To do that, we’d need to have a DNA sample that unambiguously came from John the Baptist that we could compare the bones to. We can’t extract and analyse an unknown DNA sample and magically say that it belonged to this or that historical character. For a start, no DNA test can prove that these were bits of John the Baptist, Jesus or any other specific person. I was initially sceptical about what the Bulgarian bones could teach us. We now have DNA sequences from hundreds of people who are long since dead, and analysis of these sequences is further refining our understanding of human history. Thanks to a number of scientific advances, the field of ancient DNA – the extraction and analysis of genetic material from bones and fossils of organisms dug up out of the ground – is booming. The finding is hugely important, partly because John the Baptist was both a disciple of Jesus and his cousin – meaning they would share DNA.Įarly morning on the Mount of Olives looking over the old city of Jeruasalem. The epitaph on the smaller box, probably used to carry the bones when travelling, was the key piece of evidence that led him to believe that the bones could perhaps be those of John the Baptist. To Saint John.” When Kasimir later opened the reliquary, he found five bone fragments. On the edge of the inferior box was an inscription: “May God save you, servant Thomas. He continued to dig around and found another, smaller box about a metre away. This box, known as a reliquary, would have housed such a relic. For a church to be consecrated in this part of Europe in the fifth century, it needed to contain a relic from a holy saint or religious person. As he carefully scraped through the mud where the altar would have been, he came across a stone slab and was amazed to find a small marble box underneath. Popkonstantinov made his discovery when excavating a sixth century church on the island, built on top of a basilica from the century before. Together with biblical scholar Joe Basile, I was travelling around the world filming a documentary about the religious and scientific evidence linking archaeological artefacts to Jesus Christ himself. I was interested in what DNA analysis could tell us about these bones, and other ones. In 2010, Kasimir Popkonstantinov discovered what he believes are the bones of one of the most famous of all saints: John the Baptist. But I was there to speak to an old Bulgarian archaeologist about the most important find of his career. Sveti Ivan has long been a destination for travellers: it boasted a temple of Apollo in ancient times.

On a bright but bitterly cold January afternoon earlier this year, I found myself on a small island in the Black Sea, just off Sozopol on the east coast of Bulgaria. It was the first stop on an extraordinary journey.

Shroud of turin dna cloning