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

2) Exclusion from Éry

’s investigation

of the skeleton labelled II/52_3from the third grave excavated by Érdy

In light of the later events, it is worth noting that the skeleton found by Érdy

in

the third grave, which was later interred in the Matthias Church and found again without its head in 1883, was also studied by Éry

and

her working group. The remains from the third grave were probably given the designation II/52_3 at this time, which remained the same later as well, while the fetus found in the fourth grave was labelled II/52_4, but we did not use this subsequently. The investigation that took place involved a comparison of the number and type of bones that can be seen on Varsányis

drawing

of the bones found in 1848 with the skeleton we have; extra bones and differences in type were found. In addition, the skeletons anthropological age turned out to be lower than the 30 years given when it was found, and thus the working group leaned toward the dating of Aurél

Török (20-22 years). The skeleton had a yellowish colour, but they believed it should have been brownish, because it had been lying in brownishblack mud. For this reason, the working groups members believed that the skeleton that was found in 1883 could not be the same as that of the man found in the third grave and labelled II/52_3, so they did not include the skeleton in the aforementioned monograph (in Table 15a the fetus is labelled as 11/52) (Éry

2008,19).

However, Éry

’s working group did not consider the following:

• The

bones found by Érdy

in

1848 were placed in the Matthias Church much earlier and could not have been mixed up.

• After

finding the skeleton and removing it from the grave, the mud was washed off, and thus the brownish black colour was 85