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)
CHAPTER THREE – Archaeological, anthropological and radiological data
and 22 (Török 1883). It was also he who first called attention to the similarities between Bêlas skull and the herm of Saint László (Török 1894a; 1894b; 1900). In 1898, the skeletons were returned from the University to the reconstructed Matthias Church. The royal couple was placed in the side chapel in ornate copper caskets, while the skeletons found by Érdy and Henszlmann were placed in the crypts sarcophagus in a total of four copper caskets decorated with crosses. The first copper casket contained the headless skeleton (later labelled II/52_3) found in the first grave by Érdy, and the skeleton of the 7- to 8-monthold unborn fetus. The second copper container was used to hold the remains of the skeleton (later labelled I/3_G5) exhumed by Imre Henszlmann in 1874 in the crypt marked “G”. The skeleton (labelled 1/4 H6) found by Henszlmann in the course of his 1874 excavations in the crypt marked “H” was placed in the third copper container. The fourth containers contents included: Skeletons of the 14 persons found during Henszlmanns excavations between 1862 and 1874 and sorted out one by one, identified as either belonging to the earth graves of the Basilica (11 persons, grave type II), or to the area east of the Basilica (grave type VI). The third examination of the royal bones took place in 1968. Anthropologist Tibor Tóth was asked to perform the anthropological study, while Gyula Regöly-Mérei (1968) was tasked with surveying the remains from a medical standpoint. The extent of the examination included the analysis of age, height, and, through Zoltán Zsebők’s radiological records, pathology, while forensic doctor László Harsányi analyzed blood types and reassessed the persons’ ages. Their results were in complete alignment: Béla Ill ’s age was 75
