An international team of researchers has used genetic, isotopic, and forensic methods to identify skeletal remains found in Budapest as those of Duke Béla of Macsó, a 13th-century nobleman assassinated in 1272. The analysis reveals his royal Scandinavian and Hungarian ancestry, childhood movements, and the brutal details of his coordinated murder. This discovery resolves a century-old archaeological mystery and provides rare insights into the Árpád dynasty.
The remains of Duke Béla of Macsó were first uncovered in 1915 during excavations at the Dominican monastery on Margaret Island in Budapest. Archaeologists at the time suspected the young man's bones, marked by violent trauma, belonged to Béla, born after 1243 and killed in November 1272. Historical accounts from 13th-century Austrian chronicles describe his assassination by Ban Henrik "Kőszegi" of the Héder family and associates, with his mutilated body later collected by his sister Margit and niece Erzsébet for burial at the monastery.
After initial study by Lajos Bartucz, who documented 23 sword cuts and fatal skull injuries indicating a multi-assailant attack, the bones vanished from records, presumed lost in World War II. In 2018, they were rediscovered: postcranial elements in the Hungarian Museum of Natural History and the skull in the ELTE collection. A multidisciplinary team, led by Tamás Hajdu of Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), including experts from Hungary, Austria, Italy, Finland, and Harvard University, reopened the case.
Anthropological analysis confirmed the man was in his early twenties. Radiocarbon dating, adjusted for a dietary reservoir effect from high animal protein and fish consumption, placed the death in the second half of the 13th century. Dental calculus revealed a diet of cooked wheat semolina and baked bread from wheat and barley. Strontium isotopes indicated childhood in the Vukovar and Syrmia region (modern Croatia and Serbia), with a later move possibly near Budapest.
Genetic evidence from ELTE's Institute of Archaeogenomics, led by Anna Szécsényi-Nagy and Noémi Borbély, confirmed Béla as the great-grandson of King Béla III, with nearly half his genome showing Scandinavian ancestry from the Rurik dynasty and Eastern Mediterranean ties via his maternal grandmother, Maria Laskarina. Y-chromosome analysis linked him to the Rurik paternal line, matching historical records.
Forensic reconstruction detailed 26 perimortem injuries from three assailants using a sabre and longsword, with no armor worn. Wounds suggest Béla defended himself before falling, followed by fatal blows, indicating a planned yet emotionally charged attack. Besides King Béla III, these are the only nearly complete Árpád dynasty remains preserved. The study appears in Forensic Science International: Genetics (2026).