title: About 42% of 154 remains from the "Battle of Le Mans", France (1793) belong to women and children: Morphological and genetic evidence.
abstract: Mass graves were discovered in Le Mans and 154 skeletons were exhumed, representing a remarkable historical series of human remains from western France. We aimed to characterise the age-class and sex of these subjects, and to determine whether their profile fits with that of the Catholic and Royal Army of Vendée, who fought against the Republican Army during the Battle of Le Mans (12th-13th December, 1793). This atypical army was composed of male soldiers, but also of civilian people who followed the troops, including the elderly, children and women. In total 154 skeletons from nine mass graves were exhumed from 2009 to 2010. Two morphological methods were used to determine the sex of the subjects: the Probabilist Sexual Diagnosis (DSP) and Secondary Sexual Diagnosis (DSS) methods. Samples were handled cautiously to avoid any pre-laboratory contamination. Molecular genetic sex-typing using a recently developed assay was used to maximise sex-diagnosis of the ancient DNA samples, and 97 successful profiles including immatures were generated. Using morphological and genetic data combined, we successfully determined the sex of 93% of the subjects; 62% were male and 31% female. About 87% of subjects could be considered adults (>18 years old), 6% adolescents (15-19 years old) and 7% infants (<15 years old). Our results of an unexpected population profile for an armed conflict (42% were women and children), in addition to traumatological and historical elements, tend to confirm that these subjects were involved in the Battle of Le Mans, either actively (Republican Army, the Catholic and Royal Army) or passively (collateral victims from the civilian population of Le Mans). They represent 5-6% of the estimated 2500-3000 victims.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Moléculaire et Imagerie de Synthèse, UMR5288 Université de Toulouse-CNRS, 37 allées Jules Guesde, 31073 Toulouse Cedex 3, France.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Thèves
authors.affiliation: Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives, INRAP Grand Ouest, 37 rue du Bignon, 35577 Cesson-Sévigné, France; Anthropologie Bio-culturelle, Droit, Ethique et Santé, Faculté de Médecine Site Nord (UMR 7268), 51 Boulevard Pierre Dramard, 13344 Marseille Cedex 15, France.
authors.forename: Elodie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cabot
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Moléculaire et Imagerie de Synthèse, UMR5288 Université de Toulouse-CNRS, 37 allées Jules Guesde, 31073 Toulouse Cedex 3, France.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bouakaze
authors.affiliation: Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives, INRAP Grand Ouest, 37 rue du Bignon, 35577 Cesson-Sévigné, France.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chevet
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Moléculaire et Imagerie de Synthèse, UMR5288 Université de Toulouse-CNRS, 37 allées Jules Guesde, 31073 Toulouse Cedex 3, France.
authors.forename: Éric
authors.initials: É
authors.lastname: Crubézy
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Moléculaire et Imagerie de Synthèse, UMR5288 Université de Toulouse-CNRS, 37 allées Jules Guesde, 31073 Toulouse Cedex 3, France. Electronic address: patricia.balaresque@univ-tlse3.fr.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Balaresque
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000068337:Armed Conflicts / Q000266:history; D000071298:Body Remains; D002048:Burial; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D000072441:DNA, Ancient; D049249:Exhumation; D005260:Female; D018732:Forensic Anthropology; D005602:France; D049671:History, 18th Century; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012732:Sex Determination Analysis; D054881:Sex Determination by Skeleton; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000072441:DNA, Ancient
keywords: Ancient DNA; Battle of Le Mans; Forensic archeology; Molecular genetic sex-typing; Morphological sex diagnosis; SRY-UTY-UTX; mtDNA