A MYSTERIOUS deformed body found inside a coffin underneath Notre-Dame has finally been revealed to be a famous Frenchman.
A pair of eerie lead tombs had been discovered following the harrowing cathedral fire in 2019 with researchers left puzzled over who was inside the coffins.
In late 2022 archaeologists linked the first tomb to Antoine de la Porte, a high priest who died in 1710 at age 83.
The second individual’s identity proved much harder to track down with the team dubbing the unknown person as “The Horseman”.
His nickname came from the fact that his deformed skeleton showed signs of him being an avid horse rider.
After years of work on restoring the tomb so the man could be finally unmasked, scientists have announced the body was likely to be one of France’s best-loved early poets.
Joachim du Bellay died in Paris in 1560 aged 37 and was reportedly buried in Notre-Dame after serving as a minor clerical official at the cathedral.
During the two-year search for an identity, the team of scientists uncovered a number of clues linking the poet to the lead coffin.
Analysis on the skeleton found it belonged to a man who was around 35 years old.
With the bone structure also showing the person had suffered from multiple health issues throughout their life.
Signs of bone tuberculosis in the neck and head were quickly spotted with the serious infection being rare in the 1500s.
Du Bellay is said to have complained of suffering from serious headaches as well as deafness in his final years – both symptoms of bone tuberculosis.
Text from around the time of the poet’s life also showed he was a regular rider who often made the journey across to Rome on horseback.
Two of his famous poems even reference his love for riding and animals.
Despite scientists knowing du Bellay was buried underneath Notre-Dame they believed he was actually laid to rest in a different burial site at the Saint-Crépin chapel.
Even though it is now widely believed that The Horseman is du Bellay some are still unsure.
At a press conference announcing the new discovery, Christophe Besnier, an archaeologist for the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research announced any conclusive verdict is yet to be made.
He said that they found that isotope analysis on the skeleton’s teeth showed he most likely grew up in Paris or Lyon.
Du Bellay was born in Anjou – a commune hours away from the capital and 65km from Lyon.
In response to the evidence, biological anthropologist Eric Crubezy who worked on solving the mystery, claimed du Bellay often spent time in Paris with his uncle.
Du Bellay’s legacy as a Renaissance poet has lived on still to this day after he founded a poetry group known as La Pleiade alongside Pierre de Ronsard.
The group was one of the first to specialise in purely French work rather than the traditional Latin language that was championed at the time.
French schools are even still taught about du Bellay’s poetry.
Back in 2022, the two tombs were discovered along with a 14th-century sarcophagus during repair work to rebuild Notre-Dame Cathedral following a devastating fire.
The burial sites “of remarkable scientific quality” were found by archaeologists while repairs were being made to a central spire.
Among the find was around 1,000 bits of painted and fragmented sculptures beneath the cathedral floor.
They have since been identified as parts of the original 13th-century rood screen – an architectural piece separating the altar area from the nave.
The team also carefully dug out a pair of carved hands as well as the bust of a bearded man and some sculpted vegetables.
The Notre-Dame fire shocked France, with tearful Parisians and stunned tourists watching in disbelief as the blaze sent the cathedral’s spire crashing down in April 2019.
Officials hope the historic cathedral will finally be reopened by December 2024 after five years of work.
