Additional analysis is needed to determine whether skeletal remains found buried under a Dutch church belong to the famous musketeer. d’Artagnandied more than 350 years ago, local authorities reported.
After months of speculation and reports that spoke of poorly carried out investigations, the City Council of Maastricht (southern Netherlands) pointed out that the discovery of a bone and the results of the first analyzes provide «both clues and new questions.»
«The origin of the skeleton and the circumstances of death remain, for the moment, uncertain,» he said in a statement.
«The characteristics of the skeleton coincide with what is known historically about d’Artagnan, but are not precise enough to allow a definitive identification. Therefore, additional investigations are necessary,» the authorities added.
The discovery of the skeleton, in the nave of a modern church in Maastricht whose origins date back to at least the 13th century, aroused enormous global media interest in March.
The famous musketeer
Charles de Batz de Castelmore, known as d’Artagnan, famous musketeer of Kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV, native of Lupiac (Gers), dedicated his life to the service of the Crown of France.
This Gascon gentleman inspired Alexandre Dumas in the 19th century to create the protagonist of The three musketeerstoday famous throughout the world thanks to the novel and its numerous film adaptations.
During the siege of Maastricht, in 1673, the musketeer died, probably hit by a musket ball. Since then, the place where his remains rest remains shrouded in mystery.
According to the regional media L1mistakes were made during the first excavations, resulting in the loss of valuable information. Subsequently, the City Council took over by carrying out «emergency excavations», although it recognized that the investigation had been harmed.
«As no archaeological documentation was prepared in accordance with the usual standards before the emergency excavations, part of the archaeological context was lost,» the statement said.
«The loss of this information limits the possibilities of fully interpreting the tomb and the skeleton,» the text adds.
The authorities indicated that they will have to carry out new archaeological, historical and genetic analyzes to determine if the remains belonged to the famous musketeer.
Until then, all hypotheses remain possible, authorities concluded.
AFP Agency.
GML
