Scurvy Found In Jawbone of Last Crusader King!

According to a forensic analysis, it is found that one of the last crusader king had scurvy when he died,this contradicts the old facts that the king died from plague or dysentery.This new result have been came from the old jawbone that was buried in Notre Dame Cathedral.The jawbone was believed to be of Lious IX, a king of France who died during the Eighth Crusade in 1270 and was later canonized as St. Lious. It has been found that he was suffering from scurvy when he died and that the bone did indeed come from St. Lious.On 8^th June the results of their reports were made available online in the Stomatology, Oral and Maxillofacial Journal.Let’s first know what kind of disease scurvy is? Scurvy is a disease caused by deficiency of Vitamin C, resulting in swollen bleeding gums but a fit person get enough of vitamin C to keep off.King Louis, used to eat fishes mostly, but at the time of campaign he might have not eaten the local foods containing nutrients in Tunis.The disease scurvy causes loss of teeth, diseases related to gum, anemia and many other relatable diseases.

Researcher Jean De Joinville (The Medivial Chronicler) has declared that according to crusader history that the disease of scurvy was common in lious' army. "Joinville quoted that army has suffered from dead gums, and the barbers had cut their necrotizing tissue to allow men to chew and swallow the meat. It was shame to hear that the brave soldiers shouting and crying in pain like women when their gums were cut.

In order to justify that the jawbone belongs to Lious IX who died at the age of 56; investigators has investigated it in order to check whether the jaw had the right shape for a jaw of a 56-year-old man. On comparing it with the existing cathedral sculptures of the dead king's face, they found it quiet similar.Later radiocarbon dating has been performed bythe team on the bone to measure the amount of carbon in the bone.The radioactive carbon decays at constant rate making body stop to absorb new carbon at death from the environment.S, a bone's sample age is determined by carbon 14. It has been seen that a man who died between 1030 and 1220 have carbon in their jawbone. King Lious seemed to live mostly or permanently on fishes, as the ocean has less carbon 14, thus creatures of ocean have quiet less of radioactive carbon in their bodies comparing to terrestrial animals.So keeping all the outcomes in record investigators concluded is that 'Liousste much fish, making his bone seem older.

The researchers came to an end that if the evidences of scurvy have been found in his jawbone it doesn't mean Lious died of it! Scurvy might have made his immune system week or allowed other infections to grow up. Thus the next step will be to find out what parasites were present in the jawbone.

By: Saksham Gupta

Content: https://www.livescience.com/65778-crusader-king-louis-scurvy.html