The blood of beheaded French King Louis XVI has been found by scientists in an old gourd. Louis XVI was beheaded by a guillotine by French revolutionaries in 1793.
The BBC reported that after Louis XVI's beheading, spectators were believed to have dipped their handkerchiefs in his blood. Scientists found a small piece of fabric placed inside of a hollow gourd, which left blood stains. The squash was decorated with words that say, "On January 21, Maximilien Bourdaloue dipped his handkerchief in the blood of Louis XVI after his decapitation"and belonged to a family in Italy.
The findings have been published in the Forensic Science International journal. "Analysis of DNA taken from blood traces found inside the vegetable container had already revealed that it probably matched someone of Louis' description but scientists could not prove it belonged to the beheaded king as they had no genetic material from any of his relatives," reported the BBC.
Regardless, the team did find a genetic signature which shared the DNA from the head of Henri IV who was killed in 1610 and whose head was mummified, and is relative of Loius XVI.
'This study shows that (the owners of the remains) share a genetic heritage passed on through the paternal line," French forensic pathologist Philippe Charlier said according to The Daily Mail. "They have a direct link to one another through their fathers."
The analysis showed that Henri had a rare Y chromosome. Louis was one of his direct male-line descendants and the blood on the ogurd also had the Y chromosome as well as other similarities.
"Taking into consideration that the partial Y-chromosome profile is extremely rare in modern human databases, we concluded that both males could be paternally related," said the study.
Both Louis and Queen Marie Antoinette were killed in public executions.
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