Beneath The Medici Tombs (More Bodies)

Begun last month, the Medici project “aims to exhume 49 bodies of the Medici family and reconstruct the dynasty’s genetic make-up and their real family tree.” Explorers of one Medici burial site have discovered a secret crypt that contains the bodies of seven children and one adult. “Though the tombs had been seriously damaged by the flood of 1966, the remains of a nine-year-old boy are still in good condition. Expertly embalmed, he wears red clothes and a small crown. We could have found the illegitimate children of Grand Duke Cosimo I.”