, pathologist Philippe Charlier pores over centuries-old remains to probe the riddles of history.
He has determined that Vatican-authenticated bone fragments said to have come from Joan of Arc were in fact from a cat and an Egyptian mummy.
Photo: AFP
He has confirmed that a mummified heart came from the uncrowned boy French king Louis XVII. He has crushed the folklore that said Napoleon was poisoned to death by his perfidious English captors.
Then in Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of King Henri II of France, Charlier made the shocking discovery that the 66-year-old had drunk an elixir of gold in what was apparently a desperate bid to keep her youth.
Now the scientist has turned his attentions to Richard the Lionheart, hoping to use what is left of his famous ticker to learn more about the legendary 12th-century English monarch.
Speaking at an exhibition on his work, Charlier referred to his ancient subjects as “patients,” for which a forensic scientist gradually develops a doctor-like relationship.
“One does tend to get attached,” he said.
Charlier used 3D imaging of a preserved skull to bring to life the face of French King Charles VII’s lover Agnes Sorel, the first woman in French history to hold the title of official mistress.
She died at the age of 28 in 1450, but her death mask belied the pixie-like beauty for which she was famed in life.
“Looking at it realistically, it’s ugly,” Charlier said of the mask, with its bulging forehead, small cheekbones and scrunched-up nose.
The scientist’s analysis determined that Sorel had died of mercury poisoning, an important ingredient of medical salts of the era.
Charlier’s laboratory is at the Raymond Poincare University Hospital in Garches, south of Paris.
In 2010, it confirmed that a severed head long thought to belong to Henry IV, murdered in 1610 by a Catholic fanatic, was indeed his — a finding that is disputed by some. Henry’s remains had been taken, along with those of other French nobles, from their tombs in the royal chapel at Saint-Denis in 1793 by revolutionaries, who tossed the remains into a pit.
The scientist is now examining a small sample of the heart of Richard I, who ruled England from 1189 to his death in 1199, apparently from blood poisoning after he was shot with an arrow.
Housed in the Gothic cathedral of Rouen, northern France, the relic comprises just a sprinkling of decomposed dust.
Charlier has taken “1mg or 2mg” of the precious remains and is carrying out chemical tests on them. The results are likely to be unveiled in the next three months, according to the French press.
The goal is to find out more about 12th-century embalming — the practice was carried out by barbers or even cooks — and perhaps identify the germ that killed the warrior-king.
“We know virtually nothing about the [embalming] techniques of that time,” Charlier told the Parisien daily. “It is a forensic challenge. We want to get the maximum information from the smallest possible sample.”
Richard is often described in textbooks as a pious leader, brave soldier and a dashing man of letters, but historians say this version masks a life of brutality, bloodshed and religious intolerance.
He led the Third Crusade of the Christian world against Muslims who had captured Jerusalem in the 12th century. He died at the age of 42 after being shot with a crossbow during a siege of the castle of Chalus-Chabrol in France.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
China has approved the creation of a national nature reserve at the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines, the government said yesterday, as Beijing moves to reinforce its territorial claims in the contested region. A notice posted online by the Chinese State Council said that details about the area and size of the project would be released separately by the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration. “The building of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve is an important guarantee for maintaining the diversity, stability and sustainability of the natural ecosystem of Huangyan Island,” the notice said. Scarborough
RSS