The tomb of the church dignitary in the crypt of the Cathedral of Our Lady in Kalocsa, which had been dated previously to the turn of the 12-13th centuries, does not belong to Saul from the Győr clan, former Archbishop of Kalocsa, to whom the remains had been attributed, but to Astrik – contemporary Ascherik – the first archbishop of Kalocsa. The sarcophagus was found by Ernő Foerk, during the excavations conducted in 1910-11, near the uncovered sanctuary of the cathedral built in the era of St Stephen, next to the main axis of the nave, almost 3.80meters deep, under the sanctuary of the present day cathedral, in a red marble sarcophagus. The finds that can be seen in the Diocesian Museum in the István Katona house include: an archiepiscopal silver chalice, a paten, a silver crozier with wooden handle, an archiepiscopal ring, a small gold pectoral cross as well as three archiepiscopal pallium pins. The identification is supported by the AMS radiocarbon examination that was conducted on the two phalanxes acquired from the skeleton. The result of the carbon-isotop examination defined the date of death of the archbishop buried in the grave at (cal AD) 1001-1030, which date coincides with the scanty historical data we have on Archbishop Astrik.
The Department of Archaeology of the PPCU has been digging the site under the leadership of Gergely Buzás (National Museum of Hungary and lecturer at the Department of Archaeology of the PPCU) in cooperation with the Katona József Museum of Kecskemét since January 2014. The works are commissioned and funded by the Archdiocese of Kalocsa.
