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 ELEVEN – SUMMARY

of them. We ruled out Géza

II

from the potential candidates via genetic and statistical investigations, and thus person II/52_3 can only be Béla

II

(the Blind).

2. Radiocarbon

dating. Radiocarbon dating puts the age of skeleton II/52_3 between 1035 and 1155 with a 95.4% probability. This interval includes Béla

Il

’s death (1141), while the deaths of Géza

II, László

II

and István

IV

are above the upper limit of the interval by 7, 8 and 10 years, respectively. Thus, the radiocarbon dating suggests person 11/52 is probably Béla

II.

3. Consensus

marker data. Analysis of the consensus marker data based on the results from the Göttingen

and

Budapest laboratories and complemented by the next generation sequencing data detected only one marker difference out of 20 when comparing skeleton II/52_3 and Béla

Ill

’s A-STR markers; this marker distribution suggests a grandfather-grandson relationship between Béla

II

(the Blind) and Béla

III.

4. Statistical

analysis. The statistical analysis conducted with the negative log-likelihood method and having considered all genetic data independently of each other suggests that skeleton II/52_3 is most likely Béla

II.

5. Y-STR

marker surveys. All of the alleles of the 16 paternal Y-STR markers of King Béla

III

and skeleton II_52_3 are completely identical. This find shows that skeleton II/52_3 belongs to the line of Árpád

Dynasty

Kings on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is also closely related to King Béla

III.

6. Mitochondrial

DNA survey. The grandfather of King Béla

II

(the Blind) was Géza

I,

whose first wife was Princess Sofia of Loon, and his second wife was the Byzantine Princess Synadene.

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