 The sudden interest in Saunière's church generated by the stories circulated by Noël Corbu in the 1950s inspired two excavations of the church of St Mary Magdalene.The first, in May 1956, was conducted by Dr André Malacan who, after excavating the subsoil of the church at a depth of approximately one metre, discovered bones that included a skull bearing an incision, but failed to unearth anything else of interest.Dr Malacan died in 1997, and the skull remained in the possession of his family until May 2014, when it was finally handed back to the village following several years of legal wrangling(carbon-dating of the skull has dated it to between 1281 and 1396).