The enigma of the girl buried in the Alcazar of Seville: she was not from the Middle Ages, but from a rich family of the 19th century

Two years after an extraordinary discovery, that of the first burial found in the Real Alcázar in Seville, which contained the remains of a blonde girl between four and five years of age, the results of the archaeological investigation dismantle the initial hypotheses, which suggested that the little girl lived in the Middle Ages.

The scientific report, presented on Thursday in the Andalusian capital, has determined that it is a minor born in the last third of the 19th century.

But what might seem disappointing at first, has become as valuable an archaeological find as it is mysterious from a historical one.

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The Sevillian girl with seven centuries of age

The investigation could well give rise to a novel and should be told as such, at least in its chronology.

April 2021: the team of archaeologists carrying out the tastings prior to the project to consolidate the 15th century tiles in the Gothic palace of the Real Alcázar in Seville finds, 20 centimeters from the current ground level, the body of a girl, with locks of blond hair still attached to the skull, between four and five years old.

The news is widely disseminated due to its importance: it is the first human burial found in the Sevillian monumental complex in its 10 centuries of history, a small lead sarcophagus inside which was found a wooden coffin almost disintegrated by humidity and a skeleton complete with textile remains, shoe leather and two mother-of-pearl buttons.

The finding was so extraordinary that a research team made up of geneticists from the Department of Legal Medicine of the University of Granada, as well as experts in Forensic Genetics from Santiago de Compostela, members of the University's Molecular Laboratory, was recruited for its study. of A Coruña, the National Accelerator Center and the Andalusian Institute of Geophysics.

“The best in Spain”, says Tabales.

Part of the skeletal remains of the girl's body found in the Alcázar in April 2021, presented this Thursday in Seville.AB

February 2023: the team concludes the investigation with results that deviate radically from the initial hypotheses.

The three radiocarbon dates on the human remains, footwear and coffin coincide in pointing out that the girl died and was buried in the second half of the 19th century, "with a limit below" that the chief archaeologist places in 1860, the time of the reign of Isabel II.

The dating could have led to disappointment, but the exhaustiveness of the scientific study has added a plus of interest and wonder to the story.

“It is probably a secret burial, at least semi-clandestine”, deposited under the main altar of the chapel, at the feet of the Virgen de la Antigua, “presumably based on devotion to the image”, says Tabales.

a very powerful family

But who had access to the Gothic chapel of the Alcázar at that time?

It must be remembered that the palace complex, declared a World Heritage Site, was exclusively owned by the Spanish Royal House —without public access or open to visits at a time when tourism did not exist— until, in 1931, the Government of the Second Republic ceded it, along with its gardens, to the Seville City Council.

"The setting where the remains have been found is what makes it exceptional: it must have been without a doubt a very powerful family, with enormous influence in accessing the enclosure", and with a lot of power to raise the floor of the chapel and place the coffin just below the altar and the image of the virgin, says the archaeologist.

Courtyard of the Maidens of the Alcazar of Seville.PACO PUENTES

But even more, the report adds another revealing fact: the study of their diet, through paleodiet techniques, shows that it was particularly good, "astonishingly rich in protein", a totally rare occurrence at the time.

"She was a girl full of attention, with a family accommodation for a very long time," the archaeologist dares to assert.

There are more astonishing indications —the buttons found, the material on the soles of the shoes— that lead to indicate a more than comfortable origin in the deceased girl, in a city that at that time was dominated by elites related to the aristocracy more than with the high bourgeoisie, and controlled by Antonio de Orleans and María Luisa Fernanda, Dukes of Montpensier, installed in Seville since 1848,

However, the multidisciplinary scientific team led by the archaeologist Miguel Ángel Tabales has investigated all the royal burials, including that of the bastard children;

They have consulted bibliography and searched in files related to the families that lived in the Alcázar in those years, but for the moment they have not found a link with the skeletal remains of the girl found in the Gothic palace.

The great obstacle to "putting a name and surname" on the body has been the DNA study, which has been negative due to the circumstances of the burial: "We have spent two years fighting with the DNA, we have repeated the analyzes in Granada and in A Coruña, with the best specialists in Spain”, clarifies the archaeologist, but nothing could be done due to the devastating action of lead, lime and water.

"In any case, it is not a disappointment, from the emotional point of view it has been much more gratifying," says Tabales, who places the cause of death in an intracranial cardiovascular malformation, "a rare disease, about which there is little literature medical”.

The works are still open "although with few prospects," acknowledges the archaeologist.

The fate of the body will be to return it to the place where it was found: "Rebury her with dignity, out of respect for that decision."