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Following a 2019 fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, archaeological restoration work uncovered 100 unknown burials under the cathedral, including a mysterious lead coffin unidentifiable at the time.
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French researchers believe they found the remains of famed French Renaissance poet Joachim du Bellay, who died in 1560.
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The remains were nicknamed “The Horseman” upon discovery in 2022 because bone structure showed the man had ridden horses since a young age.
Since 1560, nobody was quite sure where the final remains of famed French Renaissance poet Joachim du Bellay wound up. They were believed to be alongside his uncle somewhere under the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, but when archaeologists went looking in 1758, the poet (or what was left of him) was nowhere to be found.
A 2022 discovery of an unmarked body, nicknamed “The Horseman” because the deceased’s bone structure showed he had ridden horses from a young age, under the famed cathedral offered up a second Notre Dame burial mystery.
Now experts believe the body is one answer to two mysteries, identifying The Horseman as du Bellay.
The French National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) announced in a translated statement the discovery after more than two years of uncertainty surrounding the unidentified remains. The mystery all started with the April 2019 fire at Notre Dame. As INRAP began to work on the restoration of the cathedral, archaeologists discovered 100 unknown burials under Notre Dame. With thousands of people, typically church-goers, buried in what was a necropolis between the 14th and 18th centuries, Notre Dame stands apart from other Catholic burial grounds because the cathedral is largely built atop the cemetery.
Finding 100 sets of unknown remains wasn’t all that shocking. But of those 100, two stood apart. The two in question were found in April 2022 and had remains placed within their own lead sarcophagus, rather than the typical wood coffin, positioned at a prominent location where the cathedral’s main wings crossed, known as the transept crossing.
One of the lead coffins didn’t provide much mystery, with a plaque epitaph labeling it as that of priest Antoine de la Porte, who died in 1710 after 50 years of service at Notre Dame. The other, though, sparked the two-year search for The Horseman.
A Toulouse University Hospital forensic team researched the remains, and Eric Crubezy, biological anthropology professor and research director for the French National Centre for Scientific Research, said in the INRAP statement that the anonymous individual died of chronic tuberculosis meningitis in the 16th century during his 30s, an age uncommon among those buried at Notre Dame, who were largely elderly men.
Of further intrigue was the fact that, apart from Antoine de la Porte, no other intact tomb was discovered in the area. “Research suggests that they may have reoccupied a grave that had housed two people well known in their time,” Crubezy said in the statement.
The researchers’ turned their focus toward du Bellay, horseback rider, tuberculosis sufferer and poet known to have died in 1560. He was believed buried in the cathedral, but his tomb was not found in 1758 near that of his uncle, even though the family wanted him to be buried by his side.
Was du Balley The Horseman? “He matches all the criteria of the portrait,” Crubezy said at a news conference, according to La Croix. “He is an accomplished horseman, suffers from both conditions mentioned in some of his poems, like in ‘La Complainte du desespere,’ where he describes ‘this storm that blurs [his] mind,’ and his family belonged to the royal court and the pope’s close entourage.”
But there’s still a wrinkle to the mystery. Christophe Besnier, an INRAP archaeologist, said at the same press conference that the man buried likely grew up in Paris or Lyon thanks to an isotope analysis of teeth and bones. It’s believed du Balley was born in Anjou in western France and later moved to Paris, dying in 1560 around the age of 35. That would make The Horseman and du Balley a tough match. But that one dissent isn’t enough to dissuade everyone.
“What more can we have?” INRAP president Dominique Garcia told Le Monde. “Find [du Bellay’s] toothbrush to check that the DNA matches? His age and pathology alone offer remarkable statistical solidity.”
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