When a fragment of skull and several other small bones, said to be the remains of John the Baptist, were excavated two years ago at a medieval church on a small island off Bulgaria, the sceptics ridiculed the find as laughable.
Just like the French theologian John Calvin once scoffed that there were so many supposed fragments of the cross Jesus was crucified on that they could build Noah a new ark, the bones were believed by many to be yet another scam.
The only evidence these bones were in fact those of the hermit who baptised Jesus Christ was the inscription on the small box in which they were discovered that bore the name of the saint and his feast day in Ancient Greek.
Nonetheless, thousands of worshippers flocked to view the relics when they were put on display in Sofia in 2010, untroubled by doubts regarding their authenticity.
However, while the believers believed and the cynics scoffed, one man stepped forward in an attempt to solve the riddle surrounding the relics. Thomas Higham, an atheist professor from the University of Oxford, may not have had the bullwhip or fedora of Indiana Jones, but he did have a crack team of carbon daters to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Even so, when he agreed to date a knucklebone he was unsurprisingly circumspect. His research team already knew of three different skulls on display that claimed to be the head of John the Baptist -- one in Damascus, one in Rome and one in Munich.
But Higham, the non-believing boffin in the white lab coat, was stunned to find that radiocarbon analysis and DNA tests confirmed the remains are in fact those of an early first century male from the Middle East.
"It was very significant," said Professor Higham. "It was somewhat unexpected."
While the prospect of ever proving beyond doubt that these are the bones of John the Baptist is unlikely, the atheist professor believes it remains a distinct possibility.
Research undertaken by the Oxford team behind the tests confirmed that relics thought to be from John the Baptist were smuggled out of Jerusalem up to the 4th Century. It is believed highly possible some may have been given to the Bulgarian monastery on St Ivan's Island (Ivan is the Slavic word for John) as its location along the Black Sea was an important trade route and "full of monks and holy relics".
"During the Middle Ages, relics were the currency and the power behind the church," says Peter Manseau, author of Rag and Bone, an insight into the relics at the root of the world's major religions.
"They were widespread and revered."
The veneration of relics is thought to have its origins in 156AD when the bishop Polycarp of Smyrna, in modern-day Turkey, was burned alive for praying to Jesus rather than to the Roman gods. When the pyre cooled, followers scooped up his remains and ran, giving birth to a new cult of relics.
More than five centuries later relics would become central to the Catholic Church when, at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, a law was passed that every church had to have a relic at its altar.
But while the Vatican relaxed this relic law in 1969, allowing churches to be built regardless, they have remained at the centre of religious belief for many.
"There is quite an amount of important relics in Ireland going back to medieval times," says Tommy Burns, author of the book, St Oliver Plunkett Deo Gratias.
"The relic of St Oliver is one of the most famous and significant. After he was hung, drawn and quartered his head was thrown on the fire and his Catholic followers retrieved it."
In recent years there have been several highly successful visits of relics to Ireland, such as St Thérèse of Lisieux, St John Marie Vianney the Cure of Ars and St Claude de la Colombière.
And the recent spate of relic thefts, including the heart of St Laurence O'Toole stolen from Christ Church Cathedral, has given Ireland its very own Dan Brown conspiracy theories as to who is behind the mysterious crimes.
With interest and belief in relics still a key part of the church, the results of the scientific study will likely encourage the Orthodox Church of Bulgaria to use the bones to make Sofia a centre of pilgrimage for Christians throughout the world.
This is even though the scientific jury is still out as to whether they actually belonged to St John the Baptist.
"While the question of the legitimacy of relics is not irrelevant, I think for people interested in them, their authenticity is not the point," says Manseau.
"For them, they are simply a way of focusing their devotion towards a particular saint. It is what they represent to people, and not their scientific validity, that is important for believers."