The results, published in the journal Scientific Reports, have determined that 23 of the individuals died in battle and that the knights of the order followed a diet typical of medieval high society, with a considerable intake of animal protein and marine fish, in an area far from the coast. Unexpectedly, Carme Rissech, a researcher at the URV, identified the remains of a woman among the warrior monks.

Situated on one of the turns in the Tagus River as it flows through the province of Guadalajara, the remains of the castle of Zorita de los Canes are still standing on the same hill where the emir Mohammed I of Cordova ordered it to be built in 852. The fortress, built to defend the emirate from Christian attacks, changed hands twice until it was definitively conquered by the knights of the Order of the Temple in 1124.

Fifty years later, Alfonso VIII of Castile ceded the fortress to the recently founded Order of Calatrava, a Cistercian military and religious order, who were tasked with defending the border, at that time delimited by the Tagus, from Almohad incursions.

When Carme Rissech, a researcher at the URV's Department of Basic Medical Sciences, was told that they were sending her the remains of the Calatrava knights, she couldn't quite believe that they were actually knights. As part of the MONBONES project, which studies diet and lifestyle in monasteries during the Middle Ages, her project partners analyzed the presence of carbon isotopes 14 and nitrogen 15 in the bones of the 25 individuals.