On Thursday, August 24, 2017 at 5:46:36 PM UTC-7, Jan Wolfe wrote: > I suppose there may be objections to disinterring any of the above remains, > but researchers have overcome objections to disinterring more ancient > remains and extracting DNA. It is one thing to test remains found under a car park, or to test a grave discovered during renovations. It is another to disinter a cathedral tomb of a monarch, just to satisfy someone's curiosity. While there have been examples of such studies (the flawed analysis of the Leopolding Austrians comes to mind), a proposal to disinter a tomb that late and apocryphal alternative history makes out to be that of Harold II in England has already been rejected out of hand. And that even assumes some of these tombs haven't already been pillaged, like that of the supposed Princes in the Tower, found to contain mismatched bones, including those of animals, presumably from someone thinking it wouldn't be noticed if they removed a bone as long as they replaced it with another bone. taf

On Friday, August 25, 2017 at 10:35:06 AM UTC-4, taf wrote: > On Thursday, August 24, 2017 at 5:46:36 PM UTC-7, Jan Wolfe wrote: > > > I suppose there may be objections to disinterring any of the above remains, > > but researchers have overcome objections to disinterring more ancient > > remains and extracting DNA. > > It is one thing to test remains found under a car park, or to test a grave discovered during renovations. It is another to disinter a cathedral tomb of a monarch, just to satisfy someone's curiosity. While there have been examples of such studies (the flawed analysis of the Leopolding Austrians comes to mind), a proposal to disinter a tomb that late and apocryphal alternative history makes out to be that of Harold II in England has already been rejected out of hand. And that even assumes some of these tombs haven't already been pillaged, like that of the supposed Princes in the Tower, found to contain mismatched bones, including those of animals, presumably from someone thinking it wouldn't be noticed if they removed a bone as long as they replaced it with another bone. > > taf When I mentioned overcoming objections, I had the DNA analysis of King Tut and his relatives in mind.