8. 6. 2010 The remains of a Saxon princess identified

The skeleton was discovered by archaeologists in the Magdeburg Cathedral in eastern Germany. They later discovered that it belonged to the Saxon princess Eadgyth, granddaughter of Charlemagne and queen of the Holy Roman Empire.

The information about the Saxon princess was announced by researchers from the University of Bristol, who made this important discovery in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Mainz. Princess Eadgyth or Edith of England was one of the many daughters of Edward I. She became Duchess of Saxony by marriage. She was also Queen of East Francia and Queen of the Holy Roman Empire.

The remains were identified by the discovery of an upper jaw. It was also the basis for finding out where the monarch lived. The results showed it was in the south of England. The key was so-called strontium isotopes on small samples of tooth enamel.

"They allowed us to reconstruct the sequence of her movements month by month, up to the age of fourteen," revealed Alistair Pike, professor of archaeology and anthropology at Bristol University.

The tomb was opened by archaeologists back in 2008. Originally, they thought it would be empty. They didn't expect to find any bones at all. let alone that they belonged to a Saxon princess. The bones were in a lead box, which was translated as "In this sarcophagus are the remains of Queen Eadgyth."

The box also bore information about the transfer of the remains in 1510 and the name Eadgyth. Inside was the skeleton of a thirty- to forty-year-old woman wrapped in silk, which corresponds to the age of the princess.

Historians, on the other hand, knew that the married German queen was buried in Magdeburg because she had received it as a marriage gift. But at the same time, experts thought the remains had disappeared to an unknown destination during the renovation of the local cathedral.

"We knew that members of the Saxon royal family moved around a lot, and we hoped that the isotope results would match the knownmy locations in Wessex and Mercia, where Eadgyth may have spent her childhood," said research coordinator Mark Horton at the time.

Eadgyth died at the age of thirty-one and was buried in the church of St Margaret's Priory, which she founded in 937. "She was generously endowed with innumerable virtues, as the signs after her death showed, and she lived her allotted time kindly to God and men...," Bishop Dětmar of Merseburg wrote of her.

Sources: www.bbc.com, www.novinky.cz, www.denik.cz, www.uni-mainz.de