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

of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Székesfehérvár.

Dr Miklós

Kásler, head

of the research project, was able to obtain permission from Cardinal Péter

Erdő, Archbishop

of Esztergom- Budapest, and secured one-time government funding for the research expenses.

We opened the sarcophagi in 2014 and created quite a large amount of photographic and video documentation when taking samples from the bones. We also generated computed tomographic (CT) images and used several genetic, mathematical and special morphological methods in the analyses. We then aligned the resulting genetic data with the results of the historical, archaeological, anthropological and radiocarbon research. The logical ordering of the evidence pertaining to particular results, the clarification and articulation of correlations, and the publication of the vast amounts of image documentation supporting those correlations are - with the exception of publications submitted during the process - only possible in book form. We are aware that others may interpret the data differently, but as far as we are concerned we remained grounded within the framework of scientific methodology and ethics. Although we tried our best to be as clear as possible, the specialized genetic data and many other kinds of data can be hard to understand. We have tried to mitigate this by including a glossary, as well as a summary at the end of each chapter.

Having mentioned all of the above, we heartily recommend this book for all who wish to know more about the brightest era in Hungarian history and Hungary’s most important kings, to those wishing to pay homage to their recently identified remains in a heavenly pantheon, and on this earth, at the site where their eternal 24