Word: arcing
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...might not be the Turin Shroud, but as far as myths go, this was a big one to debunk. On April 5, a French research team declared that the alleged remains of St. Joan of Arc were fake. The relics of the iconic saint - burned alive for heresy and witchcraft in 1431 but rehabilitated as a French hero in the 19th century - have been identified as the remnants of an Egyptian mummy, a small cat and scraps of wood...
...been a source of historical debate, Charlier announced she had been killed by mercury poisoning. "History and forensic science are crossing paths more and more frequently," said Charlier. "Forensics now gives us the scientific means to perform autopsies on the past. As for the relics of St. Joan of Arc, our tests give conclusive proof that these aren't her remains...
...Some were pleasant and fragrant." The predominant scent, vanilla, indicated that the relics came from a body that had decomposed naturally; the organic compound vanillin is produced during this process. Set alight while tied to a stake (three times over, if legend is to be believed), St. Joan of Arc's body clearly didn't meet such a natural end. Sniffing is rarely used in the field of paleopathology yet such was the positive correlation between Charlier's own results and those of his team of smellers that he plans to use the technique in future investigations...
...Joan of Arc languished in margins of French history before she was revived as a nationalist symbol in the late 19th Century. Having been called by God to expel the invading English from France during the Hundred Years War, as the story goes, the teenage saint was later appropriated as a symbol of the disputed province of Lorraine during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1. The discovery of the false relics would also have added weight to the public campaign to canonize St. Joan, launched in 1869 by the Bishop of Orl?ans. As for the unlikely materials used...
...bogus bones look unlikely to affect the lucrative tourist industry based around one of France's most famous daughters. The Joan of Arc Museum in Chinon, where the alleged relics were previously exhibited, is set to move to new, larger premises in 2009. The new museum will house an expanded exhibition featuring previously-unseen written documents that chart the saint's tumultuous life. Despite having exhibited the remains for decades, the museum denied it was red-faced after receiving the results of the forensic tests. "Some people did think they were genuine," said former museum director Anne-Marie Salichon...