Hey everyone,

I don't usually post here because I think I live in an isolated region in the middle of southern France but I wanted to share this because I thought it was cool. In the hills nearby there is a sarcophagus that some of the townspeople consider Merovingian.

The Sarcophagus

Human for scale. Don't worry he's stepping around it

This sarcophagus as you can tell is not very large, and even considering the short stature of people back in the day, this sarcophagus would have been made for a child. It is also said to be cursed.

It is as small as it seems, only big enough for small child

The story is a farmer found all his pigs had died overnight after he had let them eat the vegetation sprouting from the sarcophagus. Whether or not that is true, my research on this grave lead me to something much more interesting.

Divine descent

I was always keen on the Merovingian name because of infamy surrounding the name, especially in conspiracy circles.
If you've ever read something akin to The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown, you know where I'm coming from. According to certain literature like "Holy Blood, Holy Grail", there is a bit of rumor surrounding the origins of the Merovingian bloodline, with some claiming them to be the direct descendants of Jesus Christ. These all cite an author by the name of Pierre Plantard who made such claims in his 1967 book, L'Or de Rennes.

Merovingian grave stone with zodiac symbol

Just for contextualization and sticking to the facts - the Merovingian were a real dynasty that ruled the Frank kingdom at the time (mainly present day France) between ~450AD to 751AD. Notable exploits bring up uniting all of the Franks and northern Gauls to their empire and being one of the largest kingdoms in existence at the time.

Extent of the Merovingian dynasty

Plantard

Back to the subject of Plantard. It's worth noting that Pierre Plantard was a longtime charlatan and interested himself mainly with the mystical and the paranormal. He had a long history of making unsuccessful secret clubs, selling fake degrees, going to prison after being caught, claims to possessing letters written by the french president at the time - Charles de Gaulle. If you've ever heard of the Priory of Sion hoax, this is one of the two guys behind it.

Pierre Plantard

His back-story is pretty impressive, but his infamy really takes off after making claims to long lost royalty. Plantard went so far as to start presenting documents and genealogies with his name on it to France's National Archives. These claims would ensure Plantard a royal title as well as possible "reparations" that were a political subject at the time.

The truth as far as we know it

Sounds too good to be true doesn't it? That's because it was.

The whole thing blew over in 1989 when enough evidence surfaced that showed that Plantard had been behind an elaborate hoax. Plantard's apartment had been raided during an investigation. By making elaborate and public claims that an associate to the French president at the time (Pelat) was the Grand-Master of the Priory of Sion (more conspiracy stuff!).
Under oath, Plantard admitted that he had made everything up, and fearing legal action for libel, decided to go into hiding in southern France. He was 74 years old at the time. His whereabouts remained unknown until his death in 2000.

You can't deny this guy was good at making fake documents at the time

Despite not sounding as cool as Frank Abingale from Catch me if you Can, Plantard's life does evoke a certain curiosity. Why or how would someone get into a career based on trying to sell mystical and paranormal claims. Was it an undiagnosed medical condition? Was it someone who thought their forgeries were so skilled that they could get away with such extravagant claims? And what about the sarcophagus - who made it and for what reason? Surely something as heavy and as time-demanding as a stone sarcophagus necessitates some kind of important burial. Either way, next time someone brings up a Merovingian-Jesus link, you'll know the truth behind the story.