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undated portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. |
Have scientists found Mozart's skull?
Researchers said Tuesday they will reveal the results of DNA tests
in a documentary film airing this weekend on Austrian television as part
of a year of celebratory events marking the composer's 250th birthday.
The tests were conducted last year by experts at the Institute for
Forensic Medicine in the alpine city of Innsbruck, and the long-awaited
results will be publicized in "Mozart: The Search for Evidence," to be
screened Sunday.
Past tests were inconclusive, but this time, "we succeeded in getting a
clear result," lead researcher Dr. Walther Parson, a renowned forensic
pathologist said. He said the results were "100 percent verified" by a
U.S. Army laboratory, but refused to elaborate.
The skull in question is one that for more than a century has been in
the possession of the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, the
elegant Austrian city where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on Jan. 27,
1756.
Parson said genetic material from scrapings from the skull was analyzed
and compared to DNA samples gathered in 2004 from the thigh bones of
Mozart's maternal grandmother and a niece. The bones were recovered when a
Mozart family grave was opened in 2004 at Salzburg's Sebastian Cemetery.
Mozart died in 1791 and was buried in a pauper's grave at Vienna's St.
Mark's Cemetery. The location of the grave was initially unknown, but its
likely location was determined in 1855.
The skull - which is missing its lower jaw - came to the Mozarteum in
Salzburg in 1902, according to Dr. Stephan Pauly, the foundation's
director.
The foundation, a private nonprofit organization that works to preserve
Mozart's legacy, was founded in 1880 by Salzburg residents and made the
skull available for the DNA tests.
The skull long has fascinated experts: In 1991, a French scholar who
examined it made the startling - though unconfirmed - conclusion that
Mozart may have died of complications of a head
injury rather than rheumatic fever as most historians believe.
Anthropologist Pierre-Francois Puech of the University of Provence
based his belief on a fracture he found on the skull's left temple.
Mozart, he theorized, may have sustained it in a fall, and that would help
explain the severe headaches the composer was said to have suffered more
than a year before his death.
Austria has designated 2006 a Mozart jubilee year, with dozens of events
in Salzburg, Vienna and elsewhere to commemorate his 250
birthday.
(Agencies)
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科學(xué)家們已經(jīng)找到了莫扎特的頭骨嗎？
本周二，有關(guān)研究人員表示，他們將于本周末在奧地利電視臺(tái)播出的一個(gè)記錄片中公布DNA測(cè)試結(jié)果，這也是紀(jì)念作曲家莫扎特誕辰250周年慶祝活動(dòng)的一個(gè)重要內(nèi)容。
這項(xiàng)DNA測(cè)試是“阿爾卑斯山城”因斯布魯克一個(gè)法醫(yī)學(xué)研究所的專(zhuān)家們?cè)谌ツ曜龅摹Ｆ诖丫玫臏y(cè)試結(jié)果將在本周日播出的記錄片《莫扎特：揭開(kāi)頭骨之謎》中揭曉。
之前所做的一些實(shí)驗(yàn)都沒(méi)有得出決定性的結(jié)論，但這次測(cè)試的帶頭人著名法醫(yī)病理學(xué)家沃爾瑟·帕森說(shuō)：“我們終于使‘真相’浮出水面”。他說(shuō)，此項(xiàng)出自美國(guó)軍隊(duì)實(shí)驗(yàn)室的測(cè)試結(jié)果可以說(shuō)是100%的可靠。但是他拒絕做進(jìn)一步的解釋。
這塊未被驗(yàn)明“真身”的頭骨一直被收藏在薩爾茨堡的國(guó)際莫扎特基金會(huì)中，已有一個(gè)世紀(jì)之久。薩爾茨堡是奧地利一個(gè)風(fēng)景如畫(huà)的城市，1756年1月27日，沃爾夫?qū)ぐ數(shù)蟻喫埂つ鼐统錾谶@里。
帕森說(shuō)，他們首先分析了從頭骨上刮下的碎屑中的遺傳物質(zhì)，之后將分析結(jié)果與已有的DNA樣本進(jìn)行對(duì)比，已有的DNA樣本是2004年從莫扎特的外祖母和侄女的大腿骨上提取的。2004年，位于薩爾茨堡塞巴斯蒂安墓地的莫扎特家族墓穴被打開(kāi)，這幾塊用作實(shí)驗(yàn)的骨頭便由此獲得。
莫扎特于1791年逝世，當(dāng)時(shí)他被埋在維也納圣馬克墓地的一個(gè)貧民墳?zāi)估?。最初沒(méi)有人知道莫扎特到底被埋在哪里，直到1855年，墳?zāi)沟拇篌w位置才被確定。
據(jù)基金會(huì)負(fù)責(zé)人史蒂芬·鮑里介紹，這塊缺了下頜的頭骨于1902年來(lái)到薩爾茨堡的莫扎特基金會(huì)。
國(guó)際莫扎特基金會(huì)是一個(gè)非盈利性的私人組織，由薩爾茨堡當(dāng)?shù)鼐用癯闪⒂?880年，其主要目的是為了保存莫扎特遺物，DNA測(cè)試所用的頭骨就是由它提供的。
莫扎特頭骨引起了很多專(zhuān)家們的興趣。1991年，一位法國(guó)學(xué)者對(duì)這塊頭骨進(jìn)行了研究，并得出了一個(gè)驚人的結(jié)論：莫扎特可能死于由頭部受傷引起的并發(fā)癥，而并非大多數(shù)歷史學(xué)家所認(rèn)為的風(fēng)濕熱。但這個(gè)結(jié)論最終沒(méi)有得到證實(shí)。
普羅旺斯大學(xué)的人類(lèi)學(xué)家皮埃爾·弗蘭科斯在莫扎特頭骨的左太陽(yáng)穴上發(fā)現(xiàn)了一條裂縫，由此，他推斷，這可能是由莫扎特摔跤所致，同時(shí)，這也為莫扎特逝世前困擾他一年多的嚴(yán)重頭痛病提供了解釋。
奧地利指定2006年為“莫扎特年”，薩爾茨堡、維也納和其他各地都將舉行各種慶?；顒?dòng)，以紀(jì)念莫扎特的250周年誕辰。
(中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)站編譯) |
Updated: 2006-01-05 09:43
