Lhe remains had not said everything: thirty years after its discovery, the skeleton of a Protestant aristocrat from the time of the wars of religion in France has just revealed the intimate secrets of this controversial personality, who suffered from an oral disease very poorly cared for.
The tomb of Anne d’Alègre, who died in 1619 at the age of 54, had been unearthed during an excavation at the Château de Laval in 1988. Embalmed in a lead coffin, the skeleton was particularly well preserved, his teeth too.
The archaeologists had then noticed the presence of a dental prosthesis, but did not have powerful analysis tools to dig further.
More than thirty years later, a team including archaeologists and dentists reveals that Anne d’Alègre suffered from a periodontal disease which causes the progressive loosening of the teeth, according to a study published this week in Journal of Archeological Science.
The radiological images by “Cone Beam”, a 3D scanner, show that the patient wore a dental prosthesis replacing an incisor, supported by gold threads, as well as a ligature of contention on the pre-molars.
Macroscopic examinations determined that this prosthesis was made of elephant ivory, dismissing the trail of hippopotamus tooth ivory, also used at the time.
This treatment only “worsened the situation” of the patient, explains to AFP Rozenn Colleter of Inrap (National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research), main author of the study.
“Neat Appearance”
In the long term, this treatment, as well as the “multiple tightenings necessary, have led to the instability of the neighboring teeth”, details Inrap.
The researchers suggest that the objective of this treatment was therapeutic, aesthetic and above all social, as aristocratic women had to maintain a “well-groomed appearance”. Ambroise Paré, the king’s doctor and contemporary of Anne d’Alègre, who designed the same types of prostheses, said that “if a patient was toothless, his speech was depraved”, underlines Rozenn Colleter.
The pressure to keep a “beautiful” smile had to be accentuated for this “controversial” personality with a disjointed life, twice widowed, who “did not have a good reputation”, continues this archaeo-anthropologist.
She was described as socialite, wanting “to be seen while driving in a carriage to go to the sermon”, describes Inrap.
After a first marriage with Paul de Coligny, last Count of Laval, Anne d’Alègre finds herself a widow at the age of 21 and mother of a young child, known as Guy XX de Laval. The country is then plunged into its eighth religious war. Faced with ultra-Catholics, the young Huguenot had to hide her son, but her property and guardianship were confiscated from her by the King of France.
She remarried the Governor of Normandy, more than 30 years her senior. His son converted to Catholicism, went on a crusade and died at the age of 20. “For three years, Anne d’Alègre fought for Guy XX to be buried with his Protestant family”, relates Rozenn Colleter. She found herself widowed a second time, fell ill during the winter of 1619 and died at the age of 54.
The revelation of her dental pathology “shows that she underwent a lot of stress” during this troubled period in history, underlines the researcher, according to whom this study is “a bit of a way of rehabilitating her”. Anne d’Alègre had to suffer all the more because she had worn her prosthesis for several years, and the care was not provided by professional dentists.
Currently, periodontitis affects one in five people worldwide. It can be linked to bruxism, the grinding of the teeth.
26/01/2023 12:39:09 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP