Nature & Environment
Charlemagne's 1,200-Year-Old Bones Unearthed in Germany
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Feb 07, 2014 11:50 AM EST
German scientists who've been studying the bones from the Aachen Cathedral for over 26 years recently announced that they may well have belonged to Emperor Charlemagne-the first emperor in Western Europe who died in 814 A.D.
"Thanks to the results from 1988 up until today, we can say with great likelihood that we are dealing with the skeleton of Charlemagne," said Professor Frank Rühli, via the German newspaper The Local.
Based on prior descriptions, researchers believe that Charlemagne was tall and thin, with a height around 5 ft. 8 in.
As the vast majority of the king's bones belong to this treasury in Germany, according to Rühli, the director of the Centre for Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich, he notes that like many saints, Charlemagne's remains were not left for the afterlife in just one piece.
Some believe that his skeleton may have been distributed over the centuries to other areas. For instance, a 14-th century church in Prague holds his teeth. And at Aachen, part of Charlemagne's skull is held in a ornate gold and silver bust. Other parts of his body-including his arms and legs-are laid to rest in a marble sarcophagus at the UNESCO World Heritage site.
Though scientists are unable to make any definitive conclusions regarding the authentication of the bones, the fragments examined over the past 26 years do likely point to a match.
"The evidence is that the isolated bones fit the ones in the sarcophagus, also that they belong to an older male individual," Rühli said, via LiveScience. "There is always doubt about this kind of bones, still I am quite sure (but not 100 percent) that they may belong to him."
When he became king in 768 AD, his reign succeeded in uniting a great majority of Western Europe since the collapse of the Roman Empire. As the protector of the papacy, he forced many to convert to Christianity. If they did not do so, they were forced to die.
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First Posted: Feb 07, 2014 11:50 AM EST
German scientists who've been studying the bones from the Aachen Cathedral for over 26 years recently announced that they may well have belonged to Emperor Charlemagne-the first emperor in Western Europe who died in 814 A.D.
"Thanks to the results from 1988 up until today, we can say with great likelihood that we are dealing with the skeleton of Charlemagne," said Professor Frank Rühli, via the German newspaper The Local.
Based on prior descriptions, researchers believe that Charlemagne was tall and thin, with a height around 5 ft. 8 in.
As the vast majority of the king's bones belong to this treasury in Germany, according to Rühli, the director of the Centre for Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich, he notes that like many saints, Charlemagne's remains were not left for the afterlife in just one piece.
Some believe that his skeleton may have been distributed over the centuries to other areas. For instance, a 14-th century church in Prague holds his teeth. And at Aachen, part of Charlemagne's skull is held in a ornate gold and silver bust. Other parts of his body-including his arms and legs-are laid to rest in a marble sarcophagus at the UNESCO World Heritage site.
Though scientists are unable to make any definitive conclusions regarding the authentication of the bones, the fragments examined over the past 26 years do likely point to a match.
"The evidence is that the isolated bones fit the ones in the sarcophagus, also that they belong to an older male individual," Rühli said, via LiveScience. "There is always doubt about this kind of bones, still I am quite sure (but not 100 percent) that they may belong to him."
When he became king in 768 AD, his reign succeeded in uniting a great majority of Western Europe since the collapse of the Roman Empire. As the protector of the papacy, he forced many to convert to Christianity. If they did not do so, they were forced to die.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone