We are in August 1330. Alfonso XI’s armies surround Malaga, Theba. In a minor skirmish, some knights decide to go after the fleeing Nasrids. But they do not flee: this is an old Berber military tactic used by soldiers to flank their enemies by pretending to flee. Castiles are familiar with this, of course; but the gentlemen are not Castilian, they are from Scotland.

Therefore, a few minutes later, Sir James Douglas, a heroic veteran of the wars against the British, is surrounded by Nasrid troops. He has enough experience to know he can’t get out of there alive, but (before he starts fighting) he puts his hand on his chest, picks up a hanging medallion and throws it with all his might towards the Castilian lines. But this story begins a little earlier.

Not a very strange request

Robert Bruce Memorial (Andrew Bowden)

“Bury my body in Scotland and take my heart to Jerusalem.” These were one of Robert the Bruce’s last words; that is, we are in the first days of June 1329. While it might seem like a strange and somewhat bizarre request, there was nothing unusual about it: during the Middle Ages, mummification of the heart became a very common phenomenon.

In the full Crusades, transporting a body across half of Europe (on journeys that could easily take months) didn’t seem very sensible. That’s why they started looking for a way to move the heart, which is their most important organ. There are dozens of cases: ‘Braveheart’ Bruce In addition to the case of being unfairly treated by Bruce, the best known is the case of Richard the Lionheart, who disappeared for centuries in a relic in the church of Notre Dame de Rouen before it was rediscovered. in 1838.

how to hold heart

Tim Marshall

However, many of the techniques used by medieval mummies were lost as these practices fell out of use. Moreover, for centuries, scientists have viewed the process from a much more symbolic, theological, or ritualistic point of view than a biological one.

In 2013, Philippe Charlier and a research team from the R. Poincaré University Hospital’s forensic and pathology department decided to examine Richard I’s remains to see what they could find.

One of the first things they found was traces of pollen from myrtle, daisy, mint, pine, oak, poplar, wild bells; The fact that some of these plants bloom in April, the date of the English king’s death, reinforces the idea that the heart is legitimate, although there is no serious historical doubt. Those that did not bloom at that time were used in historical mummification.

Undoubtedly, one of the most interesting things revealed by the complete biomedical analysis of Richard I’s mummified heart is the use of biblical text-inspired substances alongside some techniques related to drying. For example, the researchers found that the heart was wrapped in a linen cloth and placed inside a lead coin. They also found mercury or incense, materials with significant symbolic weight.

Broadly speaking, Charlier and his team (famous for performing autopsies on French historical figures such as Henry IV of France and Diana de Poitiers) found that heart preservation techniques were nothing like those described in reviews from other eras. It was something new and very interesting. In short, something that brings us back to a very modern question: How many technologies have we invented and forgotten throughout history.

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