Experts have confirmed that the remains of the 16th-century Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, his wife and another eight people, including five children, were buried in Prague's Church of Our Lady before Tyn, Petr Veleminsky told reporters before the remains were returned to the tomb Friday.
Veleminsky, from the National Museum (NM), is among the Czech experts who examined the remains together with their Danish colleagues in the past week.
The tin coffin, tied up with a red ribbon, was deposited in the tomb in the overcrowded church this afternoon.
The ceremony was preceded by a church service celebrated by Prague Archbishop Dominik Duka and including prayers in Czech and Danish.
A local and a Danish choir sang during the mass.
The ceremony was also attended by Culture Minister Jiri Besser (TOP 09), representatives of Denmark and other guests, including the team of experts who had taken out and examined the remains.
"Tycho Brahe is a remembrance for us to never resign from the path of human knowledge," Duka said, adding that Brahe, along with Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler, ranks among those who significantly changed people's view of the world.
Zdenek Dragoun, from the Czech National Heritage Institute, who headed the archaeological research in the Tyn Church, told the press conference earlier Friday that Tycho Brahe and his wife were buried in an older tomb.
The scientists found the bones of another eight persons in a 1.5-deep backfill on which Brahe's coffin was placed.
Veleminsky, head of the Anthropological Department of the NM's Natural Sciences Museum, said the team also found a shoe, a stocking and a damask cloak, but not a jacket as expected.
The authenticity of Tycho Brahe's remains was also confirmed by reports from the previous research conducted in 1901 when also the remains of coffins and clothing were taken out and deposited in the Prague Municipal Museum.
The remains found now "belong to an older man with changes in the nasal part of the skull. They may correspond with the injuries that Brahe suffered when aged 20 to 22," Veleminsky said.
The scientists took samples from Brahe's coffin with which to check the level of mercury in his hair and bones.
Other samples will be isotope-analysed to learn about Brahe's diet.
The scientists also want to perform DNA and histological analyses and to reconstruct his face with computer methods.
Jens Vellev, from Danish University in Aarhus, said his team worked for free and that the Danish side paid for its stay in the Czech Republic.
After the press conference, the tin coffin with the remains of Tycho Brahe was again soldered. Before this the scientists placed a Danish and Czech-written report on the research conducted and added their signatures. Another classical commemorative document was written in Latin.
"Photographs of the Tyn Church, the current appearance of the tombstone, religious objects and banknotes were also placed in the coffin," Vladimir Kelnar, Tyn Church vicar, said.
A glass vessel with remains of the skull, hair and beard was also returned to Brahe's coffin.
On the bottom of the vessel the scientists found a report on the previous opening of the tomb in 1901, confirming the authenticity of the skeleton and another vessel with a mummified part of the brain matter.
The scientists have left the partially fallen-apart wooden coffin with the remains of Brahe's wife in its place.
Brahe's remains have been examined by an international team of scientists since Monday with the aim to determine the cause of his death and gain information on his life.
Brahe was buried in the church in 1601.
Preliminary results of the examination of the circumstances of Brahe's death could be known within two months.
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), an astronomer and astrologist, worked at the Prague seat of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II of the Habsburg dynasty.
It is not known to date whether he died of kidney problems or whether his death was caused by his experiments with mercury.
Recently, speculations about his possible murder on the order of Danish King Christian appeared.
For more information on Tycho Brahe, see TychoBrahe.com, a Universal Website.
Source: Prague Daily Monitor [November 22, 2010]