Majorossy Judit: Egy történelmi gyilkosság margójára. Merániai Gertrúd emlékezete, 1213 - 2013. Tanulmánykötet - A Ferenczy Múzeum kiadványai, A. sorozat: Monográfiák 2. (Szentendre, 2014)
VI. English Summaries
To the Margin of a Historical Murder — English Summaries there were adjoining stone foundation, or these pillars stood alone with point-like basements. The best place to examine this question appeared to be at the crossing of the church, so an excavation trench had to be traced out accordingly. The notable event took place on a Friday afternoon, 22 May, in 1981. During the excavation of the grave József Szentpéteri, Csilla Siklódi, and József Laszlovszky were the only ones present, so no one else could fix such details (for example, concerning the filling of the grave) that could be based on eyewitness observations. Gerevich himself was not present that day and István Kiszely, who took a stand on several issues during the processing of the remains, only saw the unearthed and extracted bones later. A drawing was prepared of the grave corresponding to the rules of the documentation of the age (the early 1980s), and amateur photographs are also available which, however, due to their quality do not allow substantial new information to be gained from them. In the retrospect of several decades the authors of this article (two of the above named archaeologists being present at the discovery) still believe that the immediate excavation and such documentation of the grave was justified, and the subsequent mixing and loss of skeletal remains cannot be ascribed to the excavation. The tomb was clearly disturbed. Some of the human skeletal remains were in anatomical position, but next to them there were mixed bones too. The filling of the grave also indicates a serious disturbance. Already during the excavation the remains of two individuals could be separated in the grave. While one of the corpses was relatively complete, the researchers could find only certain skeletal remains of the other. Generally speaking, the remains of a man and a woman were identified as such, but this could not be clearly stated at the site. Though the archaeologist involved in the excavation identified several characteristics on the skeletons, such an identification could only be the result of a detailed anthropological study, therefore, the on-site observations in this respect cannot be considered as decisive evidence. In this part of the church, the afore-mentioned trench in the crossing was basically the first excavation surface that reached the grave-level under the disturbed floor. On this basis, it can be stated that one can not exclude the presence of several other unexplored tombs in this central part of the building the future excavation of which can fundamentally affect the interpretation of the so-called Gertrude grave. Elek Benkő The Grave of Queen Gertrude in the Cistercian Monastery of Pilis In the archaeological and art historical literature it seems to be a quite solid fact that during the excavations of the Pilis monastery conducted by László Gerevich between 1967-1982 not only the pieces of the thirteenth-century funerary monument of Queen Gertrude came to the light, but also her grave as well as certain bone fragments of hers. The processing of archaeological data has remained unfinished until today and the definition of the archaeological features and bone fragments is still rather ambiguous. The present study deals with the problems of the Gertrude burial, in particular interpreting the identification of the skeletal remains and evaluating their historical authenticity. Queen Gertrude, murdered on 28 September in the year 1213, was buried in the Pilis monastery. The Eastern part of the monastic church (the main apsis, the chancels, and the transept) by that time must have been ready and apt for a royal burial. Unfortunately, no medieval written sources registered the exact place of the grave itself. In this respect the excavations of László Gerevich brought new evidence: pieces of a sepulchre of exceptional artistic quality and worthy of a royal person were unearthed and in the lengthwise axis of the nave, before the main altar, and a high-wrought mason work stone grave was found. The medieval high tomb did not always fulfil the function of a sarcophagus, but was occasionally raised above a grave, so it was a carved work without a corpse inside. The small details of the very fragmented tomb found in the Pilis monastery made a more delicate reconstruction possible, but due to the lack of a full scale excavation of that part of the church this work can not be finished yet, not to mention the specification of its iconographic programme. According to the opinion of the author, among the fragmented figures one cannot doubtlessly identify saints and prophets, only crowned men and women sitting in niches as well as some angelic figures. The side figures of the tomb might have also been secular nobility, the relatives of the royal pair. Art historical research found it evident that the grave numbered by the archaeologist as 5 7, being the single serious stone built burial place before the main altar, must have belonged to Queen Gertrude. On the top of this grave some 10-15 years 315
