Queen Arnegunda - whom you have most likely never heard of - was of little interest even to the learned public until 1959. And now the researchers are proud to report, they say, "decades of conjecture and speculation behind, the mystery of the mummified lung of Queen Arnegunda has finally been solved." It feels like we missed something.
The story of Arnegunda, Queen of the Franks, is somewhat similar to the story of Tutankhamun: as Howard Carter once remarked, "the only remarkable event in the life of the pharaoh was that he died and was buried." So the remains of Arnegunda caused much more excitement in the scientific community than her life.
The queen's biography fits into several lines: she lived in the 6th century, became the second (or third) of the six (or seven) wives of the Frankish king Chlothar I of the Merovingian dynasty, was the sister of Ingunda, the first (or second) wife of Chlothar. The almost anecdotal story of the king's marriage to the sister of an existing queen is known in a short retelling by Gregory of Tours, the author of the multivolume History of the Franks: Ingunda turned to Clotar with a request to choose a worthy spouse for her sister, he did not find anyone worthy of himself and married Arnegund himself. From this marriage, the future king of Neustria, Chilperic I, was born.
In other words, the main stages of Arnegunda's life are known only thanks to the biographies of the crowned men around her. Another thing is the discovery of a sarcophagus with the remains of the queen in the crypt of the Parisian Basilica of Saint-Denis in 1959. Since then, all the attention of scientists went to Arnegunda personally: she turned out to be an invaluable object for research.
A stone sarcophagus with intact remains was found in 1959 by Michel Fleury (1923-2002) - a historian, archaeologist, archivist and connoisseur of ancient texts, among which is the “History of the Franks” by Gregory of Tours.
In addition to the actual bones, Fleury discovered a lock of hair in the sarcophagus, decaying fragments of once luxurious fabrics and leather, as well as exquisite jewelry, including a copper alloy belt and a gold ring, thanks to which the researchers were able to uniquely identify the remains. The inscription on the ring - ARNEGUNDIS around the central monogram read as REGINE, "queen" - leaves no doubt.
This is how a little-known woman from the "harem" of Chlothar I acquired a special, even unique status: the bones of Arnegunda turned out to be the oldest royal remains found in France. Arnegunda is the first in the history of France to have a "identity card" in the form of a name ring, and most importantly, her burial is a rare object for comprehensive study: few historical figures of the early Middle Ages are as material as the Queen of Arnegund. She has ceased to be one of the names in the annals, her remains and personal belongings can be researched using constantly evolving technologies.
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But that's not all: Arnegunda threw researchers one of those mysteries that can excite scientific curiosity for years. Among the already listed royal remains, anthropologists discovered a mysterious object that turned out to be a human lung - mummified or mummified.
The most interesting perspectives opened before scientists. But in the early 1960s, Arnegunda's remains disappeared. The bones and the mysterious lung seemed to have evaporated. All other finds are in order: royal jewelry has been exhibited in the Louvre since 1981, and the study of fragments of fabrics and leather allowed scientists to offer several options for the reconstruction of royal clothes and shoes. But this is not at all what the researchers expected from the rarest find. For several decades, anthropologists could work only with the data that the first researchers of the bones managed to "remove" - they determined the age of Arnegunda (about 45 years old) and her height (about 160 cm).
In April 2016, at an international conference in Germany on the comparative analysis of mummies, renowned anthropologist Raffaella Bianucci of the University of Turin announced that the mystery of Arnegunda's mummified lung had finally been solved.
How? “Queen Arnegunda was a particularly difficult case. Since her remains were discovered in 1959, they were moved several times, in 1960 they disappeared and were re-discovered only in 2003,”- so Bianucci briefly recounted the circumstances of the discovery to Discovery News.
Indeed, the remains of Arnegunda were magically found in 2003, when, after the death of Michel Fleury, colleagues decided to disassemble cabinets and drawers in the laboratory of the famous scientist. The royal remains lay in a box that was almost thrown into the trash.
The authenticity of the suddenly found remains is no longer in doubt - since 2003, researchers from different countries have carried out many analyzes and tests using technologies that no one could even dream of in 1959.
Scientists were able to accurately establish the age of the queen at the time of death - not 45 years, as previously thought, but 61 years ± 3 years. By the standards of the 6th century, Arnegunda was a long-liver, the most likely dates of life are from 515 to 573-579. A comparison of historical data suggests that Arnegunda gave birth to a son, Chilperic, at the age of 18. In the second half of her life, the queen suffered from diabetes. The cause of death has not yet been clarified.
Arnegunda's height was also revised - a study of bones and teeth showed that at the age of four, the future queen had had polio, as a result of which one of her legs was shorter than the other. For her time, Arnegunda had a quite normal height, 156 cm. Another detail - Arnegunda remained thin until the end of her life.
An additional stimulus for researchers was suddenly a book, which, by coincidence, was published in the same 2003: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. The general public woke up a keen interest in the Merovingians, who in Brown's book are represented by the descendants of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, bearers of the sang real or sang royal - the true royal blood of Jesus, the true Holy Grail.
Of course, the DNA analysis of Arnegunda would have been carried out anyway, but additional funding on the wave of the topic's popularity did not harm anyone. The purpose of the genetic study was to test for Arnegunda's belonging to the Middle Eastern haplotype, although scientists were well aware that this probability is extremely small. The origin of Arnegunda is not exactly known, but it is believed that she was the daughter of one of the minor German rulers - either the King of Worms, or the King of Thuringia. Despite the paucity of historical data, everything suggests that Arnegunda did not belong to the Merovingian family, she only "married a dynasty." Geneticists confirmed the European origin of Arnegunda, her haplogroup is U5a1.
The Merovingians are interesting even without conspiracy theories. From the 5th to the 8th centuries, they were busy creating the largest and most successful state in the post-Romanesque space of Western Europe. The lands controlled by the Merovingians were located on the territory of modern France, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland. The adoption of Christianity by the Franks at the end of the 5th century was at first conveniently combined with pagan traditions: the polygamy of King Clotar I is a confirmation of this. As well as the semi-biblical, semi-pagan "fad" of the Merovingians about their own hair, for which they were called reges criniti, "long-haired kings". More details about the oddities of the kings of the Franks can be found in our material "Royal hair was found in the seals of Charlemagne and his predecessors"
The study of Arnegunda's remains provided answers to many questions, but her mummified lung has remained a scientific mystery to this day. Why is it perfectly preserved if the rest of the body is decayed to the bone?
According to Bianucci, a graceful copper alloy belt with a silver clasp played a major role in the preservation of the lung.
Examination of a lung biopsy under an electron microscope revealed a high concentration of copper ions on the surface of the lung tissue. Research by other methods also showed a high concentration of copper oxide in the lung. “Since Arnegunda was found with a copper belt around the waist, we reasonably assumed that he was the source of copper oxide in the lung. The preservative properties of copper, combined with the herbal substances used in the embalming, ensured this lung preservation,”said Bianucci.
Biochemical analysis of the lung showed the presence of benzoic acid - it is still used today for preserving, for example, food. "The substances found are of plant origin and have a similar profile to the substances found in the resins used in the embalming of Egyptian mummies," Bianucci voiced the conclusion of her scientific group.
This discovery confirms the theory already put forward by historians that before burial, an embalming liquid made from aromatic and spicy herbs was poured into Arnegunda's mouth. This is not the first such case known to scientists: in 6th century France, this method was used to embalm the bodies of saints and royalty.
The procedure for embalming the representatives of the "elite" of their time was adopted by the Merovingians from the Romans, and they, in turn, inherited it from the Egyptians. “Obviously, the embalming process in the Merovingian era took place according to a simplified scheme. The mummification used was mainly linen soaked in resin and oil, combined with herbs such as thyme, nettle, myrrh and aloe,”says Bianucci.
Since these findings were announced at an international conference on the study of mummies, colleagues were able to share experiences. Albert Zink, head of the EURAC Institute for the Study of Mummies and the Ice Man in Bolzano, said that he found similarities between the remains of Arnegunda and the Coptic mummy from the 7th-11th centuries: “The study of the Coptic mummy showed that internal organs and the brain were not removed and the embalming solution was administered by mouth. As in the case of Arnegunda, the fluid collected in one lung, which became the only well-preserved organ."
A few lines in the annals and a handful of ashes left over from the little-known queen of the Franks, by the magic of modern science, turned into a living woman who had returned from oblivion. A short, thin, slightly limping old woman of 60 years old, who did not even have the status of the only beloved wife, was buried as a true and respected queen. Arnegunda survived her husband, Clothar I, for almost 20 years, and yet someone made sure that Arnegunda would retain her royal dignity even after her death. Several details suggest that someone knew her habits and addictions well. Was it Chilperic, her son, who by then had become king of Neustria? Is it possible that Chilperic, whom Gregory of Tours called "Nero and Herod of his time", sincerely loved and respected his mother?
The high status of Arnegunda is evidenced not only by the attempt to embalm the body, but also by her vestments - luxurious, gold-embroidered clothes of purple color, which since ancient times befits only kings and emperors. A different, female story is told by her jewelry - rich and sophisticated, but all of them show signs of wear. The Queen wore belt, brooches, hairpins more than once during her lifetime. And the filigree gold earrings were clearly her favorites. One is finely crafted, the other is a rough copy. Perhaps once one earring was lost, and a copy had to be ordered by a not very skillful local craftsman. With all the wealth of choice, it was this beloved pair of earrings that someone chose, collecting the queen on her last journey.