How the Search for Nicolaus Copernicus Got Messy

Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543) is credited with having started Europe's Scientific Revolution through the publication of his manuscript "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres," about the heliocentric model of the solar system. Over time, the exact location of his unmarked tomb in Frombork Cathedral was forgotten. This video discusses the excavation that sought to find Copernicus' grave and identify his remains, as well as the critique of the excavation and skeletal and DNA analyses.

References:
Bogdanowicz, W., Allen, M., Branicki, W., Lembring, M., Gajewska, M., & Kupiec, T. (2009). Genetic identification of putative remains of the famous astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, 106(30), 12279–12282.

Kolowski, Michał, ed. 2015. The Nicolaus Copernicus Grave Mystery: A Dialogue of Experts. Kraków: Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Kozłowski, Tomasz. 2015. "An anthropologist’s reflections over the identification of the bone remains discovered in Frombork Cathedral and regarded as belonging to Nicolaus Copernicus. An attempt at critical evaluation." In The Nicolaus Copernicus Grave Mystery: A Dialogue of Experts, edited by Michał Kolowski. Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Muzeum Mikołaja Kopernika we Fromborku. 2013. "Cathedral Hill." Cathedral Hill | Nicolaus Copernicus Museum in Frombork

Repcheck, Jack. 2007. Copernicus' Secret: How the Scientific Revolution Began. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Sołtysiak, Arkadiusz. 2015. "The use of an interpretive index in archaeology: a case study of the cranium 13/05 from Frombork." In The Nicolaus Copernicus Grave Mystery: A Dialogue of Experts, edited by Michał Kolowski. Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences.

*Facial reconstruction image is from NBC News
Images are from Wikimedia Commons

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Видео How the Search for Nicolaus Copernicus Got Messy канала Considering Skeletons