Scientists dig up family skeletons

[emad]

Luke Harding in Berlin
Wednesday October 27, 2004
The Guardian

It has been a mystery for more than a century - is a skull in an Austrian basement really that of arguably the greatest composer of all time, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?

Over the weekend a group of archaeologists began to answer the question by digging up the remains of Mozart's close relatives.

In a controversial operation, the scientists exhumed several skeletons from Mozart's family vault in Salzburg, where the composer spent most of his life.

On Monday they appear to have discovered the remains of the composer's 16-year-old niece Jeanette, whose bones could unlock the mystery of whether the skull, currently kept by Salzburg's Mozarteum Foundation, really is Mozart's.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/austria/article/0,2763,1336692,00.html


BBC:
Mozart's relatives face DNA tests

By Bethany Bell
BBC News, Vienna



Experts have never known the exact location of Mozart's grave

Researchers in the Austrian city of Salzburg have dug up the bodies of relatives of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in a search for DNA samples.
The scientists hope to find out if a skull currently held at Mozart's memorial foundation in the city is his.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3955609.stm

[The empressof all]

1. Perhaps I'm just a little thick here

I understand that Mozart was a most beloved composer but why in God's Name are they so concerned about his bones. It's extremely creepy to be so obsessed with identifying a skull that they are willing to dig up other dead people to do so.

WHYYYYYYYY????????????????

Will people come to worship the Mozart Skull? Will it travel around the world for all to see like a circus sideshow?

Hasn't this man given us enough with his musical works----Now we want his bones too!

This is just too stupid

But thanks for sharing :)

[Endangered Specie]

2. Shhh... the maestro is De-composing.

:evilgrin:

[molly]

3. LOL!

[amazona]

4. we disrespect our ancestors

A lot of Native Americans have always been ticked at the casual way archeologists disturb their bones, but it isn't any special disrespect toward them -- it seems our society will also dig up the bones of our own highest heroes. Didn't Lincoln himself get exhumed some years ago to prove he had some disease or other? Anyway, it seems we have tons of disrespect to go around. I agree with you, it should be about the man's work and his music, not about his bones.

I'm waiting for Shakespeare to be exhumed so they can DNA test him and decide who he "really" was -- he thought ahead and put a curse on his bones!