Junno Juho-Antti, Niskanen Markku, Maijanen Heli, Niinimäki Jaakko, Junno Alina, Oura Petteri
Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oulu, FI-90014 Oulu, Finland.
Department of Anatomy, Medical Research Center Oulu, Oulu University Hospital and University of Oulu, FI-90014 Oulu, Finland.
PNAS Nexus. 2022 Oct 11;1(5):pgac234. doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac234. eCollection 2022 Nov.
The death of King Charles XII of Sweden has remained as a mystery for more than three centuries. Was he assassinated by his own men or killed by the enemy fire? Charles was killed by a projectile perforating his skull from left to right. In this study, we utilized a Synbone ballistic skull phantom and modern radiological imaging to clarify the factors behind the observed head injuries. We examined whether a musket ball fired from the enemy lines would be the most potential projectile. Our experiments with a leaden 19.5 mm musket ball demonstrated that at velocities of 200 to 250 m/s, it could cause similar type of injuries as observed in the remains of Charles . The radiological imaging supported the theory that the projectile was not a leaden but of some harder metal, as we could detect remnants of lead inside the wound channel unlike in Charles' case. In addition, our experiments showed that a 19.5mm musket ball produces max. 17mm hole into a felt material . The main evidence supporting 19.5 mm projectile size has been a 19-19.5mm bullet hole in a hat that Charles was wearing during his death. Additional experiments with a 25.4 mm steel ball produced approximately 20 mm hole in the felt. As our musket ball experiments also resulted in considerably smaller cranial injuries than those in Charles' case, we can conclude that the deadly projectile wasn't leaden and was more than 19.5 mm in diameter, potentially an iron cartouche ball that was shot from the enemy lines.
瑞典国王卡尔十二世之死在三个多世纪以来一直是个谜。他是被自己人暗杀还是死于敌方火力？卡尔是被一枚从左至右穿透其头骨的射弹击毙的。在本研究中，我们利用Synbone弹道头骨模型和现代放射成像技术来阐明所观察到的头部损伤背后的因素。我们研究了从敌方战线发射的火枪子弹是否是最有可能的射弹。我们用一颗19.5毫米铅制火枪子弹进行的实验表明，在200至250米/秒的速度下，它可能造成与在卡尔遗骸中观察到的类似类型的损伤。放射成像支持了射弹不是铅制而是某种更硬金属的理论，因为与卡尔的情况不同，我们在伤口通道内检测到了铅的残余物。此外，我们的实验表明，一颗19.5毫米火枪子弹在毛毡材料上产生的最大孔洞为17毫米。支持19.5毫米射弹尺寸的主要证据是卡尔死亡时所戴帽子上有一个19 - 19.5毫米的弹孔。用一颗25.4毫米钢球进行的额外实验在毛毡上产生了约20毫米的孔洞。由于我们的火枪子弹实验造成的颅骨损伤也比卡尔的情况小得多，我们可以得出结论，致命射弹不是铅制的，直径超过19.5毫米，可能是从敌方战线发射的铁制徽章球。
