Miklós Kásler - Zoltán Szentirmay (szerk.): Identifying the Árpád Dynasty Skeletons Interred in the Matthias Church. Applying data from historical, archaeological, anthropological, radiological, morphological, radiocarbon dating and genetic research (Budapest, 2021)
Foreword
been identified with high probability, the solution was simple: let us try to extract the DNA from his skeleton and determine the remains of all the males belonging to the Árpád dynasty, and if possible, the individual persons. If we succeed in determining the DNA of King Béla III, we are able to specify the DNA of all the other kings of the Árpád dynasty, and perhaps the specific persons as well, based on the DNA section of the Y chromosome that passes from father to son. But in this phase I was already thinking of ways to identify all the other kings. In cooperation with Margit Földesi, then György Szabados, we started to compile the genealogy of the Árpád dynasty, its female lines, and the genealogy of the Hunyadi and Szapolyai families. Special assistance was provided by Balázs Holczmann, who was dealing with the same topic completely independently from us; he elaborated the genealogy of the kings in minute detail, then informed me by email. I was really glad to welcome him into our emerging team, made up of colleagues driven by the same emotions and joining forces of their free will to accomplish the same goal, in the interest of more noble objectives. The next step in this process was to see if we were even capable of extracting and examining DNA from ancient bones. Professor Szentirmay had already succeeded here on bones from the Medieval Period, so we took the next step confident that, in all probability, the seemingly hopeless mission might be accomplished. After this I submitted an application to the Ministry of Interior in charge of archaeology, requesting financial assistance to start our examinations. The HUF 20 million granted by Minister of Interior Sándor Pintér ensured we could start. I should note here that this funding was sufficient to pay specialist company Reneszánsz Ltd. to open and restore the 13
