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It's not john the baptist. >> so it's not the same finger that we looked at in bulgaria. >> the result isn't surprising to me. there are many bones attributed to john the baptist. and they can't all be. in this particular case, using radiocarbon, we've managed to show that the date from this particular bone is about six centuries later than it ought to be. >> we've tested now two relics of john the baptist. we had one date from the 1st century and one from the 7th or 8th century and we're just starting to get a feel for what there is out there. so it's very exciting. it gives us a new bit of i...

Medieval treasure, the guelph treasure, that has connections with the german lord henry the lion. we know that he visited constantinople and requested relics. but it's possible that may have had origins much older than that. ♪ >> should we get the bone out and have a look at it now? >> sitting in an elaborate gilt housing dating back to the 14th century, for the researchers the challenge will be how remove the bone from its precious casing. ♪ and when they try to extract the bone from its mount, there's a problem. >> the mount does not come off of the bone. >> oh, you mean i can't actually...

Particular bone is about six centuries later than it ought to be. >> we've tested now two relics of john the baptist. we had one date from the 1st century and one from the 7th or 8th century and we're just starting to get a feel for what there is out there. so it's very exciting. it gives us a new bit of information. i'm hopeful that we'll go forward from here and ask more questions and test more relics. >> for tom and george, the investigation goes on. with as many as 200 relics associated with john the baptist, they hope they may once again find a piece that could be a match for him bringing...

Accelerator mass spectrometer. the machine will analyze the amount of radiocarbon in the sample and, through that, determine the relic's age. >> using scientific techniques now for first time it's really possible to build up a template of scientific similarities between different individuals who understand more about the movement and the passage of relics across this part of the world during the first millennium a.d. >> now the scientists' work is done. they can only wait for a final answer. could this bone belong to john the baptist? (vo) some call it giving back. we call it share the love. d...

Very small relics, tiny bones, it becomes very, very difficult to get a useful enough sample size if we're to extract the collagen for dating. >> with limits to how far he can drill, he can't be sure they've got enough to determine whether this bone could have belonged to john the baptist. in jerusalem, the more john the baptist denounces herod, the more he risks inflaming herod's anger. with all the danger that could follow. >> you could talk about repentance and judgment day and maybe not get into much trouble. but you start to attack herod personally, and he's going to attack you personally...