Anne d'Alègre’s Gold Wire Teeth Mystery Finally Solved

In 1988, archaeologists opened a lead coffin at the Château de Laval in north-western France and made an unusual discovery.

Inside lay a woman who had been dead for over 350 years, yet whose teeth were in unexpectedly good condition.

Embalming had played a part in preserving her.

However, the team was particularly intrigued by an odd metal device wrapped around her teeth.

The technology available in 1988 could not establish either what it was or its purpose. The unanswered puzzle, together with the coffin, was therefore put back into storage.

It would take a further 35 years, new dental-scanning technology and a remarkably persistent group of archaeologists to resolve it.

Anne d'Alègre's gold wire dental treatment

The remains were those of Anne d'Alègre, a French aristocrat who died in 1619, aged 54.

A 2023 study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports found that d'Alègre had spent her later years attempting to prevent her teeth from falling out by securing them with gold wire.

A cone-beam scan, which is a form of 3D X-ray, showed gold wire passing through several of d'Alègre's teeth to tighten and support them.

She also had an artificial tooth fashioned from elephant ivory rather than the hippopotamus ivory then in vogue.

This was not merely a matter of appearance. D'Alègre suffered from advanced periodontal, or gum, disease, which causes teeth to loosen in their sockets and eventually fall out. The gold wire was intended to give her more time.

"We propose that the objective of the treatment was triple: therapeutic, aesthetic, and societal," anthropologist Rozenn Colleter of INRAP, the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research, and her colleagues wrote in the journal article.

Unfortunately, d'Alègre's improvised wiring was unlikely to have helped, at least not in a direct sense.

This type of wire required repeated tightening, while each adjustment placed further pressure on neighbouring teeth and loosened them as well.

D'Alègre would have understood this risk, but continued the treatment nonetheless.

Teeth, speech and social standing

During that period, healthy-looking teeth were about more than physical comfort. Tooth loss affected not only someone's appearance, but also the way others heard them speak.

"If the patient remains toothless and disfigured, his speech becomes depraved," wrote Ambroise Paré, the 16th-century physician to French kings.

For d'Alègre, the consequences were especially significant. As a socialite widowed twice, she was precisely the sort of woman whose face and voice were continually assessed in a society that linked a woman's value with her presentation.

"Beyond the only aesthetic aspects, the installation of a dental prosthesis, and despite the possible odontological complications known at that time, perhaps allowed Anne d'Alègre to maintain a certain social rank in front of her detractors," Colleter and colleagues wrote.

Anne d'Alègre's life during the Wars of Religion

D'Alègre was a Huguenot, meaning a French Protestant, and lived through the French Wars of Religion, supporting the Protestant side in opposition to the Catholic crown.

By the age of 21, she had already been widowed and had a young son, Guy XX de Laval. When the Eighth War of Religion began, the king confiscated their lands, forcing mother and son to go into hiding.

Her son later converted to Catholicism, left to fight in Hungary and was killed in battle at the age of 20.

D'Alègre survived him, remarried, became a widow for a second time and died from illness at 54, with her teeth still wired into her jaw.

Yet those teeth were heavily weathered and worn, perhaps because d'Alègre ground her teeth or clenched her jaw.

"We have noted that the bruxism observed on Anne d'Alègre could be the sign of important stress states," the researchers wrote.

"Her artificial teeth were probably not just a coquetry on her part. The various widowhoods she experienced undoubtedly contributed to her anxiety."

Today, the World Health Organization estimates that severe periodontal disease affects 1 billion adults globally.

Most people do not have gold wire and elephant ivory available to resist it. However, experimental treatments that may repair enamel and combat tooth decay without drilling could soon become available.

The research was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

This article was fact-checked and edited by Clare Watson. Although we take pride in our process, we are only human. If you notice an error, please let us know.