Is This The Skull of One of the World's Greatest Composers?

This year marks the 250th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birth. This being a milestone year, the Austrian composer is getting a lot more attention than usual -- and from surprising sources.

As legend has it, Mozart's skull was exhumed and repossessed in 1801, some ten years after his death. Since the turn of the 20th Century, the skull has been in custody by the Mozarteum foundation. Of course, Mozart enthusiasts and forensic experts have been most interested in the skull. According to this story, recently published on Yahoo!, scientists have recently extracted DNA from the teeth of this skull, and had compared it to DNA remains obtained from remains of Mozart's relatives from a family grave in Salzburg's St. Sebastian cemetery.

At best, the result of the DNA analysis, is inconclusive.

But Archaeology is so much more than Carbon-dating and DNA analysis. Historical records and folklore is often used by archaeologists to provide perspective to hard scientific analysis. After consultation of this site, the historical evidence is quite compelling, suggesting that this indeed, is the skull of Mozart.

It is likely that we do not have the scientific means to prove the authenticity of this skull. We may have to wait another 250 years before we really know the answer. But what would be most honorable thing to do (as suggested by John Godl, author of the aforementioned page), is to give Mozart a proper burial once and for all.