archaeologist

That wouldn't sit quite right with the adventurous archaeologist, says Axel.

For example, archaeologist Cédric Moulis of the University of Lorraine painstakingly reassembled dozens of wedge-shaped stones called voussoirs recovered from the collapsed vaulted ceiling over the nave to glean insights into their mechanical properties.

"This is the smoking gun because they're not really going after salmon in the wild," said study co-author Ben Potter, an archaeologist with the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

"Despite the importance of bone needles to explaining global modern human dispersal, archaeologists have never identified the materials used to produce them, thus limiting understanding of this important cultural innovation," the researchers wrote.

Renovation work at Notre-Dame has been a boon for archaeologists, who have been able to access underground areas that date back to hundreds of years before the cathedral was built.