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 TEN – Unique identification of the skeletons

4. Evidence

from archaeological, anthropological age determination, radiological morphological sequencing and genetic analyses

1. Every

skeleton had been buried in the inner area of the Royal Basilica of Székesfehérvár.

With

the exception of Béla

III

and Anne of Antioch, the skeletons were moved to the sarcophagi in the crypt of the Matthias Church under the pretext of them being relatives of Árpád Dynasty

Kings, Princes or highborn (Reges

Hungáriáé). We

quote three of the Reges

Hungáriáé listed

in the “Codex Diplomaticus Hungáriáé Ecclesiasticus

ac Civilis. Ab

anno

Christi

1367-1374

”: “Relatio Ladislai Ducis Palatini per Blasium Notarium”, “Sigillum istud reformarunt Sigismundus, Ladislaus

Posthumus

et Wladistaus II”, “Paulus, filius Nicolai de Scephlak, pro quo Ladislaus

de

Koxo cum procuratoriis litteris”. None

of the persons marked II/52_3, 11/53, 11/54,11/55,1/3 G5 and 1/4 H6 could be considered Reges

Hungáriáé as described above.

2. Éry

and

her colleagues conducted anthropological dating on the skeleton, which was found in the 3rd grave and re-emerged in 1883 without its skull, and determined the age to be between 21 and 27 years. Based on this, and a comparison with Varsányi

’s drawing

displayed in Table 13, they did not accept that this skeleton could be the original one recovered by Érdy.

The

number II/52_3 intended to be temporary given by the working group to the person found in the third grave is flawed, because the persons buried in earth graves were assigned to group 2, but this skeleton was found in a stone-lined grave (Figure 13), which was noted at the time of excavation.

201