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)
Editors’ preface
It was Dr Miklós Kásler who proposed the idea of performing genetic studies on the kings of the Árpád Dynasty in 2012 at a meeting of medical professionals in Szeged, after a presentation on the genetic analysis of bones extracted from graves in Hungary by Professor Dr István Raskó. At that point, we believed that this idea could be realized at the National Institute of Oncology (NIO) for the following reasons: (a) The tools necessary for genetic analysis were already available there; (b) The DNA isolated from the bones would obviously be fragmented, but the NIO Tumour Pathology Centre has a great deal of experience analyzing fragmented formalinfixed, paraffin-embedded molecular DNA; (c) We are familiar with complex diagnostic problems and solving them as clearly as possible (in the interests of successful patient care), even when we do not have all of the necessary information. In such cases, we would return to the problem at hand once we had acquired new clinical information, researched new literature, or implemented new processes. This practice has often led to clear and useful diagnoses. Our work on this project benefited greatly from this ability. The basic requirement for conducting the planned research was to reopen the sarcophagi, since this is where the skeletons of King Béla III and Queen Anne of Antioch are kept, in sarcophagi located in a separate chapel on the ground floor. Using the genetic analysis of the bone samples obtained from the royal couple, it was possible to individually identify the rest of the skeletons held in the sarcophagi of the crypt, which were thought to belong to Kings of the Árpád Dynasty or their family members. In order to confirm their possible Árpád Dynasty origins, it is important to note that each skeleton was taken to the Matthias Church from the Basilica 23
