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Scientists Identify Head of France's King Henry IV

Posted by samzenpus on from the losing-then-finding-your-head dept.

JThaddeus writes "The Associated Press reports that 'After nine months of tests, researchers in France have identified the head of France's King Henry IV.' Henry was assassinated in 1610, and his head has been missing. His body was dug up and decapitated during the French Revolution. Researchers found features similar to those in royal portraits, and radiocarbon dating confirms that the head dates to the 17th Century. Interestingly, 'Perfumers on the team used their professionally trained noses to identify specific embalming substances in the mouth used to hide nasty odors.' The results have been published an online medical journal."

4 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Idle by Psychotria · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Look. Idle is supposed to be STUPID STUFF that's a waste of time. This isn't idle; it's interesting. I swear that slashdot is getting more and more idiotic every time I log in

    1. Re:Idle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Then for the love of god stop logging in!

  2. I hadn't known about Henry IV by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 4, Funny

    He sounds like a great monarch, truly ahead of his time.

    --
    The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
  3. Re:Does rest in peace mean anything to scientists by lordholm · · Score: 5, Informative

    No scientists dug him up. If you RTFA, you will see that he was dug up during the French revolution and posthumously decapitated. The head was then stolen and passed along in "private collections".

    The scientists found the head, confirmed that it was the dead kings missing head and, there will be a national burial of the head in a cathedral.

    So, essentially, the scientists did exactly the opposite of what you are complaining about.

    --
    "Civis Europaeus sum!"