Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 245 Counterfeit Items
"Gentlemen, I can basically judge that this cat bone is not the cat that was burned with Joan of Arc at that time, and even this cat was not burned at all."

After smelling it several times and making sure that what he smelled just now was not a hallucination, Liang En turned around and raised the cat bone in his hand to those people and said.

"What—" After hearing Liang En's words, those who were checking the situation of the bones all showed shocked expressions.

For them, Liang En's movements were too fast, especially now that they couldn't see anything strange from those bones.

"Can you tell me what you found wrong?" After a few seconds of silence, the oldest man in his 60s stood up and asked.

"Smell, it doesn't smell right with the smell of bones." Liang En put the bone on the glass dish, then lifted it up and said. "This bone smells of stucco and vanilla."

"But what can this explain?" A middle-aged man in his 40s said, "The stake of Joan of Arc was made of stucco, because the British wanted to prolong the burning time so that Joan of Arc could feel enough. pain of."

"But cats are not tied to the stake." Liang En explained while looking at the other party. "Traditionally, cats are cut off limbs or even cut off with a knife and thrown on a burning pyre, so there shouldn't be any marl smell on the bones."

"This is indeed a bit suspicious—" After hearing Liang En's words, the people present quickly took out their mobile phones to check, and then found what he said before.

It is normal for these people to be ignorant of this kind of knowledge. Although they are all professionals in the antique industry, they may not have a certain understanding of every partial historical knowledge.

"Then what's the matter with the vanilla smell?" Another middle-aged man in his 40s asked. If Liang En remembers correctly, this should be an antique artist with more than a dozen such antiques in Western Europe. Big boss of the store.

"There are two possibilities." Liang Enshu raised two fingers and said seriously. "One is that for a period of time, the remains were smoked with herbs."

"Another possibility is that vanillin, a compound that makes vanilla emit a special fragrance, is produced during the decay of the corpse, so it can smell a kind of vanilla."

"But these two possibilities are very unreasonable now. Regarding the first possibility, because the fire is not a barbecue, there is no habit of putting vanilla on the pyre, and the bottle has never been processed in the middle. It couldn't have been added later."

"As for the second possibility, unless the body has been placed for a relatively long time. Otherwise, there shouldn't be such a smell of decay on the body."

"I don't know what the real remains of a saint should look like, but this cat bone reminds me of something I've seen many times before—" Liang En said at the end of the analysis.

"What is it?" Everyone's attention was attracted after hearing him make such a joke.Of course, Liang En also noticed that two of the other six people did not show any expressions of interest, but seemed somewhat hostile.

"It's a mummy." Liang En said seriously, "I think you should also know that I'm mainly good at ancient Egypt, and this bone fits the characteristics of a mummy both in terms of smell and shape."

"It does look a bit like it." After what Liang En said, the owner of the previous chain antique store walked to the glass dish and looked at the cat bone seriously. Judging from his expression, he should have seen many similar cat bones. s things.

"It seems that there are indeed some unknown secrets in the display of Joan of Arc's remains." Liang En thought silently while those people were attracted by the cat bones.

Because he found that these selected people did not seem to be very professional in the identification of various remains. In addition, two of these people have been insisting that this thing is real, and it looks like Tor.

It's just that the other party obviously didn't expect Liang En to be so professional in this area, so although he wanted to interrupt him many times just now, he couldn't find an entry point.

For example, now, these two people didn't go up to look at the cat bone, but stood on the other side and chatted something, looking as if they wanted to try harder.

In some ways, the whole thing looks like a crappy scam scene.But this has nothing to do with Liang En, he just needs to do his own thing well now.

"Maybe this cat bone was put into that glass bottle by mistake." When everyone was about to see it, the two people who hadn't seen it before said.

"You should also know that this thing was discovered in the 19th century. In the 19th century, Europeans brought a large number of mummies from Egypt, so it is also possible that it was mistaken."

"What you said makes sense." Liang En nodded, and then said, "So next, we will thoroughly check a few other things and make sure of them."

So in the following time, Liang En and the others checked several other things and found more, which can be called decisive information.

For example, through a temporarily moved microscope, it was found that the black carbonized layer on several bones and pieces of meat did not look like a structure full of holes that was burned out, but rather like a paint-like structure. thing.

For another example, the weaving method of the linen cloth does not conform to the weaving method of the linen cloth of Joan of Arc's time, but is very similar to the weaving method of the samples taken from many mummy bandages.

Although the two people who firmly believe that this thing is real think that the smell of stucco comes from the stake when Joan of Arc was burned, Liang En used lime when making mummies, and this thing smells It's the smell of stucco.

"So I think this thing is one of a series of fake holy objects forged by the French in the middle and late 19th century. At that time, because of the failure of the Franco-Prussian War, people urgently needed something to unite everyone."

"And Joan of Arc is obviously the best idol for unity, especially after Lorraine, the hometown of Joan of Arc, was ceded to the Germans, it has a more realistic meaning to promote Joan of Arc."

"From that time on, the French tried their best to create the image of Joan of Arc and turn it into a national myth. So in this context, some people may forge the remains in order to increase her importance—"

Joan of Arc was not so famous in France from the very beginning. Although she has always been regarded as a hero of France, it was only promoted at the national level, that is, from the 19th century to the 20th century.

For example, after the failure of the Franco-Prussian War, France publicized the story of Joan of Arc's recovery of France to inspire the French.During World War I, Joan of Arc was used to inspire soldiers to recover Alsace and Lorraine.

Considering the grievances and grievances between the French and the Holy See, Liang En had always felt that the reason why Joan of Arc was canonized as a saint in 1920 was probably related to the French victory in World War I.

Liang En's explanation quickly convinced most people on the field, and everyone nodded repeatedly in agreement with this point of view.

(End of this chapter)