[Princess Anna Vasa--her fascinating life story and skeleton].
The Princess Anna Vasa was born in Sweden in 1568 and spent her first 19 years there. She was the daughter of the Swedish king Johan III and his wife, the Polish Royal Princess Katarina Jagellonica. She was brought up as a Catholic but converted to be a Protestant already in 1583 and remained a fervent Protestant to the end of her life. She was an exceptionally intelligent and extensively educated woman. When her brother became king, Sigismund III of Poland, she accompanied him there. She exerted great influence on Sigismund who was brought up to be a Catholic. She was persistent in her religion, yet working for religious liberty. "The Swedish Princess" was also named "the Queen of Polish Botany". She was never married and she died 57 years old in 1625. For religious reasons her body had to wait 11 years for a funeral of royal standing. The funeral took place in 1636 in St Mary's Church in Torun, Poland. During restoration work at the church in April 1994, Anna Vasa's skeleton was removed from the tomb, and an antropological investigation in order to establish her identity was carried by Dr Andrzej Florkowski at the Dept of Anthrop, Nicholas Copernicus University of Torun. I was invited to Torun to examine her remains in May 1995. The skeleton was in a rather good state of preservation. However, her grave had been plundered at least twice. Her skeleton lacked the right forearm and hand, probably as the result of the pillage of her rings and bracelets. Some other bones and teeth were also missing. At our ocular examination the skeleton revealed a number of anatomical deformations and pathological changes. A conventional radiography and CT of Anna Vasa's skeletal remains was later carried out in 1995 by M. Grzegorzewski, Z. Boron and W. Lasek at the Dept of Radiology, Med. Acad. of Bydgoszcz, Polen. A DNA-analysis was carried out by Dr Anders Götherström at the Archaeol. Res. Lab., Stockholm Univ. An odontological and radiological study was performed by Dr Sigrid I. Kvaal, Dept of Oral path., Univ of Oslo, Norway. 14C (Ua-10417) and delta 13C analyses were carried out by Prof. Göran Possnert at the Angström Lab., Uppsala Univ, Sweden. The article presents results from the different analyses. Anna Vasa's remains were reburied in the restored church in October 1995.
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Ebba
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Osteroarchaeological Research Laboratory, Stockholm University, Lilla Frescativägen 7, 106 91 Stockholm. ebba.during@ofl.su.se
D001901:Botany / Q000266:history; D005197:Famous Persons; D005260:Female; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D006801:Humans; D011044:Poland; D033303:Protestantism / Q000266:history; D012600:Scoliosis / Q000266:history; D012863:Skeleton; D013548:Sweden