Scientists Identify Head of France's King Henry IV 64
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."
Re:Does rest in peace mean anything to scientists (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.
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But what about the poor people who are losing the use of this head? Shouldn't they be offered a replacement of equal worth?
What do you do with a mumified head anyway? Open pop bottles? Ash tray? Candle holder? How far does "hey, wanna see a head" go anyway?
Re:Does rest in peace mean anything to scientists (Score:3)
I don't want to be dug up by scientists writing papers that nobody reads.
Anonymous cowards are dug up and put on public display quite often. Do something noteworthy enough that you get a fancy tomb and you might avoid this fate. Not that the rest of us will be holding our breaths for you to accomplish anything ... we'll just be standing over at the edge of the graveyard with shovels. "Specimen of early 21st-century Homo semi-sapiens trollicus patheticus. Name unknown."
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4b. Do something so noteworthy that you are beloved. State that you must not be embalmed
Lenin would tell you it doesn't work so well.
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If you don't read the paper, then you won't know they dug you up.
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Why not? Are you going to be around to give a shit when it happens?
I didn't think so.
Idle (Score:4, 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
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Good point. I never thought of that.
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Click on your title bar, delete idle. hit enter. This will then cause it to be opened as a normal story with the working controls.
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Single best piece of advice I've read here in quite some time. Thanks, I hadn't yet figured out that it was just idle that had the screwed up controls.
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Well other than the fact there is no upward limit on the number of stories that can be posted to Slashdot. They really don't need to maximize the value of idle stories.
If they really felt the way you claim about idle they could post whatever junk to it and post good stories in other sections and then we could all just filter out idle in our user prefs. Right now I don't because often idle does have stories like this one I find interesting.
I think they use googles Basic filter (Score:2)
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/12/17/0040244/Reading-Level-Filter-Added-To-Google-Search [slashdot.org]
It has been active on Slashdot for a long time, too bad we never knew it was marketable.
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Disagree! Everyone already knew that the King Henry IV was the head of France. No identification needed. -1, Obvious.
so... (Score:2)
you're unhappy because idle is interesting
slashdot is idiotic, because idle is NOT idiotic
and yes, i agree: i think the concept of being "idiotic" figures heavily in the formation of your opinion
I hadn't known about Henry IV (Score:5, Funny)
He sounds like a great monarch, truly ahead of his time.
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Back then, the cake really *was* a lie.
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... that joke is a capital offense.
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I keep trying to get head, never seems to be available though...ok, my puns suck, I know.
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Indeed!
He was much loved by the people, and his reforms were cutting-edge.
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He sounds like a great monarch, truly ahead of his time.
That is VERY funny! Chuckled out loud when I read it! Well played Daniel!
which part (Score:3)
Henry IV part I or Henry IV part II
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Really? Henry I and Henry V, I assume?
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This is part II. The summary mentions that his body was dug up earlier, so it was part I.
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If you put them back together do you end up with Henry VIII?
Perfumers on the team ... (Score:2)
Perfumers on the team used their professionally trained noses to identify specific embalming substances in the mouth used to hide nasty odors.
I bet the brochures for "perfumers school" does not mention that particular specialty.
Perfumers? (Score:2)
Can you imagine the perfumer...
[Perfumer going about his business mixing civet urine and various fatty acids] Ah that smells lovely!
[Phone rings]
Scientist: Hi! We need your nose for some important historical work.
Perfumer: Right-o!
Scientist: So you know this guy Henry IV? Head chopped off. Lost for ages?
Perfumer to self: Oh crap.. is this going where I think it's going? I read that Süskind novel..
Scientist: Yeah well, we need you to sniff this skull we found!
Perfumer: Jerry... is that you? It's a bit
Looks like... (Score:1)
Thank God (Score:1)
Scientist 1: SIR! We've found it!
Scientist 2: long pause..."the head"....?
Show us your heads! (Score:2)
This reminds me of the Molly Maguires ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Maguires [wikipedia.org] ) , disgruntled Irish coal miners in Pennsylvania. They lopped off peoples' heads. I learned this story in high school in US history. Sometimes the severed heads were just dropped somewhere, and ended up in funeral parlors, who placed them in the window with a note, asking, "Do you know whose head this is?"
At any rate, my history teacher was at a funeral there, and asked the director about the story. He answered, "Sure,
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A BBC [bbc.co.uk] article mentions that any DNA sample would be contaminated.
Good job (Score:3)
I'm sure this great news will bring closure to his family.
Now they can close this dark chapter of their lives and move on.
hm.
Oh (Score:1)
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With a head the size of the Burger King, you could feed millions.
I woke up this morning... (Score:1)
That's insane! (Score:2)
So these Frenchies, during the 'frenzy of the Revolution' dug up a king who had been dead a hundred years, lopped off his head, and stole it?
For the love of god, WHY?
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Link to the BMJ paper (Score:3)
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Perfumers on the team, concerning nasty odors. (Score:1)
'Perfumers on the team used their professionally trained noses to identify specific embalming substances in the mouth used to hide nasty odors.'
400 years of hiding nasty odors, where can I get this deodorant?
Dirty jobs... (Score:2)
> 'Perfumers on the team used their professionally trained noses to identify specific embalming substances in the mouth used to hide nasty odors.'
Worst. Job. Ever.
Someone should send that in to Mike Rowe....
Well, I suppose... (Score:2)
We'll be seeing him on Futurama now?
Let me guess... (Score:1)
It was in the Head Museum between Charles de Gaulle and Leonard Nimoy?
True! Not many in the 17th century had a head. (Score:1)
After nine months of tests, researchers in France have lost their head and they went .... "Gee... Henry was assassinated in 1610, and his head has been missing. We have a head here that dates back to the 17th century. How many people in the 17th century had a head? I guess not many. The portraits show that King Henry 1V indeed had a head. So this must be his head." To put the last nail in the coffin... we will ask one of the 'Perfumers' on the team to take a sniff and if it stinks it must be King Henry IV.
A