{"id":255326,"date":"2026-06-04T15:55:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T15:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/255326\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T15:55:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T15:55:42","slug":"archaeologists-opened-a-queens-700-year-old-tomb-and-found-a-medieval-mystery-instead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/255326\/","title":{"rendered":"Archaeologists Opened a Queen\u2019s 700-Year-Old Tomb and Found a Medieval Mystery Instead"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1327, Queen Elisenda of Aragon founded the Royal Monastery of St. Mary of Pedralbes, which also became her final resting place. For the 700th anniversary of the monastery, archaeologists embarked on a formal excavation of the gravesite. What they ended up finding wasn\u2019t what they expected at all.<\/p>\n

The tomb did, in fact, contain skeletal remains consistent with what was known about Elisenda of Montcada. Elisenda\u2019s bones were placed in a medieval wooden box adorned with silk and tinsel, according to a translated statement<\/a> from the Culture Institute of Barcelona (via Google Translate). But the real surprise came from the seven other graves opened for the anniversary. A tomb thought to belong to Aragonese knight Artau de Foces held remains of three infants and two young women, whereas another, attributed to Elisenda\u2019s niece, contained bones from at least nine other individuals.<\/p>\n

\"WomanA woman\u2019s skull, with the ponytail preserved, retrieved from a tomb attributed to the knight Artau de Foces. Credit: Culture Institute of Barcelona <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a qualitative leap, because until now we had only been able to study this through the evidence that has survived, such as this historic building, the queen\u2019s own tomb or the heraldry,\u201d Anna Castellano, the monastery\u2019s chief curator, told Catalan News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A queen\u2019s work <\/p>\n

According to the Institute<\/a>, Elisenda was a \u201cdeeply religious\u201d queen who moved to a small palace next to the monastery following the death of her husband, James II of Aragon. A group of Catholic nuns known as the Poor Clares<\/a> ran the monastery, but Elisenda exercised influence over the community, \u201con whose behalf she issued four ordinances and to whom she left most of her possessions,\u201d the Institute explained.<\/p>\n

Her tomb appears to reflect this close relationship, as archaeological evidence indicates she was buried in austere clothing \u201cprobably linked to a monastic lifestyle,\u201d as per the statement. Further analysis suggested Elisenda died at around age 70, likely from multiple bone diseases.<\/p>\n

Reused gravesites? <\/p>\n

The excavations, which began in late 2024, also opened seven other graves. Notably, researchers couldn\u2019t find any sign of a male individual inside one tomb attributed to the knight Artau de Foces. Meanwhile, a tomb believed to belong to Francesca Saportella, Elisenda\u2019s niece, contained at least nine different individuals\u2014none of them Francesca Saportella\u2014from different time periods, including four males with stab wounds and a mummified torso of a pregnant woman.<\/p>\n

\"FrancescaSkeletons inside a tomb thought to belong to Francesca Saportella. Credit: Culture Institute of Barcelona <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an opportunity to study the physical characteristics of these people and also everything surrounding funerary gestures and burial systems in these types of communities,\u201d remarked Josep Maria Vila, the project\u2019s co-director, to APD<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To be continued \"SkeletalResearchers study skeletal remains retrieved from the monastery. Credit: Culture Institute of Barcelona <\/p>\n

These rather shocking revelations mark the beginning of more research to come. The project is slated to continue until at least 2027. In addition to artifacts recovered from burial sites, the team also collected more than 200 archaeobotanical samples and DNA traces from Elisenda and other individuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeven hundred years after the foundation of the monastery, many questions remain open,\u201d the statement concluded. \u201cThe challenge for the coming year will be to transform these first findings into a complete historical reading that allows us to better understand not only who these people were, but also how they lived, how they died, and how they were remembered.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1327, Queen Elisenda of Aragon founded the Royal Monastery of St. Mary of Pedralbes, which also became…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[33927,30765,9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-255326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-archaeology","tag-medieval-history","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}