One of the crew members of the sunken Swedish warship Vasa was a woman

When the ship was refloated in 1961, it was carefully examined by archaeologists who, in addition to numerous artifacts, found and examined many human bones on board.

by skeletal analysis [analyse van de beenderen] It was possible to learn a lot about these people, such as their age, height, and medical history. Orthopedists recently suspected that G might be female, based on her pelvis. However, DNA analysis can reveal more than that,” said Dr Fred Hooker, director of research at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm.

Since 2004, the Vasa Museum has been working with the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology at Uppsala University to examine all of the Vasa remains and learn as much as possible about each individual. Initially, the project focused mainly on confirming whether certain bones belonged to a particular person.

“It’s very interesting and challenging for us to study the skeletons from the Vasa,” said Mary Allen, professor of forensic genetics, who is leading the project.

“It is very difficult to extract DNA from bones that have been at the bottom of the sea for 333 years, but it is not impossible. Several years ago, we already had evidence that the G skeleton was not a man, but a woman. Simply put, we did not find Y chromosomes in the genetic material of G. but we weren’t sure and wanted to confirm the result.”