New research suggests that a French noblewoman who died more than 400 years ago used gold bands to prevent her teeth from falling out.
Portrait of noblewoman Anne d’Alegre.
The body of noblewoman Anne d’Alegre, who died in 1619, was discovered during an archaeological dig at Chateau de Laval in northwestern France in 1988. She was mummified in a lead coffin, with her skeleton and teeth still in excellent condition.
At the time, the team noticed that the mummy had a denture and gold bands, but they didn’t have the advanced scanning tools to learn more. Now, 35 years later, archaeologists and dentists – led by Rozenn Colleter of the French National Insтιтute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) – have determined that d’Alegre suffered from periodontal disease, which caused her teeth to loosen, according to research published this week in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
Cone Beam CT scanning, which uses X-rays to create three-dimensional images, revealed that gold wires had been used to hold and тιԍнтen some of the noblewoman’s teeth, while the dentures were made from elephant tusks rather than hippopotamus tusks, which were common at the time.
However, Colleter said that this elaborate dental work only “made the situation worse” because the gold wires needed to be тιԍнтened repeatedly over the years, further destabilizing the adjacent teeth.
Anne D’Alegre’s teeth are remarkably well preserved.
D’Alegre may have suffered for more than just medical reasons. There was enormous pressure on noblewomen at a time when appearance was seen as a link to worth and status in society.
Ambroise Pare, a contemporary of d’Alegre, who served as physician to several French kings and designed similar dental prostheses, claimed that if a patient had no teeth, their words would have no weight.
A beautiful smile was especially important to d’Alegre, who was “controversial” in society and had been widowed twice, Colleter added.
D’Alegre lived through a difficult period in French history. She was a Protestant Huguenot and fought against Catholics in the French Wars of Religion in the late 1500s.
By the age of 21, d’Alegre had been widowed for the first time and had a young son, Guy XX de Laval. When the country fell into the Eighth War of Religion, d’Alegre and her son were forced to flee Catholic forces while their property was confiscated by the king. Her son later converted to Catholicism and went to fight in Hungary, eventually dying in battle at the age of 20. After being widowed for the second time, d’Alegre died of illness at the age of 54. Colleter said d’Alegre’s teeth “showed that she had been under a lot of stress.”
