Diatoms on the hair of Holy Mary-Magdalene relics

ABSTRACT

Remains of corroded diatoms were found on one strand of hair from the relics of Holy Mary-Magdalene. It was initially hypothesized that they could be tracers of her living environment, the cave of La Sainte-Baume reputed to be the place of her thirty-year retreat before she died. To validate this assumption, ten samples collected in the cave of La Sainte-Baume from moist parietal surfaces and pool waters were investigated. Some biological remnants were found in the samples. No evidence of the presence of the diatom species from the hair in the cave’s environment led to reject this hypothesis.

The highly corroded status of the hair diatoms, their likely paleo-origin together with their association with mineral and organic material, rather argue for cosmetic use of diatom-rich material, such as cleaning clays traditionally used in the Mediterranean region and Africa for hair care.

Graphical abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Diatoms
• Mary-Magdalene relics
• paleochristian hair
• La Sainte-Baume
• cave
• forensic anthropology
• rhassoul

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Lionel Aupart for technical support and Father Florian Racine for constant help and total access to the remains. The authors are also grateful to René Le Cohu (University of Toulouse), Luc Ector and Carlos Wetzel (LIST) for providing documentation on other Tertiarius and Lindavia specimens. Last but not least, the authors would like to acknowledge Hélène Leuba Straub for being behind the original hypothesis of a cosmetic use of diatoms.

Author contributions

PC initiated and coordinated the project, and collected the samples in the cave. RW performed the HIM analyses. SM and FS analysed the diatom and environmental samples. SM and FS wrote the manuscript and RW and PC commented on the final version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest related to this research.