Damaged church floor may have revealed the grave of the fourth musketeer

Archaeologists in the Netherlands have made a discovery that could rewrite a chapter of literary and military history. During repairs to the subsided tile floor of the Saints Peter and Paul Church in Maastricht, a skeleton was unearthed from beneath the altar. The grave contained fragments of a lead musket ball and a coin from 1660, aligning with the historical account of d'Artagnan's death by a gunshot to the throat during the Siege of Maastricht in June 1673. The prestigious burial location directly under the altar strongly suggests the individual was a person of high status, like a commanding officer.

Wim Dijkman, the archaeologist leading the excavation, has spent 28 years researching d'Artagnan's final resting place and calls this find a potential career highlight. The skeleton's jawbone has been sent to Germany for DNA sequencing, which will be compared against samples from d'Artagnan's living descendants. Concurrently, forensic anthropologists in Deventer will analyze the bones to determine age and sex. Historical research by French historian Odile Bordaz, who mapped 17th-century siege camps, indicates a over 90% probability that high-ranking French officers like d'Artagnan were buried in the church nearest their camp, which was Saints Peter and Paul.