Puzzle of Queen Edith Solved; With a Few Pieces Missing
Published by When remains were found in Queen Edith’s tomb in Magdeburg Cathedral in 2008, archaeologists wanted to make sure they were hers. Bristol and Mainz Universities have published their findings of extensive research carried out since then to confirm the bones belonged to the Saxon Queen.
The result is as secure as it can be; the bones are ‘almost certainly’ those of Queen Edith as reburied in 1510. To arrive at this conclusion, though, archaeologists had to use the most recent scientific methods available. But with those, a lump of fabric, bones, and beetles has told them its history as clearly as if it had been written on parchment.
There bones were subjected to radio-carbon-dating and provided a date of a person living sometime in the 8th century. That was not a promising start, but the scientists in Mainz persisted. Isotope analysis of the bones showed that the person had been living on a diet rich in meat and fish. While this clearly indicated a person of high rank, the fish diet explained the odd date obtained from radio carbon dating. Fish is high in certain isotopes that influence this dating method.
An analysis of the bones had revealed that they were from a single individual and had therefore not been mixed-up with another person during the reburial in 1510. Such little mishaps happened quite frequently, and Queen Edith had been reburied more than once. The bones also were from a female and as the femur showed a horse-woman.
Bristol in turn made a strontium and oxygen isotope analysis of the teeth. Teeth grow during the teenage years and the isotopes form something like tree rings in the teeth showing where a person grew up. The isotopes built into the minerals in the teeth are the ones found in the landscape of abode and thereby give away the geography. The result showed that the woman had lived her young years wandering around Wessex while spending her early teenage years in one location in Wessex. This tied in neatly with what is known about Edith.
As a child she had been part of the court of her father King Edward the Elder and had accompanied him and her mother Elfleda through the kingdom. After her parents’ divorce in 919, she followed her mother into a nunnery, maybe Winchester or Winton. Putting all these factors together with the findings in Mainz, there is now no doubt that the bones were Queen Edith’s.
The missing pieces in the history of these bones may have been filled in, but the missing bones opened a new puzzle. There were only 42 bones found in the grave, and most notably both feet, the cranium except the upper jaw, and most of the hands were missing. As these bones are the parts usually used in relic worship, they might have been given away by the monastery of St. Maurice in Magdeburg to other places where she was worshipped as a saint.
The remains of Queen Edith will return to Magdeburg in autumn and a formal reburial ceremony is already in planning for October this year. The Germans have become quite accomplished organising these slightly belated Royal burials and we may expect pomp and circumstance with all the trappings due a reigning queen. As almost all ruling and formerly ruling families in Europe are related to Edith, there will be quite some gathering of titled grandees from all over Europe.
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