
Fully dressed and preserved 350-year-old corpse of French noblewoman found - diodorus
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/03/fully-dressed-and-preserved-350-year-old-corpse-of-french-noblewoman-found
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abakker
Though the article does say that the body will be re buried, it does not
specify that it will be in the same place. Are we to understand that they are
just moving the bodies out of the way to build a convention center?

Real question: what will we learn from examining this body from 300 years ago?
My understanding is that we have plenty of artifacts and knowledge left from
that time period. Are we primarily interested in her cause of death? her diet?

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diodorus
Bioarcheaologists have been finding out all sorts of new stuff recently using
forensic tools to analyze human remains. One of my favorite blogs along these
lines is Kristina Killgrove's "Powered by Osteons" which discusses her
research into lead levels in the bones of ancient Romans, among other
interesting things:

[http://www.poweredbyosteons.org](http://www.poweredbyosteons.org)

From a more specifically historical point of view, it's true that we know
quite a lot about 17th century material culture (especially of France) due to
probate records from wills, and the survival of many pieces in museums, etc.
But it's still interesting to see the divergence between textual records of
burials and belongings and how they actually played out in practice,
especially because most museum pieces are completely decontextualized from the
original context (i.e., we might have some cork-soled shoes that survive in
other collections, but these ones are still on the feet of the wearer).

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abakker
Thanks for that reply!

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forscha
From the title, I expected a surprise in how the body was found, not in a
tomb.

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cicero
I read this article in order to compare this case with those of Catholic and
Orthodox saints who are incorrupt. Sure enough, this woman lived her final
years in a convent.

For some reason that I've never heard explained, living a holy life (according
to Catholic and Orthodox Christian measures) sometimes has the effect of
retarding the process of decay after death. I used to suspect the stories of
incorruptible saints as being frauds perpetrated to advance the agenda of the
Catholic Church, but as I have learned more, it has happened too many times in
too many different ways for me to think that anymore. In the case of this
French noblewoman, no one is trying to advance the cause of her canonization.
She was found accidentally, seemingly by someone who has no interest in
Catholic saints.

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duaneb
This doesn't even make sense from a Catholic/Greek Orthodox perspective. Why
would the body be preserved without the soul? Strikes me as almost
blasphemous.

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dragonwriter
> This doesn't even make sense from a Catholic/Greek Orthodox perspective.

Sure it does.

> Why would the body be preserved without the soul?

As a sign of God's power, as a message to others, the same as any other
miracle.

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duaneb
> As a sign of God's power, as a message to others, the same as any other
> miracle

Well sure, but you might as well point out the stain in the corner is a "sign
of God's power". It seems to me the "correct" approach would be to appreciate
the ineffability of what happened, not make ridiculous claims about holiness
causing preservation when there is literally no rational implication of this.

