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
In the first step we had discussions with archaeologists who were knowledgeable about the bones in Székesfehérvár, the bones in Matthias Church, and all the other bones in the Ossuary. Two of the three archaeologists in this discussion opined that our project was completely impossible and hopeless, as such attempts had already been made involving prestigious researchers under international cooperation but had failed to come to fruition. The crypts were opened in Matthias Church at night, after the masses had finished. Reneszánsz Ltd. opened the crypts of Anne de Châtillon and her husband King Béla III in a professional manner. We removed the skeletons from the metal containers under the same aseptic conditions as in operating theatres, loaded them into the sterilised transport vehicle of the National Institute of Oncology, and transported them to the isolated operating theatre prepared for this specific purpose at the National Institute of Oncology. The sampling was conducted in the aseptic operating theatre with an oscillating saw to avoid the warming up usually caused by bone drills and thus further degradation of any ancient DNA. It goes without saying that we cleaned the bones with disinfectant used for washing before surgery and with hydrogen peroxide. During the sampling a kind colleague of mine, Éva Csorba, took on the role of the surgical nurse, while Professors Béla Meleg and Zoltán Szentirmay assisted with the task. We repeated the same procedure on all the skeletons and bones located in the crypt of Matthias Church. After sampling, we replaced the skeletons in approximately the same anatomic position before transporting them to the diagnostic imaging centre of the institute, where we made CT images of each and every bone. In the course of the sampling we divided the samples, which were 4-5 cm long, into 15
