This is a picture I took of only a couple of the millions of skulls in the Catacombs. Beneath the city of Paris lie tunnels of around 7 million skeletons. The catacombs were created in order to help relieve the overflow of the city’s cemeteries. Bones contain a lot of more information than one would think. Dr. Philippe Charlier, a modern anthropologist who conducts autopsies on the “rich and powerful who made French history”, is able to forensically look at bones to uncover characteristics at the time of death, including cause of death. In 2010, Dr. Charlier identified Henri IV’s partly preserved severed head. Henri IV was assassinated in 1610 and his head was stolen and kept as a souvenir. Dr. Charlier was even able to extract samples of Henri’s cervical muscles. Each and every skeleton in the catacombs has a story of its own just as Henri IV’s skull did.
