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Long-dead lady baffles French (2-year murder investigation reveals that victim died 500 years ago)
Sunday Times (South Africa) ^ | Wednesday January 25, 2006 08:54 - (SA)

Posted on 01/25/2006 9:04:23 AM PST by dead

BREST - French police who spent two years trying to identify a woman who was murdered by a blow to the head were relieved to discover the reason their efforts were failing: the woman died half a millennium ago.

The skeleton of a woman in her 30s was found during an exceptionally low tide in December 2003 near the seaside Brittany town of Plouezoc'h.

A long gash in the skull convinced investigators she was killed with a hatchet or other sharp implement.

Police ploughed through missing persons' files to no avail.

A theory that the woman was the wife of a Normandy doctor who disappeared with his family in a famous 1999 case was dismissed after DNA tests.

Eventually radiocarbon dating established that the death had occurred between 1401 and 1453.

"We are satisfied because at least we know the date now. We reckon it was pirates," said Francois Gerthosser of the Plourin-les-Morlaix police.

Sapa-AFP


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: france
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To: lawgirl

RECKON is a perfectly good word - in fact, it's a great word. It also can be found several times in the King James version of the Bible.

"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:11 (KJV)

Well, I reckon I better get back to work now... lol

Fletcher J


61 posted on 01/25/2006 11:20:09 AM PST by Fletcher J
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To: Zavien Doombringer
Long ago, when sailing ships ruled the waves, a captain and his crew were in danger of being boarded by a pirate ship. As the crew became frantic, the captain bellowed to his First Mate, "Bring me my red shirt!"

The First Mate quickly retrieved the captain's red shirt, which the captain put on and led the crew to battle the pirate boarding party.

Although some casualties occurred among the crew, the pirates were repelled. Later that day, the lookout screamed that there were two pirate vessels sending boarding parties. The crew cowered in fear, but the captain, calm as ever, bellowed, "Bring me my red shirt!"

Once again the battle was on. However, the Captain and his crew repelled both boarding parties, though this time more casualties occurred.

Weary from the battles, the men sat around on deck that night recounting the day's occurrences when an ensign looked to the Captain and asked, "Sir, why did you call for your red shirt before the battle?"

The Captain, giving the ensign a look that only a captain can give, exhorted, "If I am wounded in battle, the red shirt does not show the wound and thus, you men will continue to fight unafraid."

The men sat in silence marveling at the courage of such a man. As dawn came the next morning, the lookout screamed that there were pirate ships, 10 of them, all with boarding parties on their way.

The men became silent and looked to the Captain, their leader, for his usual command. The Captain, calm as ever, bellowed, "Bring me my brown pants!"
62 posted on 01/25/2006 11:22:18 AM PST by reagan_fanatic (Darwinism is a belief in the meaninglessness of existence - R. Kirk)
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To: Rocky

t'will be a long wind for ye now, 'ow bout me pourin' ye a flagon of rum and enjoy the shanties..Round of Spanish Ladies if ye please


63 posted on 01/25/2006 11:54:52 AM PST by Zavien Doombringer (13th AF, 3rd TFW, 3rd AGS, 3rd AMU - ESC The Blue Screw will get you too! 86-89)
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To: reagan_fanatic

Me brown pants, lest I be missin' the head..


64 posted on 01/25/2006 11:56:12 AM PST by Zavien Doombringer (13th AF, 3rd TFW, 3rd AGS, 3rd AMU - ESC The Blue Screw will get you too! 86-89)
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To: AnAmericanMother
Hoy there and stand down!, tis me'lady you portray.

Anne was with me crew...

Jack Rackham, at your service, friends call me Calico...

65 posted on 01/25/2006 11:58:27 AM PST by Zavien Doombringer (13th AF, 3rd TFW, 3rd AGS, 3rd AMU - ESC The Blue Screw will get you too! 86-89)
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To: Zavien Doombringer

"If you had fought like a man, you need not have died like a dog!"


66 posted on 01/25/2006 12:05:50 PM PST by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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To: Zavien Doombringer
NO, it was the right date, just not the date everyone wanted.

Or rather, it was the right date, but not of the object everyone wanted tested.

67 posted on 01/25/2006 12:08:42 PM PST by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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To: dead

ARRRRRGH! Them that died was the lucky ones.


68 posted on 01/25/2006 12:12:19 PM PST by wildbill
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To: AnAmericanMother

it was me fate. sitting there on the beach, I was. Drinking me marguerita, I was...Then out from beyond the treeline came a noose that bound me around me neck.... Been hanging around since.


69 posted on 01/25/2006 12:14:06 PM PST by Zavien Doombringer (13th AF, 3rd TFW, 3rd AGS, 3rd AMU - ESC The Blue Screw will get you too! 86-89)
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To: Flavius Josephus

Reckon could also be a taken as a loose cognate of the French verb "reconnaitre" which means "recognize", but with the sense of understanding more than visual recognition. If the froggie policeman was saying, "We understand now that it was probably pirates" that did it, he might well have used the term "reconnais" which the English language press might have rendered as "reckon".


70 posted on 01/25/2006 12:14:49 PM PST by babble-on
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To: lepton
let's just say, the hopeful were hurt, the sceptics were happy and no one is still the wiser.

It wouldn't be out of character for the established regime to use trickery to bring in converts. If you believe in the shroud, so be it, I have some indulgences for you to buy, if you need some brownie points in purgatory.

71 posted on 01/25/2006 12:17:32 PM PST by Zavien Doombringer (13th AF, 3rd TFW, 3rd AGS, 3rd AMU - ESC The Blue Screw will get you too! 86-89)
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To: Zavien Doombringer
It wouldn't be out of character for the established regime to use trickery to bring in converts. If you believe in the shroud, so be it, I have some indulgences for you to buy, if you need some brownie points in purgatory.

Heh. It's no more than a historical curiousity to me. Whatever it is, it's clearly a very strange item.

72 posted on 01/25/2006 12:34:09 PM PST by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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To: lepton

I agree on that, it is an entriguing piece of work.


73 posted on 01/25/2006 12:38:14 PM PST by Zavien Doombringer (13th AF, 3rd TFW, 3rd AGS, 3rd AMU - ESC The Blue Screw will get you too! 86-89)
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To: RMDupree

rofl!


74 posted on 01/25/2006 12:59:35 PM PST by Peanut Gallery
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To: dead

Odd as it may seem, the Brittany coast was subject to Muslim raiders coming up from the Med in the XV Century. They also harrassed Normandy, Cornwall and Dover. Yeah, they were pains in the @ss then, too.


75 posted on 01/25/2006 1:05:56 PM PST by Snickersnee (Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?)
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To: dead
Arrgh. Where's me parrot?
76 posted on 01/25/2006 1:14:41 PM PST by muleskinner
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To: Flavius Josephus

A victim of dead reckoning, do ya suppose?


77 posted on 01/25/2006 1:15:00 PM PST by Hegemony Cricket (Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof - usually by midmorning, or so.)
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To: Hegemony Cricket

Arrr... Another one of those, off to the gauntlet with ye!


78 posted on 01/25/2006 1:21:59 PM PST by Zavien Doombringer (13th AF, 3rd TFW, 3rd AGS, 3rd AMU - ESC The Blue Screw will get you too! 86-89)
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To: muleskinner

Flew straight to parrot bay, says I, seen it with me own eye.


79 posted on 01/25/2006 1:23:03 PM PST by Zavien Doombringer (13th AF, 3rd TFW, 3rd AGS, 3rd AMU - ESC The Blue Screw will get you too! 86-89)
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To: Hegemony Cricket

Exactly!


80 posted on 01/25/2006 1:54:12 PM PST by Flavius Josephus (Enemy Idealogies: Pacifism, Liberalism, and Feminism.)
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