By Mary Sibierski Nov 4, 2005, 15:23 GMT
Warsaw - He was the first man on earth to argue that the sun lay at the centre of the universe.
A handout picture released 04 November 2005 of a facial reconstruction of a skull believed to belong to Nicolas Kopernicus. Polish scientist believe they have unearthed the skull of Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543). "We found the remains of a man who with a very great degree of likelihood can be identified as Copernicus," Archaeology Professor Jerzy Gasowski who led a two-year archaeological research mission told Poland's Rzeczpospolita daily. The search culminated in the discovery of the remains of a 70-year-old man buried beneath the main Holy Cross altar of the Gothic Roman Catholic Cathedral in Frombork on the Polish Baltic Sea coast. But despite two years of painstaking research, Gassowski admits that without DNA-testing "we cannot be 100 per cent certain" the skull is indeed that of the renowned astronomer. EPA/Central Forensic Laboratory of Polish National Police HQ COPYRIGHT BY: CAPTAIN DARIUSZ ZAJDAL / Central Forensic Laboratory of Polish National Police Headquarters.
Now Polish scientist believe they have unearthed the skull of one of the most brilliant minds ever to have contemplated the heavens: that of the Renaissance father of modern astronomy Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543).
'We found the remains of a man who with a very great degree of likelihood can be identified as Copernicus,' Archaeology Professor Jerzy Gasowski who led a two-year archaeological research mission told Poland's Rzeczpospolita daily.
The search culminated in the discovery of the remains of a 70-year-old man buried beneath the main Holy Cross altar of the Gothic Roman Catholic Cathedral in Frombork, the Polish Baltic Sea coast town once known as the East Prussian Frauenberg.
Scientists chose the spot for their search as Copernicus was named the cathedral's canon and therefore likely to have been among those buried beneath it's floor stones, in accordance to tradition.
But despite two years of painstaking research Gassowski admits that without DNA-testing 'we cannot be 100 per cent certain' the skull is indeed that of the renowned astronomer.
As Copernicus had no known offspring, the key to a positive ID may lie in the bones of his uncle, Bishop Lukasz Watzenrode, who died in 1512 in the central Polish city of Torun, Copernicus's birthplace.
'He is a potential DNA donor,' Gassowski said. 'These comparative analyses would require countless formalities, be expensive, not to mention that there is always the possibility the DNA needed for comparison was not preserved in the appropriate state.'
But despite the hurdles, Gassowski still believes a positive high- tech DNA identification of the father of modern astronomy is just around the corner.
For the moment, a small scar above the right brow of the skull is one of the most telling pieces of evidence in the case.
Cutting-edge computer graphics and criminal identification techniques were employed to create a facial reconstruction of an older man which bears a striking resemblance to portraits of a younger Copernicus, down to the small scar above his right eyebrow.
But for more than a month anthroposcopy expert Captian Dariusz Zajdel of the Central Forensic Laboratory of Poland's National Police Headquarters, who composed the facial reconstruction, says he had no clue he may be handling the skull of one of the most brilliant scientific minds the earth has seen.
'As far as I knew it was just an old skull and I was making a portrait of a 70-year old man,' Zajdel told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa in a telephone interview.
Zajdel explains he constructed the small but significant scar above the right brow on the basis of a 'mark from a mechanical injury' on the skull.
A Polish-born astronomer, mathematician and clergyman, Copernicus is regarded as the father of modern astronomy for developing the heliocentric theory of the universe which posits the sun, rather than the earth, at its centre.
Earlier beliefs centred on the Ptolemaic theory that saw the earth as a mass fixed at the centre of the universe, with the sun and the stars and all other celestial bodies revolving around it.
He shocked his contemporaries by asserting the astronomic theory that the earth rotated on its axis once a day and travelled around the sun once a year in his pioneering 1530 work De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres).
Copernicus is believed to have written the Latin tome after years of star gazing from ramparts around Frombork cathedral before the age of telescopes, using only his eyes.
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u2Dec 5th, 2005 - 21:19:54
this does not help me at all because I'm looking for Nicolas Copernicus and he died in 1543.uuuuuu
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