Joan of Arc relics probably not real, say experts

A RIB bone and a piece of cloth supposedly recovered after Joan of Arc was burned at the stake are probably not hers, according to experts trying to unravel one of the mysteries surrounding the 15th century French heroine.

Eighteen experts began a series of tests six months ago on the fragments reportedly recovered from the pyre where the 19-year-old was burned for heresy.

Although the tests have not been completed, findings so far indicate there is “relatively little chance” that the remnants are hers, said Philippe Charlier, the head of the team.

The fragment of linen “wasn’t burned. It was dyed,” Mr Charlier said. And a blackened substance around the six-inch rib bone was not “carbonised remains” but vegetable and mineral debris, “something that rather resembles embalming substance”.

In 1909, scientists declared it “highly probable” that the remains were those of Joan of Arc. Given developments in genetic technology, researchers decided to test the remains again to try to determine if they were hers.

But the probability that the remains are those of Joan of Arc are “enormously lessening,” Mr Charlier said. “We’re instead moving toward the hypotheses of a fake relic or of a relic that was transformed.”