Archaeologists believe that some bones found in a box at Winchester City Museum may belong to those of Anglo-Saxon monarch King Alfred the Great.
However, there is also a chance the remains could belong to his son, King Edward the Elder.
Archaeologists at the University of Winchester carried out an exhumation of a grave at St Bartholomew’s Church in Winchester, Hampshire, last March in a bid to find the last resting place of the Ninth Century king.
Tests have shown that those remains were not the influential warrior king.
However, further investigations have uncovered a pelvis bone which had been in storage at the museum since it was unearthed in a previous excavation carried out at the end of the 1990s.
Carbon dating has shown that this bone dates back to between 895 and 1017, which the scientists believe ties in with the death of the two kings and is unlikely to have come from anyone apart from the father or the son.
Archaeologists from the university said the task of identifying the Saxon king would be more difficult than the analysis of Richard III's skeleton because they had to find a living relative to provide a DNA sample, which required research into a much older family tree.
Alfred the Great ruled the Kingdom of Wessex (West Saxon) from 871 until his death in 899. Winchester, in what is now Hampshire, was his capital.
He was a learned and merciful man who encouraged education and improved his kingdom's legal system and military structure. This earned him the epithet "the Great", the only English monarch to be accorded it.
However, according to legend, whilst he and his men were on the run in the Somerset marshes from the Danes, who came from the Danish kingdom of the Danelaw next door to Wessex, they were given shelter by the wife of a swineherd (Old English for "pig farmer"). She told Alfred to look after the cakes she was cooking, but with his thoughts on the travails of his kingdom, he absent-mindedly let the cakes burn.
King Alfred the Great's bones discovered inside a MUSEUM: Remains inside box are thought to belong to Anglo-Saxon ruler
Pelvis bone was stored at Winchester City Museum after an excavation in the late 1990s - but could also belong to Edward the Elder
Remains of Alfred the Great were believed to lie in a grave in St Bartholomew’s Church in Winchester, Hampshire
By Sarah Griffiths
17 January 2014
Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The bones of King Alfred the Great are believed to have been found in a box stored in a museum, and not buried in an unmarked grave as previously thought.
Researchers believe a pelvis bone, which has been in storage at Winchester City Museum, could belong to the king Alfred.
However, there is a chance that the bone could belong to his son, Edward the Elder, instead.
Archaeologists at the University of Winchester carried out an exhumation of a grave at St Bartholomew’s Church in Winchester, Hampshire, last March in a bid to find the last resting place of the Ninth Century king.
Tests have shown that those remains were not the influential warrior king.
However, further investigations have uncovered a pelvis bone which had been in storage at the museum since it was unearthed in a previous excavation carried out at the end of the 1990s.
Carbon dating has shown that this bone dates back to between 895 and 1017, which the scientists believe ties in with the death of the two kings and is unlikely to have come from anyone apart from the father or the son.
Archaeologists had believed that the Anglo-Saxon king lay in an unmarked grave in Winchester and had applied for permission to dig in the churchyard of St Bartholomew’s Church.
Their plans followed the discovery of Richard III, whose skeleton was found under a Leicester car park.
In August, Katie Tucker, an archaeologist from Winchester University, said there were five skulls plus other bones found in the grave, but warned that it would be difficult to get a comparative sample to identify the king.
Archaeologists from the university said the task of identifying the Saxon king would be more difficult than the analysis of Richard III's skeleton because they had to find a living relative to provide a DNA sample, which required research into a much older family tree.
St Bartholomew's Church, Winchester
Alfred the Great ruled from 871 to 899 and is remembered for his social and educational reforms, military victories against the Vikings and of course his legendarily bad cooking skills where he burned cakes (an illustration is pictured)
Archeologists had thought that there was a good chance the remains in the churchyard might belong to the king as only royals and monks were buried in the abbey in the 12th century.
Alfred the Great ruled from 871 to 899 and is remembered for his social and educational reforms, military victories against the Vikings and of course his legendary bad cooking skills.
The story goes that the Danes sprung a surprise attack on Alfred and his men, causing them to go on the run and beg for food in the Somerset marshes.
The wife of a swineherd gave the men food and asked Alfred to keep an eye on the baking cakes, which he famously burnt.
Historians have suggested the tale might be a metaphor for the ailing health of the Kingdom of Wessex or a show of the king's humility.
Archaeologists at the University of Winchester carried out an exhumation of the grave at St Bartholomew's Church in Winchester, Hampshire, last March in a bid to find the last resting place of the ninth-century king. They now believe the king's bones have been found inside Winchester City Museum
Richard III's skeleton was found in August 2012 and subsequent lead coffins have now been found at the site, one of which is thought to contain the remains of a Medieval knight called Sir William Moton.
The team suspect his coffin was buried in the 14th century – more than 100 years before Richard III was killed at the Battle of Bosworth and buried at the Grey Friars Church.
Dr Tucker said she had been disappointed when the exhumed bones turned out to be much later than Alfred's time - the earliest of six partial skeletons found dated back to about 1100 - but said the subsequent find was an ‘amazing’ discovery.
According to historical records, when King Alfred died in 899, he was interred at the Anglo-Saxon cathedral in Winchester, known as the Old Minster, and his bones were later moved by monks to New Minster and then Hyde Abbey, still in Winchester.
Hyde Abbey was dismantled after the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century and the bodies buried on the site are believed to have been 'scattered' when a prison workhouse was built there in 1788.
The skeleton of Richard III has a cleaved skull and a curved spine and was entombed under a car park. Scientific tests solving a 500-year-old mystery about the final resting place of the last English king to die in battle
It was during a community excavation in the late 1990s that the pelvic bone believed to be Alfred's or Edward's was found.
But no analysis of the find was undertaken because of lack of funding and because a bone found next to it was found to be from the 17th or 18th century and it was not thought to be of any interest.
Dr Tucker was made aware of the existence of the bones after the skeletons exhumed last year turned out to be a red herring.
She arranged for tests to be carried out on the pelvic bone, which not only dated it but found that it belonged to a man aged between 26 and 45 at death.
Dr Tucker said: 'The simplest explanation, given there was no Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Hyde Abbey, is that this bone comes from one of the members of the West Saxon royal family brought to the site.
'Given the age at death of the individual and the probable male identity, the plausible candidates are King Alfred, King Edward the Elder, or the brother of King Edward, Aethelweard.
A map of Britain in 878, when Alfred was King of Wessex, showing the Anglo-Saxon and Danish territories. At one point, all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms bar Alfred's Wessex, the most powerful, had fallen to the Danes
Alfred's statue in Winchester, which was his capital
'All were buried in the abbey. However, historical evidence indicates that only the coffins of Alfred and Edward were at the site of the high altar.
'The discovery of the bone in a pit dug into the graves in front of the high altar makes it far more likely it comes from either Alfred or Edward.'
Dr Nick Thorpe, head of the department of archaeology, said: 'The department of archaeology is extremely excited to have been able to plausibly link this human bone to one of these two crucial figures in English history.
'We also believe that we are thereby helping the city to right a historical wrong done to the remains of these great kings, which began with the dissolution of Hyde Abbey in 1539 to be followed by centuries of neglect, destruction and disturbance up to the last antiquarian diggings in 1901.
'Monks brought their remains to Hyde in 1110 because they wanted to preserve and honour them and this project enables us to do this once more.'
The university is now going to work with local heritage charity Hyde900 on further investigations into the findings with further excavations being considered and a suitable resting place being planned for the royal bones.
WHO WAS ALFRED THE GREAT?
Alfred the Great - Ælfrǣd ("elf counsel") in Old English - was born in 848 who ruled as King of Wessex from 871 to 899
Alfred successfully defended his kingdom against the Viking attempt at conquest, and by the time of his death had become the dominant ruler in England
He is the only English monarch to be accorded the epithet 'the Great'.
Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself 'King of the Anglo-Saxons'
Alfred has the reputation of a learned and merciful man who encouraged education and improved his kingdom's legal system and military structure.
HOW WILL SCIENTISTS KNOW IF THE BONE BELONGS TO KING ALFRED?
Dr Tucker said that it might be possible to extract DNA from the pelvic bone but said the problem was finding another DNA source to check it with.
‘There's a good chance of extracting DNA and comparing it to Alfred's granddaughter who is buried in Germany but they did try to get a DNA sample from her grave but were not able to because it was not so well preserved so we need to find someone else to compare them with,’ she said.
She explained that it would theoretically be possible to check against a living ancestor, as had been done with Richard III, but the problem was identifying a definite descendant.
She said: ‘We have had quite a number of individuals who have been contacting us, sending us their family trees, saying they are descendants of Alfred.
‘This is a path that may be worth pursuing but it's a very long way to go back, an extra 500 years to go back than Richard III, it's always going to be more of a difficult task to find a descendant.’
The carbon dating range was wide enough to cover both Alfred and his son.
‘The range does cover the death dates of Alfred and Edward equally well, I would say it's likely to be one of them, I wouldn't like to say which one of them,’ she said.
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