The remains of a man found in a church in northern Poland closely resemble the characteristics of the renowned Renaissance astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, archaeologists excavating at the church have reported.
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The famous astronomer Copernicus |
The skeleton of a 70-year-old man was excavated near the altar of the church in Frombork, where Copernicus conducted his clerical duties.
A police laboratory in Warsaw used the skull to create a virtual facial reconstruction of the man, which shows similarities to portraits of Copernicus, a pivotal figure in the evolution of 17th-century science with his heliocentric theory – placing the sun at the center of the solar system.
Archaeologists noted that a scar on Copernicus’s head clearly matches a dent near the eyebrow on the skull.
“It is very likely that this is the skull of Nicolaus Copernicus,” stated Jerzy Gassowski from the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology in the center of Pulutsk (Poland), who is directly involved in the excavation of the church.
“Our initial hypothesis, which suggests that clergymen were buried near the altar of the church at this time, has been confirmed,” Gassowski added.
Copernicus, born in 1473 and died in 1543, developed the heliocentric theory, which considers the orbits of planets around the sun. His most famous work, *On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres*, was published just days before his death and was condemned by Pope Paul V in 1616 as contrary to the Scriptures.
T. An (according to AFP)
