Le crâne attribué au saint roi mérovingien Dagobert II. Étude historique et anthropologique.

When History and legend meet forensic anthropology, it can lead to complex research. We owe it to chance, which allowed us to study a skull, part of the Treasury of the Sainte-Waudru collegiate Church in Mons (Belgium). Various documents have been studied and we have maintained contacts with the historians of the City of Stenay (France) and with the Circle of Saint-Dagobert, venerating since 679, Dagobert II, the king murdered on this date and became the protector of this locality. The strangeness of the lesion observed on this skull allowed us to study various weapons from this period in order to search and find very useful matches. Modern datation techniques (radiocarbon) however, have reversed the course of this story and excluded the belonging of this skull to one of the last Merovingian kings.

Peer Review, International Redaction Board, Impact Factor

anthropology; blunt sharp trauma; relic ; skull ; Merovingian ; Dagobert II