Mystery of a Lead Coffin Discovered Beneath Notre-Dame Solved...?

[Vixen]

After the destructive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in 2019, archeologists had the opportunity to excavate. They found a pair of lead coffins at somewhere at the junction of the nave and the transept which are at right angles to each other. As lead was an elite material curiosity was piqued as to who could be their occupants.

Lead, a metal that keeps out moisture and prevents decomposition, has long been the chosen coffin material of the elite, used even to line the casket of Great Britain’s Elizabeth II.

Because the two individuals buried at Notre-Dame were laid to rest in such expensive sarcophagi, they must have been high-status members of French society, experts concluded.

Smithsonian mag

And they were. It turns out one was Antoine de la Porte, a high priest who died in 1710 at age 83. The other was a poet, known as 'the horseman'.

Now, after nearly two years of research, scholars have proposed a likely candidate for the skeleton’s true identity: Joachim du Bellay, a prominent French Renaissance poet who died in 1560.

ibid

This is by inference, as his coffin did not have an extant label, unlike the other one. The skeleton had signs of meningitis and tuberculosis, and was about the same age as Joachim du Bellay the poet who died circa age 37. Both afflictions complained of in his poetry. Hence the conclusion it is he.

What's interesting to me isn't the identity of the coffin incumbents but the location at which they were buried. Cathedrals were built aligned west to east, with the main entrance at the west. The further east up a Cathedral (towards the altar) the more likely - it was presumed - you would find salvation come the resurrection of Jesus at the second coming. People paid good money to be buried under cathedral floorboards and members of the clergy had a free pass to be up near the front, with the presumption, they would face their congregation on Resurrection Day, together with Jesus. Custom was, they would be buried feet facing west so that they would be facing their east-facing footed flock come the happy day.

So we can understand how come the priest was interred at that spot. But a poet? Was he even a noble? Perhaps he was some kind of relation to the priest. Apparently, he was moved to that spot after a successful publication of his poems. I am a bit sceptical that would be a reason.

As Charles Bremner reports for the London Times, the site where the sarcophagus was found was “previously occupied by another coffin” in an area of the cathedral that was typically reserved for high church dignitaries.

ibid

 

[Vixen]

Just uploading a floor plan of a typical mediaeval cathedral, this time, Amiens. The prototype was pretty much the same for all of them, with some more fancy than others, but they'd have a nave (main area from entrance up to the altar), west to east, transept (where arms cross the nave going north to south), the chancel, which was just beyond this point and the altar area, usually accessed to by steps and reserved for the choir. So this lead coffin was found as of the point the transept traverses the nave.

The black dots and geometrical angles represent the cathedral ceiling, arched vaults, with four to six tiercerons (star shaped) structures supporting the arch/dome (the geometrical lines) and meeting in a 'boss' point at the zenith, or centre (the black dots)

Amiens floorplan by Username Vixen, on Flickr

 

[Vixen]

So, from the press release of the authorities charged with the post-fire excavation work:

The work undertaken as part of its restoration required the digging of trenches, impacting the basement and its graves. The graves unearthed were therefore the subject of a meticulous excavation. The bones were removed as well as the remains of certain wooden coffins or plaster vats for laboratory study. More than a hundred graves were identified and 80 of them were excavated. Crossing of the transept, internal networks and flues, Soufflot cellar: most of the areas yielded graves, the highest density being located in the north and south aisles of the cathedral.

<snip>

If we are to believe the Church's recommendations, the orientation of the graves suggests that more than half are those of lay people (heads facing west), the other half being composed of members of the clergy (heads facing east, facing the faithful).

"The anonymous individual died of chronic tuberculous meningitis in the 16th century in his fourth decade, an age that is rarely represented among the burials of important people in the cathedral. This unknown person, autopsied and embalmed, is intriguing because he rests in a specific area where, apart from Antoine de La Porte, no other intact tomb has been discovered. Research suggests that he could have reoccupied a tomb that had hosted two well-known people in their time, but without somewhat exceptional religious titles. Our attention was focused on Joachim du Bellay, a distinguished horseman and tubercular poet who died in 1560, whose autopsy revealed signs of chronic meningitis. Buried in the cathedral when he was no longer even a canon, his tomb was not found in 1758 near that of his uncle, although the family wanted him to be buried next to him. This situation creates a discrepancy between the agreement of the chapter, which chose the burial places at Notre-Dame, and the location in the crossing of the transept. Two argued hypotheses are put forward: a temporary burial that became permanent or a transfer of his coffin during another burial, in 1569, after the publication of his complete works.

Actualité | Archéologie de Notre-Dame de Paris : avancées des recherches

À l'occasion d'une conférence de presse ce mardi 17 septembre, l'Inrap a présenté l'état d'avancement des recherches archéologiques menées à Notre-Dame de Paris. L'institut œuvre depuis cinq ans à un programme d'opérations archéologiques, à l'extérieur et à l'intérieur de la cathédrale.

www.inrap.fr

So, a biological anthropologist believes it is more or less proven to be this poet chap.

Now, these details have led Dr. Éric Crubézy, a professor of biological anthropology at the University of Toulouse IIIand research director at the France's National Centre for Scientific Research, to hypothesize the man's identity. The findings were announced Sept. 17 in a translated statement by France's National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP).

"He matches all the criteria of the portrait," Crubézy said at a Sept. 17 news conference, per La Croix. "He is an accomplished horseman, suffers from both conditions mentioned in some of his poems, like in 'La Complainte du désespéré,' where he describes 'this storm that blurs [his] mind,' and his family belonged to the royal court and the pope's close entourage."


"He rode from Paris to Rome, which is no mean feat when you have tuberculosis like he did. In fact, he almost died from it," Crubézy added.

Live Science

 

[Vixen]

Ceiling points.

 

[Vixen]

Unfortunately, I am not 100% convinced that the incumbent of the coffin has been identified definitively. So he is assessed as:

1. Being in his fourth decade. Bellay was 37 when he died.
   
2. Appears to have suffered from tuberculosis and had had meningitis.
3. Was a keen horseman as injuries consistent with horse-riding wear and tear.
4. His body had been missing from where he had originally been buried with his uncle.
5. He was of noble stock and was well in with the Vatican, having made journeys with high clergy, hence the situation near a high priest.

But I am sceptical because:

1. Bellay was buried with his uncle originally. Average life expectancy then was about 42.
2. Tuberculosis and bacterial illnesses, such as meningitis, were rampant in the population anyway.
3. Horse riding was the general means of transport of the day.
4. The fact his body was missing from his uncle's family plot, doesn't ipso facto mean it was relocated to an unmarked tomb. There is no record of such a drastic 'upgrade' as it were, even if Bellay had just published a work of poetry.
5. Was it necessary to be a member of the clergy to be buried at the transept/nave intersection? I'd say, not necessarily.

Joachim du Bellay died of meningitis in 1560 at the age of 37. The fact that his final resting place was unknown until now also led researchers to think that perhaps du Bellay's body was meant to be temporarily buried in this area of Notre Dame before being transferred to his family's plot, but somehow was left under the nave.

Or perhaps du Bellay's body was transferred to this prominent location in the cathedral following a posthumous publication of his completed works in 1569. Whatever the reason, a combination of scientific analysis and the details of du Bellay's well-documented and prolific life finally put a face to a name, if you will.

https://www.thetravel.com/notre-dame-cathedral-remains-date-back-to-the-16th-century-renaissance/

 

[crescent]

It's funny. I was raised Catholic but was only ever familiar with the local parish church, never the big cathedrals. I'm not at all familiar with the layouts.

I know that many of the big cathedrals have vaults underneath and I've never understood how they bury people right under the floor of the main room like that, not when there are vaults below that.

 

[novaphile]

It's funny. I was raised Catholic but was only ever familiar with the local parish church, never the big cathedrals. I'm not at all familiar with the layouts.

I know that many of the big cathedrals have vaults underneath and I've never understood how they bury people right under the floor of the main room like that, not when there are vaults below that.

It's a funny thing.

There are lots of things that we see as permanent, that really aren't.

If someone wants to be buried under a church floor (and they pay enough) a hole and container is constructed, and hey presto! They're under the floor.

I had always thought of my bathroom floor as a permanent, solid thing.

Plumbers removed it in less than an hour.

I asked them about it, and they said: "No big deal, we tear out floors to get to pipes, all the time."

(In my case, it was the whole floor, because everything was being replaced.

 

[Vixen]

Many churches are still built in that same format, especially the older ones. People used to be buried under church floorboards but the stench got so much, on rebuilding, the bones would be removed to a 'bones house'. Cathedrals are pretty much mass burial places. When you step inside one, there are likely thousands of dead bodies beneath one's feet. I think Notre Dame has >20,000, most of them - the hoi-polloi (albeit rich enough to pay for a spot and avoid the catacombs) - along the Southern arm of the transept, IIRC.

It started simple and then grew up layer by layer, hence the deep vaults. Notre Dame started as a chapel (St Etienne) and sprung up around that.





Source: wiki

 

[Vixen]

Is it Joachim du Bellay? I think possibly not.

While the evidence linking du Bellay to the “horseman” is compelling, not all experts are entirely convinced. Christophe Besnier, the lead archaeologist with France’s National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP), noted that isotope analysis of the skeleton’s teeth suggests the individual grew up in the Paris or Lyon regions. Du Bellay, on the other hand, was born in Anjou, in western France.

Archaelogy Mag

 

[Mojo]

After the destructive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in 2019, archeologists had the opportunity to excavate. They found a pair of lead coffins at somewhere at the junction of the nave and the transept which are at right angles to each other.

Given the destructive nature of the fire, can we be certain that they weren't lithium coffins?

 

[Vixen]

Given the destructive nature of the fire, can we be certain that they weren't lithium coffins?

Are you able to account for where you were on the night of 15 April 2019, just before 18:20 CEST?

 

[Vixen]

Here is my theory as to who is the mystery incumbent of the unlabelled lead coffin next to a labelled coffin of a high church Canon, Antoine de la Porte, a high level priest who died in 1710 at age 83. The developing theory is audacious but not at all intended as facetious, frivolous or flippant.

Bear in mind only members of the ecclesiastical order would be buried in a prime position of a cathedral and positioned 'facing' the congregation, were they to be standing up in an upright position. The coffins were found in the transept/nave cross section, right in the centre where much of the liturgical business would be carried out. It is where the rood screen was once placed - this separated the 'holy' farthest eastern part (the altar, the choir and the traditional 'Lady's Chapel' [dedicated to the Virgin Mary] at the extreme end) from the hoi-polloi congregation. You can see what the ceiling of this part of the cathedral looked like here: https://www.friendsofnotredamedeparis.org/cathedral/artifacts/transept/#:~:text=Like in most churches, the,where liturgical celebrations take place.

But Joachim du Bellay died in 1560. Why would his body be moved next to a key member of the Paris clergy, when (a) he was not an ordained priest and (b) there is no record of his upgrade, as it were?

The unlabelled lead coffin is uniquely shaped to the incumbent's body. You can see the exact position of the two coffins pictured here, except above ground. https://gizmodo.com/archaeologists-crack-460-year-old-notre-dame-lead-coffin-mystery-2000505001

Spot the moulded coffin to the left of Antoine de la Porte's. The latter is nearer to the south side on the right (remembering the cathedral layout is west to east or left to right, except in the photo it is given a 'portrait' aspect. This signifies that de la Porte was considered more worthy of salvation than his companion on his right. *

So, my tentative suggestion is that the unmarked incumbent is Antoine de la Porte's young friend, perhaps a lover (platonically or physically) whose coffin he managed to have arraigned next to his in death, being highly influential in clerical matters. Statement in support: before the Reformation of 1550's, priests took a vow of celibacy but it is well-known that many had secret families and it is intuitive that a large proportion were gay and thus had little interest in marriage anyway. It could be that priests not being all that celibate was so commonplace that the Protestant reform allowed priests to marry as per normal and as part of abolishing and destroying the monasteries with their communal single-sex living.

So the most likely identity of the unmarked coffin's incumbent is de la Porte's young lover or acolyte, whose ID was deliberately concealed because of the secretive nature of the relationship.

It is surely fanciful to imagine du Bellay was sneaked in next to him some one hundred and eighty odd years later.



*As an aside, the north side of a mediaeval church or cathedral was typically considered sinister and associated with 'The Wicked One' - whose name cannot be mentioned - and thus often had no windows at all or were considerably plainer than the ones on the south side.

 

[Darat]

Or it is - literally and figuratively - some body, which is what the evidence so far suggests...

 

[Jack by the hedge]

... Joachim du Bellay died in 1560. Why would his body be moved next to a key member of the Paris clergy, when (a) he was not an ordained priest and (b) there is no record of his upgrade, as it were?

The unlabelled lead coffin is uniquely shaped to the incumbent's body. You can see the exact position of the two coffins pictured here, except above ground. https://gizmodo.com/archaeologists-crack-460-year-old-notre-dame-lead-coffin-mystery-2000505001

What evidence is there that the older coffin was moved?

Your link shows the two coffins on display at a 2022 press conference. How did you get the idea that it shows them in the positions they were found? It doesn't say that. It doesn't even say the picture was taken in the cathedral. I'd have expected the cathedral floor still to be dug up when the pic was taken in 2022, when the discovery was announced, and it's a very long time since I've been there but I think the cathedral nave has a stone floor, not a wooden parquet floor.

 

[erwinl]

And as there’s a picture of de la Porte’s coffin as found under the floor at the bottom of the Gizmodo post, it is absolutely clear that the other one certainly was not found right next to it, as Vixen describes in the ‘lover’ scenario.

So we can disregard that theory of Vixen’s.

 

[Thermal]

"Sorry kids, mass is canceled. Gotta rip the floors up to put another rotting corpse under the walkways so you can wipe the dog ◊◊◊◊ off your shoes just above their rotting face. God bless us all, everyone!"

 

[Vixen]

What evidence is there that the older coffin was moved?

Your link shows the two coffins on display at a 2022 press conference. How did you get the idea that it shows them in the positions they were found? It doesn't say that. It doesn't even say the picture was taken in the cathedral. I'd have expected the cathedral floor still to be dug up when the pic was taken in 2022, when the discovery was announced, and it's a very long time since I've been there but I think the cathedral nave has a stone floor, not a wooden parquet floor.

One would assume the press conference guys were recreating the coffins' relationship to each other. Why even mention Antoine de la Porte otherwise? (This guy oversaw the funerals of several King Louises.)

From wiki:

The two sarcophagi are of different eras and styles, but both were damaged by the entry of air into the pierced lead, which reduced the bodies to the state of skeletons. His sarcophagus bears on the top a lead plaque on which is engraved: " This is the body of Sir Antoine de La Porte, canon of the church (word erased) who died on December 24, 1710 in his 83rd year Resquietcat in pace " . On his sarcophagus are arranged three medals representing him in profile. His entire skeleton, hair and beard hairs, as well as remains of textiles were therefore found. The first examinations carried out at the Toulouse University Hospital showed polishing of the molars, indicating regular brushing of the teeth, as well as at the level of the feet of the metatarsals, revealing bilateral gout <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_de_La_Porte#cite_note-5">4</a> .

He's possibly the equivalent of the Archbishop of Canterbury or even higher. Why would a poet even be buried nearby such a high church character, no matter how popular?

NB whoever wrote the entry in wiki, is incorrect: it was not a sarcophagus, it was a coffin. (Big difference.)

 

[Vixen]

Re the positions of the two lead coffins: from INRAP the authority carrying out the excavations and research, here's what they say:

The skeletons of the transept crossing: identification​

The two lead sarcophagi unearthed at the crossing of the transept were excavated in 2022 at the forensic institute of the Toulouse University Hospital. While the identification of Canon Antoine de La Porte had been facilitated by the epitaph on his coffin, the other deceased remained anonymous.

The UMR 5288 of the University of Toulouse III/CNRS and Professor Eric Crubézy have undertaken multidisciplinary research and propose identification leads:
"The anonymous individual died of chronic tuberculous meningitis in the 16th century in his fourth decade, an age that is rarely represented among the burials of important people in the cathedral.
This unknown person, autopsied and embalmed, is intriguing because he rests in a specific area where, apart from Antoine de La Porte, no other intact tomb has been discovered. Research suggests that he could have reoccupied a tomb that had hosted two well-known people in their time, but without somewhat exceptional religious titles.

https://www.inrap.fr/archeologie-de-notre-dame-de-paris-avancees-des-recherches-19536#

And, if he is facing the congregation, so to speak, then it means he was a member of the clergy for sure, or .....someone close to Fr. Antoine.

Also pointing to a member of the eclessiastal class:

The team put a small camera into a hole of one of the 700-year-old sarcophagi to examine its contents. They found (surprise!) human remains, as well as “pieces of fabric, hair and above all a pillow of leaves on top of the head,
a well-known phenomenon when religious leaders were buried,” as one expert told Reuters at the time.

https://gizmodo.com/archaeologists-crack-460-year-old-notre-dame-lead-coffin-mystery-2000505001

 

[Jack by the hedge]

So there's no evidence the older coffin was moved. The two coffins were displayed side-by-side at a press conference and you just assumed that was held in the cathedral and they were placed directly above the positions where they were found. Which appears to be a mistaken assumption.

The report notes that one of the coffins was buried "facing the congregation" which we should probably expect if they're describing the canon's coffin. It doesn't appear to specify which coffin they're referring to.

The remaining questions seem to be;
Does a cathedral canon outrank an archbishop (I'm no expert, but I'm going to venture to say no.)
Why was coffin A, buried in the 1400s, placed so close to coffin B, buried 250 years later?

 

[Vixen]

And as there’s a picture of de la Porte’s coffin as found under the floor at the bottom of the Gizmodo post, it is absolutely clear that the other one certainly was not found right next to it, as Vixen describes in the ‘lover’ scenario.

So we can disregard that theory of Vixen’s.

As you can see, above, there were only two coffins at this location.