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’t what they expected at all. The tomb did, in fact, contain skeletal remains consistent with what was known about Elisenda of Montcada. Elisenda’s bones were placed in a medieval wooden box adorned with silk and tinsel, according to a translated statement 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’s niece, contained bones from at least nine other individuals. A woman’s skull, with the ponytail preserved, retrieved from a tomb attributed to the knight Artau de Foces. Credit: Culture Institute of Barcelona “It 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’s own tomb or the heraldry,” Anna Castellano, the monastery’s chief curator, told Catalan News.