A Mystery Solved

Recently, the "National Geographic Channel" aired a one hour documentary program entitled "Finding Anastasia." (See link below for background to the overall story) The program has two American "investigators," Dr. Anthony Falsetti and Dr. Michael Coble^^^, analyzing the remains found less than a hundred yards from the grave site of Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, the Empress Alexandra, three of their five children, and four of their servants. Speculation had run high from preliminary tests run by Russian authorities that these recently found bones and artifacts belonged to the two missing children of the Tsar, Alexei, the heir to the throne, and one of the daughters, either Anastasia or Maria.***

The documentary shows the steps taken to analyze the bones for DNA and the eventual findings of the two Americans. In the end, they identify the bodies as the two missing Romanov children. If you have access to the "National Geographic Channel," you might want to check on when the program will be shown again. It is well worth viewing. (A word history is further below)

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2007/10/update-on-mystery.html

^^^Dr. Falsetti helped in identifying the remains of bodies from the 9/11 attacks. Dr. Coble helps the U.S. military identify remains of casualties.

***Put simply, most American investigators believed the body of Anastasia was the missing female child from the grave; while Russian investigators believed it to be Maria.

Word History:
Body-Noun-It is interesting that a word in such common usage has no living relatives today (Ahh, maybe others hid the bodies?). In Old English is was spelled "bodig," and meant "the trunk or chest of a creature, man or beast," and some sources say it also meant "cask." (Hmm, I wonder if that's why we put a body into a "casket?"...now don't laugh too much!) By about the 13th Century, the word was being used as we use it today, and by the 14th Century along came the widespread use of words such as "somebody" and "nobody" ("I ain't got nobody!" Hold the laughs again!) Old High German, a relative of English, had "botah," also meaning "body" also spelled "potah"), and a form of the word continued in use in German dialect until recent times, but has now died out (I guess you could say that's a "dead body"). No other Germanic language has a form of the word, which is quite unusual. Some linguists have wondered if there is some connection to medieval Latin "butica," which meant "barrel." Just an observation of my own: English was quite popular at various times in European and Christian history, and I just wonder IF Latin may have gotten the word "butica" from English, as it is my understanding that is was only found in medieval Latin.