Scientists have uncovered so far a new witnesses that mysterious remains found in an ancient reliquary in a 5th century convent on Sveti Ivan Island in Bulgaria belong to Saint John the Baptist.

A team of researchers from Oxford University dated the right-handed knuckle bone to the first century, when John the Baptists is believed to have lived until his beheading ordered by king Herod. Scientists have discovered the remains of small fragments of a skull, bones from a jaw and an arm, and a tooth. Residue have been found embedded in an altar in the ruins of the ancient monastery – on the Sveti Ivan island in the Black Sea, Bulgaria.

Bones of John the Baptist possibly discovered on the Sveti Ivan Island in Bulgaria / video

Thomas Higham – deputy Director of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit has commented : ‘ We were surprised when the radiocarbon dating produced this very early age. We had suspected that the bones may have been more recent than this, perhaps from the third or fourth centuries. However, the result from the metacarpal hand bone is clearly consistent with someone who lived in the early first century AD. ‘

The another scientists from the University of Copenhagen have analysed the DNA of the bones.  Experts said the remains came from a single individual from a family in the modern-day Middle East, where John the Baptist would have lived. They also found enough nuclear DNA to indicate that it was a male.

Many sites around the world demand to hold relics of the saint, including the Grand Mosque in Damascus which says it has his head. Countries around the Mediterranean claiming to have remains of John the Baptist include Turkey, Greece, Italy and Egypt.

Bones in Bulgaria may be of Saint John the Baptist

Christians believe that Saint John the Baptist heralded the arrival of Christ and he baptized Jesus Christus in the River Jordan. According to the Gospels, John the Baptist was put to death by beheading on the orders of the local sovereign, Herod Antipas. He is deliberate a particularly significant figure in the Orthodox Church.

Turks believe the relics may once have been donated to the monastery by the Byzantine church. The Topkapi Palace museum in Istanbul is one of several sites claiming to house relics purported to be those of John the Baptist.

Remains of Saint John the Baptist Discovery Video

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmmfS4eRBTw[/tube]