14:04 GMT, Friday, 18 June 2010 15:04 UK
German cathedral bones 'are Saxon queen Eadgyth'
Scientists have revealed that they think bones found in a German cathedral are those of one of the earliest members of the English royal family.
The granddaughter of Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, the Saxon princess married Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, in 929.
The findings were presented at the University of Bristol on Thursday. A spokesman from the university said the bones were the oldest surviving remains of an English royal burial.
As the half sister of Athelstan, who is considered to have been the first king of all of England, Eadgyth had at least two children with Otto and lived most of her married life in Magdeburg, in what is now the state of Saxony-Anhalt. She died aged about 36.
She was buried in the monastery of St Maurice but her bones were moved at least three times. She was finally interred in an elaborate tomb at Magdeburg Cathedral in 1510, wrapped in silk in a lead coffin.
A study of the bones at the University of Mainz confirmed that the remains were those of a woman who died aged between 30 and 40.
Professor Kurt Alt found evidence that she was a frequent horse rider and ate a high-protein diet, including a lot of fish, hinting at her high status.
Director of the project Professor Harald Meller, of Germany's State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology, said: "Medieval bones were moved frequently and often mixed up, so it required some exceptional science to prove that they are indeed those of Eadgyth.
"It is incredible that we have been able to do this using the most recent analytical techniques."
Banished to a monastery
Crucial evidence came from the study of teeth in Eadgyth's upper jaw.
Researchers at the University of Bristol's Department of Archaeology and the Institute of Anthropology at Mainz University studied strontium and oxygen isotopes that mineralise in the teeth when they form. Dr Alistair Pike, from the University of Bristol, explained: "By micro-sampling, using a laser, we can reconstruct the sequence of a person's whereabouts, month by month up to the age of 14."
They found the isotope results exactly matched records of Eadgyth's childhood and adolescence in Wessex.
Professor Mark Horton said: "Eadgyth seems to have spent the first eight years of her life in southern England, but changed her domicile frequently, matching quite variable strontium ratios in her teeth. Only from the age of nine, the isotope values remain constant.
"Eadgyth must have moved around the kingdom following her father, King Edward the Elder, during his reign.
"When her mother was divorced in 919 - Eadgyth was between nine and 10 at that point - both were banished to a monastery, maybe Winchester or Wilton in Salisbury."
Her bones will be reburied in Magdeburg Cathedral later this year, 500 years after they were interred there in 1510.
Prior stories from early 2010:
Tomb of the Saxon Queen: Discovered, Alfred's granddaughter
By David Derbyshire
Last updated at 10:13 AM on 21st January 2010
Unearthed: the remains of England's first princess
By Tom Clarke
Updated on 20 January 2010
Bristol University professor has a bone to pick with Saxon queen
Wednesday February 10, 2010
It must have been a lonely journey, as the two young sisters travelled through the night leaving behind the land they called home, knowing they would never return.
The year is AD929, and Eadgyth and Eadgifu, two Saxon princesses – the granddaughters of Alfred The Great, and daughters of Edward the Elder – have been sent away from the Wessex kingdom of their childhood, which is now ruled by their powerful half-brother King Athelstan.
In the kind of ruthless diplomatic move that would give him a place in the history books as the first true king of all England, Athelstan has sent his half-sisters to Germany in the hope that Otto, Duke of Saxony, will choose one to be his wife.
As a future king of the Germans and Holy Roman Emperor, Otto is destined to be one of the key figures in European royalty.
After careful consideration Otto chooses the 19-year-old Eadgyth (pronounced Edith), leaving her sister to travel on to the Alps to successfully woo her way into another European royal family – most likely, the French.
But for Eadgyth it is the start of her new life in Saxony, where she will go on to provide Otto with two heirs before her death in AD946 at the age of 36 – certain in the knowledge that she would never again see her native Wessex.
But now, more than a thousand years on, the Saxon queen is to make a return to the land of her birth.
Archaeologists in Germany recently opened a 16th century tomb in Magdesburg Cathedral and found a plaque inside claiming that the bones at rest there were those of Queen Eadgyth.
Experts have confirmed the skeleton is that of a woman in her 30s, but next week parts of the skeleton will be brought to Bristol University for expert analysis.
The head of the university's Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Professor Mark Horton, will lead the project to try to identify the remains as those of Eadgyth.
I catch up with Mark – who is known to millions as a TV presenter on programmes such as Coast and Time Team – as he busily prepares the dusty archaeology laboratory for a royal visitor.
"This is one of the most exciting historical discoveries in recent years," he says. "After all, if this is Eadgyth, these will be the oldest bones of an English royal – given that she was the half-sister of the first king of all England.
"Athelstan himself has a tomb at Malmesbury, but it is believed to have been emptied during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
"But even without Henry VIII's drastic reforms, royal relics tended to be moved around a lot in the Middle Ages anyway.
"But it's wonderful to bring Eadgyth back to Bristol – which would have been on the edge of the kingdom of Wessex that we believe she would have known from her childhood."
Specifically it will be a sample of her teeth and a leg bone that will be borrowed from Eadgyth's tomb and transported across Europe to the Bristol lab,
Mark and his team have been tasked with analysing the samples to try to pinpoint the place of upbringing of the mystery skeleton.
"If we can prove that this person grew up in Wessex rather than in Saxony, then we stand a good chance of it being Eadgyth," Mark says. "But it might be that when this tomb was built in 1510, nobody knew where Eadgyth's actual bones where, so they simply used the skeleton of another 30-something woman from the city.
"DNA testing wouldn't get us anywhere, because we don't know what Eadgyth's DNA would have been anyway," he says, as he rearranges countless boxes of human remains to clear a space on the central table.
"What we need to do is to carry out isotope testing using a technique called laser ablation on the enamel of the teeth and bones.
"The isotopes that build up in your teeth around your early teenage years leave telltale traces of the geology of your local area, because the minerals in drinking water differ. The geology here in south-west England is very different from the geology over in eastern Germany, so it would give a very clear indication that these truly are the remains of a woman who may have been raised in Wessex and later moved to Saxony. "
Mark says there is more to the project than correctly identifying the body in the tomb as Eadgyth.
"The other great benefit of this sort of study is that it inspires people to learn more about history," he says. "If you like, we're illuminating a little corner of the Dark Ages.
"When you're being taught at school, it can seem like English history didn't begin until 1066. People often don't know the first thing about the Saxons. So I hope this project will encourage others to make the effort to learn more."
The testing process is expected to take a few months. But Mark hopes Eadgyth will be returned and laid to rest in her tomb once again in July.
"She must have thought she would never find her way back to Wessex, even for a brief visit such as this," he says. "It's a great honour for us to play host to such a special guest."
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