Was it Henri IV's head?

This study well describes an interesting multidisciplinary approach performed by an international team of specialists to identify a possibly important “relic” of the Modern Age, the head of Henri IV. Unfortunately, evidence of this identification seemed to be rather meagre from the very beginning, in particular from a medical point of view: the use of earrings was very common in 16th century males; the maxillary bone “lesion” looks like a cyst; the nasal nevus is not well evident; red and white hairs, moustache and beard, caused by post-mortem discolouration, are usual in mummified bodies; post-mortem baldness in very manipulated mummies, as in this case, is also very common; digital superimposition, very difficult between two individuals one with open and and the other with closed mouth, does not correspond, especially at the level of the nasal bones. However, there is a more serious obstacle for a positive attribution of this natural mummified head to Henri IV. We have an impres...