1200-year-old bones of 'father of Europe' Charlemagne unearthed in Germany

Bones interred at Charlemagne's supposed resting place at Aachen Cathedral probably do belong to the emperor, Swiss and German scientists have revealed after studying the remains for 26 years.

Frank Ruhli, Head of the Center for Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, said that it might appear as an obvious conclusion but it isn't, as Charlemagne was exhumed and reburied many times with parts of his body given away as relics, so identifying his skeleton is not an easy task, Discovery News reported.

Ruhli, who announced the results of the study last week, 1,200 years after Charlemagne's death, said the bones appear to belong to a single individual, an old and rather tall man. This matches contemporary descriptions of Charlemagne.

Charlemagne, who managed to forge the first empire in Europe after the demise of the Roman Empire, died, possibly of pleurisy, after having ruled as Emperor for just over 13 years.

The father of Europe death, on Jan. 18, 814, and was buried in the German Cathedral on the same day.