Bloody Gourd May Contain Beheaded King’s DNA!

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/7bc03e168bdd.jpg[/atsimg]

Sick of taxes, a lack of rights and living in poverty, French revolutionists condemned Louis XVI to the guillotine on the morning of January 21, 1793. After a short but defiant speech and a menacing drum roll, one of the last kings of France lost his head as a crowd rushed the scaffold to dip handkerchiefs into his blood as mementos. Or so the story goes.

Lending new life to the demise of Louis XVI, scientists performed a battery of DNA tests on dried blood inside a decorative gunpowder gourd that purportedly contained one such handkerchief. The results, described Oct. 12 in the journal Forensic Science International: Genetics, show the blood belongs to a blue-eyed male from that time period: a possible dead-ringer for the executed king.

“The next step is find a descendant either of the king or his mother,” said Davide Pettener, a population geneticist at the University of Bologna in Italy who helped with the analysis. “Otherwise we’ll have to try to get a sample of the dried heart of Louis XVI’s son.” The son was Louis-Charles, known as the Dauphin (heir to the French throne) or Louis XVII, and he died from illness or poisoning at age 10 more than two years after his father was executed. His heart is kept in a crystal vase in the Cathedral Basilica of St. Denis on the outskirts of Paris.

The gourd, presently valued at about 500,000 euro ($700,000), is emblazoned with key figures of the French Revolution and bears an inscription that reads, as translated from French into English by the researchers, “Maximilien Bourdaloue on January 21st, dipped his handkerchief in the blood of the king after his beheading.”

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/b87264579c10.jpg[/atsimg]
The gourd, presently valued at about 500,000 euro ($700,000), is emblazoned with key figures of the French Revolution and bears an inscription that reads, as translated from French into English by the researchers, “Maximilien Bourdaloue on January 21st, dipped his handkerchief in the blood of the king after his beheading.”
Source: www.wired.com...

I think this find is going to prove an very important piece of France, and the world's, history. I hope they are on the right track. Seems like they are but with so many Frence killed during this tramatic time, it maybe just too hard to ascertain the identity of the person (people). Why did someone in Italy have it? I bet that is another whole story.

Looking forward to any of you ATS'ers who maybe knowledgable of this topic and era in history.

OFF WITH THEIR HEADS.... (if you haven't already, may I suggest reading the Tale of Two Cities--trust me.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/acafe877d119.jpg[/atsimg]

MOD: I put this in General Cons as some people don't believe as what is told in the history and that the King and others were acutally saved and taken to another country (I beleive England was mentioned).

Whether the king's DNA or not that is one awesomely crafted gourd!

Whether the king's DNA or not that is one awesomely crafted gourd!

reply to post by walkingeyeball


I concur. The pics alone. Wonder what the words are indicating?

So the king's blood may be on a handkerchief inside that gourd.

I hope not too many people snotted into the handkerchief before it was dipped into the king's blood.
Sorting out what belonged to whom could be quite confusing.