From The Church Times-NEW scientific evidence suggests that relics claimed by medieval clerics to be from the time of Christ may, indeed, have come from first-century Palestine.
Radiocarbon dating of sacred relics in Bulgaria and Finland has shown that human skeletal fragments from at least two individuals date from the first century. The DNA analysis of the Bulgarian fragments has revealed that they came originally from the Middle East.
It is not yet known with which saint the Finnish material was associated, but the Bulgarian fragments were thought by early-medieval clerics to belong to St John the Baptist. These fragments, including a knucklebone, a tooth, and part of the upper face, were found by Bulgarian archaeologists two years ago, under the floor of a medieval church on the island of Sveti Ivan (St John) in the Black Sea.
The knucklebone was dated by the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit within the university’s Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art.
“We were surprised when the radiocarbon dating produced this very early age,” said the unit’s deputy director, Professor Thomas Higham.
The evidence permits the possibility that the material is genuinely from the skeleton of the Baptist.
More here-
http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=130244
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