Theo the Pipe Smoker (* around 1790; † around 1820 in
Kleinbasel) is the fictitious name of a man whose
skeleton
A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...
was found in 1984 in a former
potter's field
A potter's field, paupers' grave or common grave is a place for the burial of unknown, unclaimed or indigent people. "Potter's field" is of Biblical origin, referring to Akeldama (meaning ''field of blood'' in Aramaic), stated to have been pu ...
near the Theodorskirche (Theodor Church) in Kleinbasel (part of the Swiss city of
Basel
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...
). He was named after the church's cemetery in which he was found.
Kleinbasel around 1800
Although Kleinbasel was part of the city of Basel since the Middle Ages, it remained independent in many respects due to its location on the right bank of the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
. It was home to middle class tradespeople with their families and domestic workers. The census of 1799 showed a population of just under 3000 people for the densely populated Kleinbasel, plus those not recorded, such as
day labourers or passing travellers. When Theo was born, the
Middle Bridge was the only link across the Rhine in the region, as the Wettstein Bridge (German: Wettsteinbrücke) was only built in 1879.
Back then, the center of Kleinbasel was the “Pond” (German: Teich), a network of canals with water from the river
Wiese that was used for commercial purposes. It was used by sawmills,
dye
A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution an ...
works and
fulling mills
Fulling, also known as felting, tucking or walking (Scots language, Scots: ''waukin'', hence often spelled waulking in Scottish English), is a step in woolen, woollen Textile manufacturing, clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven o ...
, by
tanners Tanners may refer to:
* Tanners (company), a British wine company
* Tanners, Virginia, an unincorporated community located in Madison County, United States
* Jerald and Sandra Tanner, opponents of the LDS Church (Mormons)
* Leatherhead F.C., a fo ...
and millers, for gypsum mills, tobacco mills and others. In 1823, the canals drove a total of 64 wheels, 34 of which were grain mills. They were heavily polluted by sewage and faeces. Kleinbasel's "Pond" was filled in between 1907 and 1917. The “Teichgässlein” (“Pond Alley“) between Claragraben and Ochsengasse still recalls this pond today.
On the southern and eastern side of Kleinbasel, that were not traversed by watercourses, many of Kleinbasel's inhabitants lived on agriculture, as winegrowers or sailors.
Kleinbasel um 1795.jpeg, Kleinbasel around 1795; the Theodorskirche on the right. Etching by Christian von Mechel
Christian von Mechel (4 April 1737 in Basel; † 11 April 1817 in Berlin) was a Swiss engraver, publisher and art dealer. He developed a broad trade in art, through business connections throughout northern and central Europe; although the French ...
(detail)
Image taken from page 353 of 'Historisches Festbuch zur Basler Vereinigungsfeier, 1892. (With illustrations.)' (11215177505).jpg, Kleinbasel at the beginning of the 19th century
Cemetery
The former vineyard area to the west of the Theodorskirche was purchased in 1779 by council member Remigius Merian. After the last grape harvest, it was prepared for the long-needed extension of the regular churchyard; the first funeral took place on 5 October 1779. The new cemetery was enclosed by a wall and was named “Merianscher Totenacker” (
Merian's Graveyard) after its former owner. Members of the lower social class were mainly buried there. However, as its capacity was quickly exhausted, two more areas were used as cemeteries, the “Kleeacker” in 1805 and the “Mättelein” in 1831; these too did not prove to be sustainable. In 1832, a new cemetery was established outside the city near the Messeplatz for the rapidly growing population of Basel. The Merianscher Totenacker near the Theodorskirche was closed as of 1 May 1833. The Theodor schoolhouse, built in 1855/56, stands on the site of the former graveyard.
During these 54 years, a total of 4334 people died in Kleinbasel. They were buried there in the different cemeteries, but most of them in the small Merianscher Totenacker. Amongst those were inhabitants of Kleinbasel: craftsman, small traders, carters, fishermen, and their families. All burials were recorded in the register of deaths of the St. Theodor
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
with first and last name, age, and often also with profession and origin.
[Gerhard Hotz et al.: ''Theo der Pfeifenraucher''; Edition Christoph Merian, Basel 2010, p. 31]
Matthäus Merian 1615 Friedhof.jpg, Location of the cemetery near the Theodorskirche, then still a vineyard. Representation from the map of Matthäus Merian Matthäus is a given name or surname. Notable people with the name include:
;Surname
* Lothar Matthäus, (born 1961), German former football player and manager
;Given name
* Matthäus Aurogallus, Professor of Hebrew at the University of Wittenberg ...
, 1615
Friedhof mit Grabung.png, Area of the old Merianscher Totenacker. The excavations of 1984 are highlighted in colour.
Blue: sites of the younger phase,
green: older phase,
red: location of Theo's grave.
Situationsplan Theodorskirche.jpg, Location map:
1. Theodorskirche
2. Allerheiligenkapelle
(All Saints′ chapel)
3. Vicarage
4. Kartausgasse
5. Theodorsgraben
6. Claragraben
7. Special cemetery
8. «Kleeacker» cemetery
9. «Mättelein» cemetery
10. «Merianscher Totenacker» with Theo's grave
Discovery
![Theo Fundort2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Theo_Fundort2.jpeg)
A
heat pump
A heat pump is a device that can heat a building (or part of a building) by transferring thermal energy from the outside using a refrigeration cycle. Many heat pumps can also operate in the opposite direction, cooling the building by removing h ...
was to be installed in this schoolhouse in 1984, which required new pipes to be built. The discovery of graves in the area west of the Theodorskirche next to the schoolhouse was to be expected. Thus, the excavation work was accompanied by archaeologists of the Archäologischen Bodenforschung Basel-Stadt, the archaeological department of the
Canton of Basel-Stadt
Basel-Stadt or Basel-City (german: Kanton ; rm, Chantun Basilea-Citad; french: Canton de Bâle-Ville; it, Canton Basilea Città) is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of three municipalities with Basel as t ...
. In the winter of 1984, workers came across the remains of 24 graves in the western part of the former cemetery.
Theo's body was found in the middle of a stack of six in grave 19. He was buried in a southwest–northeast orientation in a stretched supine position. There were hardly any traces left of a coffin. The skeleton was recovered completely, only the bones of a foot had to remain in the ground, as the wall of the pit could not be removed for static reasons. The neighbouring graves 15, 17, and 22 were at a 90-degree angle, oriented northwest–southeast, and tended to be less deep. Theo's grave was dated as later than these, but earlier than grave 20, oriented in the same direction at his feet. This means that Theo had been buried before the final phase of the cemetery. The fact that these graves of the older phase were partly higher than the graves from the younger phase is possibly related to the fact that the “decree regarding the burial of corpses” of 25 February 1814 demanded that those who had died of “nervous fever” (
typhus
Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure.
...
) should be buried in particularly deep graves in order to prevent “toxic fumes” from rising. The
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
s concluded that this change in burial methods was possibly connected with the great typhoid epidemic of 1814. The older graves were oriented northeast–southwest and rather shallow, whereas the graves of the younger phase were oriented southwest–northeast and tended to be placed deeper in the ground.
So, Theo's body had obviously neither been buried at the beginning of this younger burial phase of 1814 nor the last one around 1833, but probably in the 1820s. A total of 24 skeletons were recovered, brought to the
Natural History Museum of Basel
Natural History Museum Basel (german: Naturhistorisches Museum Basel) is a natural history museum in Basel, Switzerland that houses wide-ranging collections focused on the fields of zoology, entomology, mineralogy, anthropology, osteology and pal ...
and archived there in the collection.
Scientific research
Identified historical skeletons are mostly from persons of the social upper class. Their graves are often in churches and the circumstances of their burial are well documented. The project of Theo's identification is therefore an exception intending to identify a nameless person, a “nobody” from the lower class.
The research on Theo's skeleton and his person was also the beginning of the extensive Basel Citizen Science program (in German: Bürgerforschung Basel-Stadt, BBS). Until 2019 around 70 volunteer researchers were involved in this project transcribing historical sources and processing data. Another project of Citizen Science was the research on
Anna Catharina Bischoff
Anna Catharina Bischoff (23 March 1719 – 30 August 1787), also known as the "Lady (or mummy) of the Barfüsser Church" was the wife of the pastor Lucas Gernler. She gained popularity in 1975, when her mummified corpse was found in a shaft at th ...
, an ancestor of the former British prime minister
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...
.
The numerous written and pictorial documents in the Staatsarchiv Basel-Stadt (State Archives of Basel City) from the 18th and 19th centuries greatly facilitated the research. Natural sciences and humanities disciplines are working together and complementing each other, with genealogical research playing a key role. The project is headed by
anthropologist
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
Gerhard Hotz,
curator
A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...
at the Natural History Museum Basel.
First investigations
As part of an exercise conducted by the Institute for Integrative Prehistory and Archaeological Science of the
University of Basel
The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universit ...
, two students,
anthropologist
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
Simon Kramis and
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
Fabian Link, examined the skeleton from tomb 19 in 2004 and noticed two oval, almost circular gaps in the young man's dentures, which aroused the young researchers’ curiosity and led to further investigations of the skeleton. These revealed that the deceased was a male who had died between the age of 28 and 32.
It is not known where Theo was born. A
strontium
Strontium is the chemical element with the symbol Sr and atomic number 38. An alkaline earth metal, strontium is a soft silver-white yellowish metallic element that is highly chemically reactive. The metal forms a dark oxide layer when it is ex ...
isotope analysis
Isotope analysis is the identification of isotopic signature, abundance of certain stable isotopes of chemical elements within organic and inorganic compounds. Isotopic analysis can be used to understand the flow of energy through a food web ...
of three of his
molars
The molars or molar teeth are large, flat teeth at the back of the mouth. They are more developed in mammals. They are used primarily to grind food during chewing. The name ''molar'' derives from Latin, ''molaris dens'', meaning "millstone to ...
showed that he had most probably lived in the Basel area until the age of 13. Investigations of dental
cement
A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mix ...
and bone showed that as a young man he had suffered at least two phases of
stress
Stress may refer to:
Science and medicine
* Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition
* Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...
and signs of incipient
osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a type of degenerative joint disease that results from breakdown of joint cartilage and underlying bone which affects 1 in 7 adults in the United States. It is believed to be the fourth leading cause of disability in the w ...
. He was rather small at 1,60 metres and had a balanced diet even during his boyhood. This suggests that he was not among the poorest. As analyses of the arm and clavicle bones showed, Theo was most likely a right-handed craftsman.
Theo died too young; the
life expectancy
Life expectancy is a statistical measure of the average time an organism is expected to live, based on the year of its birth, current age, and other demographic factors like sex. The most commonly used measure is life expectancy at birth ...
of a thirty-year-old in the 19th century was 49 years. In the years before his death he was healthy and well-fed: His skeleton showed no serious illness or malnutrition. The cause of death could possibly have been an injury to the soft tissues caused by violence, or an infectious disease with a rapid course that left no traces on the skeleton.
Teeth
![Schädel Theo Zähne](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Sch%C3%A4del_Theo_Z%C3%A4hne.jpeg/1200px-Sch%C3%A4del_Theo_Z%C3%A4hne.jpeg)
Theo's teeth were badly affected by
tooth decay
Tooth decay, also known as cavities or caries, is the breakdown of teeth due to acids produced by bacteria. The cavities may be a number of different colors from yellow to black. Symptoms may include pain and difficulty with eating. Complicatio ...
or had died off. Apart from that, the aforementioned oval gaps on the left side of the dentition are remarkable, as they almost form a circular cross-section when the jaw is slightly opened. Examinations with a
scanning electron microscope showed fine scratch marks on the tooth surface, indicating a wear process caused by the
ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...
mouthpiece of a
clay pipe and the fine
quartz
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...
grains contained therein.
Such
abrasions occurred almost worldwide from the 17th to the 19th century because clay pipes were widespread at the time. Excavations in graveyards with well-documented information on the deceased show that excessive smoking of clay pipes, which could also be smoked while working without using the hands, was more common in socially weak and hardworking classes. Since the clay mouthpiece was harder than the
tooth enamel
Tooth enamel is one of the four major Tissue (biology), tissues that make up the tooth in humans and many other animals, including some species of fish. It makes up the normally visible part of the tooth, covering the Crown (tooth), crown. The ...
, it ground into the surrounding teeth over time. This exposed the softer
dentin
Dentin () (American English) or dentine ( or ) (British English) ( la, substantia eburnea) is a calcified tissue of the body and, along with enamel, cementum, and pulp, is one of the four major components of teeth. It is usually covered by ena ...
and intensified the wear process. Pipe holes develop after five to ten years of intensive smoking. Consequently, Theo must have been a long-time smoker who belonged to the artisan population.
Tonpfeife.jpeg, Clay pipe, as Theo might have smoked
Holzschild der Gerber HMB 1900-16 c1924 a.jpg, Tannery
Tanning may refer to:
*Tanning (leather), treating animal skins to produce leather
*Sun tanning, using the sun to darken pale skin
**Indoor tanning, the use of artificial light in place of the sun
**Sunless tanning, application of a stain or dye t ...
in Liestal
Liestal (, Standard ), formerly spelled Liesthal, is the capital of Liestal District and the canton of Basel-Landschaft in Switzerland, south of Basel.
Liestal is an industrial town with a cobbled-street Old Town.
The official language of Li ...
; two tanners with a pipe in their mouth. Wooden sign, around 1820
Metzgermeister Johannes David Bienz.jpeg, Master butcher Johannes David Bienz (1755–1829) with a lidded pipe; watercolour by Wilhelm Oser, c. 1820
Who was Theo?
On the small Merianscher Totenacker, which was in use from 5 October 1779 to 1 May 1833, there were neither
gravestone
A headstone, tombstone, or gravestone is a stele or marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. It is traditional for burials in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions, among others. In most cases, it has the deceased's name, da ...
s nor memorial plaques nor a map of the area, nothing reminded of the dead who had been buried here. In the Staatsarchiv Basel-Stadt, on the other hand, there was the death register of the parish of St. Theodor which listed the names, professions, age at death, and places of birth of all those who died in Kleinbasel. Information on the burial place, however, was missing; it was not specified whether a deceased person found their final resting place in the Theodorskirche, in the Merianscher Totenacker, or in another of Kleinbasel's cemeteries.
Of the 4334 people who died in Kleinbasel during this period, 2069 were male. One of them had to be Theo. Since his age could be determined to be around 30 years, all candidates who were younger than 26 and older than 34 were eliminated, reducing the number of eligible candidates to 134. For another 16 men, a special register, the Stone Book, contained the information that they were buried in the Theodorskirche. According to this, these 16 came from the upper social class, as only they could afford a better burial place. 118 names remained. Since Theo had belonged to the younger burial phase and the archaeologists connected this to the great typhoid epidemic of 1814, all men who died before 1814 were struck off the list. 25 men remained. However, the connection with the
typhoid
Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...
epidemic has not yet been proven. Should this assumption prove to be incorrect, the search would have to focus on those who died before 1814.
As Theo must have had the pipe in his mouth most of the time during his work and smoking was forbidden during activities in the wood and textile trades, the probability that he had pursued such a profession must have been rather low. Theo's profession was rather in those areas where fine-motor skills were in demand, such as rope maker, baker, or tailor.
All information about Theo and his everyday life was collected in a
database
In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...
. It took into account all candidates who could be considered to be Theo and assigned them each a certain probability to be Theo based on information about his profile. In 2008, the database still listed twelve so-called top candidates who had a probability of 96 percent of being identical to Theo.
In 2008/2009, the first attempt was made to isolate Theo's
DNA from the skeleton. It was possible to remove uncontaminated dentin from a molar and isolate fragments of mitochondrial DNA from it.
Mitochondrial
A mitochondrion (; ) is an organelle found in the cells of most Eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and fungi. Mitochondria have a double membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is use ...
DNA is inherited from mother to children, but only daughters can pass it on to the next generation. In order to find out whether one of the top twelve candidates was Theo, descendants had to be found on the female line in order to compare their DNA with Theo's. Genealogical research on descendants on the female line is demanding and time-consuming since every time women married, they adopted their husband's name.
The search for descendants
From the list of twelve,
genealogical
Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinsh ...
research was able to determine the names of fifteen possible descendants of the top candidates. They were announced to the press together with the list of the twelve candidates on 10 March 2010, in the hope that descendants still living would recognise relatives. Television, radio, and print media also reported on the search. For reasons of protection of descendants, care was taken to ensure than only names of potential descendants who had already been dead for a hundred years were published; protection of descendants takes effect upon the death of a person for a period of 100 years.
Indeed, twenty people came forward, most of whom were also descendants of Theo candidates. However, since they were descendants on the male line, they were not carriers of the mitochondrial DNA and no DNA comparison could be made. Therefore, the genealogical procedure was adapted: Now, based on the list of twelve, through extensive genealogical family research descendants of the potential Theo candidates were to be found. In the case of several candidates the family lines broke off and it was not possible to find living descendants. With one exception: Johannes Bieler. But the DNA comparison showed a negative result and Bieler could be removed from the list of 12 candidates. Eleven candidates were left:
Sometimes tragic fates hide behind these names. The following information on the life circumstances and family situation of the first two candidates, who could have been Theo, is based on the one hand on the research of several genealogists of the Citizen Science Basel (BBS), Marina Zulauf, Ursula Fink, Diana Gysin, and Beat Stadler, who searched the various archives, and on the other hand on genealogical and job-specific research. All results are based on documents directly related to the two men.
Theo's real name was most likely Christian Friedrich Bender or Achilles Itin. Since no descendants of either of them could be found through the female line, a reliable identification has not yet been possible. What the men have in common is that they both had a “migrant background”, i.e. their families came to Basel from outside the city in the hope of a better economic future. Only Bender managed to establish a professional existence. Two of the ten candidates ended their lives by suicide.
Christian Friedrich Bender (1783–1816)
![Kleinbasel 1795](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Kleinbasel_1795.jpg)
Christian Friedrich Bender was born on 23 December 1783 in
Bouxwiller in
Lower Alsace
Lower Alsace (northern Alsace) was a landgraviate of the Holy Roman Empire held ''ex officio'' by the Bishop of Strasbourg. Prior to is acquisition by the bishopric, it was held by the counts of Hüneburg.
In 1174 Count Gottfried of Hüneburg w ...
. In October 1808 he was accepted into the “Zunft zum Himmel“ (“
Guild
A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...
to the Sky“) in Basel as a
glazier
A glazier is a tradesman responsible for cutting, installing, and removing glass (and materials used as substitutes for glass, such as some plastics).Elizabeth H. Oakes, ''Ferguson Career Resource Guide to Apprenticeship Programs'' ( Infobase: ...
on the basis of a settlement and trade permit. When and why he came to Basel is not known. On 30 September 1806 he married Sara Bauler, the daughter of a well-off master tailor. The Benders lived in a narrow two-story house at Rheingasse 21. At the time of Bender's death, five of the couple's nine children were still alive.
On 16 November 1816, Bender took his own life at six in the morning by cutting his throat with a razor. The cut was made with great force and went down to the cervical vertebrae. His wife Sara stated that “she wanted to help him; but he pushed her away with force, when he immediately made a second cut”. “Trial cuts”, as they are often made in such suicides, were omitted.
On the same day, three official investigations took place. Their detailed descriptions in the records provide much information about an average family in the 19th century. According to Bender's wife, the reason for his deed “was a mental illness”, which she attributed to religious doubts and fears. It is also conceivable, however, that she advanced a disease so that her husband would receive an honest grave inside the churchyard and not be buried outside the cemetery walls, as was customary for suicides at the time.
Today, however, there are several doubts regarding the circumstances of his death, and there are some indications of external influence. As can be seen from the records, the crime scene was changed considerably after the crime. Why was the assistant surgeon on duty so quickly in the early morning? Why was the dead man moved from the floor of the bedroom to the bed in the adjacent room with his help? Bender is said to have killed himself standing up – why were the sheets of the bed in the bedroom full of blood? Many questions remain unanswered. Due to the fact that the neck muscles on the right side were completely severed but remained almost intact on the left side, it can be concluded that Bender made the cut from the top right to the bottom left, so he must have been left-handed. If it now turns out that Theo was identical with Christian Friedrich Bender, this could indicate that Bender was killed – Theo was right-handed.
Bender's height was measured during the investigation of his death. It was about 1,60 metres – exactly the height calculated for Theo. Unfortunately, Theo's cervical spine did not survive, otherwise it would have been possible to detect any traces of cuts.
The enterprising Sara Bender continued her husband's glazier business thanks to a special permit. In August 1818 she married master glazier Adam Uehlinger, had two more children, died on 26 June 1839 at the age of 55 and left behind a considerable fortune of almost 20'000 francs.
Achilles Itin (1786–1816)
![Maria Sara Itin](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Maria_Sara_Itin.jpg)
Achilles Itin was born in Basel as the third of seven children. On 2 March 1786, the professor of theology Jakob Meyer and the master dyer and Grand Councillor Achilles Miville were entered into the baptism register of the Theodorskirch as his godparents – perhaps a sign of charity towards the suffering family.
The family probably lived in poor conditions in two or three subletted rooms in the district of the parish of St. Theodor in Kleinbasel. The father was a city soldier and had to feed the family of nine with a monthly wage of ten francs. His brother Hans Jakob Itin worked as a carter servant for the city. It is unknown whether they were supported by the city.
Achilles, as the unmarried son, probably also lived with the family, together with his unmarried sisters. The oldest sister married Isaac Roth, a widower and silk weaver, in 1811. Of her seven children, the three youngest died as infants, the second son, Jacob Conrad Roth, drowned in the Rhine at the age of thirteen. Two of Achilles’ sisters bore an illegitimate daughter. One of the girls was born deaf and mute. She later gave birth to two illegitimate children who both died shortly after birth. Three of the sisters who remained unmarried died like their father in the hospital for the poor in
Liestal
Liestal (, Standard ), formerly spelled Liesthal, is the capital of Liestal District and the canton of Basel-Landschaft in Switzerland, south of Basel.
Liestal is an industrial town with a cobbled-street Old Town.
The official language of Li ...
.
Achilles Itin remained unmarried and died at the age of 30 on 14 November 1816, a few months after his mother. Nothing is known about his professional activity and the cause of his death.
Facial reconstruction
In the year 2001, historian Fabian Link created a
facial reconstruction of Theo under the guidance of anthropologist and sculptor Gyula Skultéty. Link portrayed him as a 40-year-old man with wrinkles and a face marked by years of hard work. Later, more detailed investigations into Theo's age of death revealed that he died at the age of 30. With the new information, Gyula Skultéty portrayed Theo as a younger man. The reconstruction thus shows a plausible variant of Theo's appearance at the time of his death.
New genetic and genealogical research
Using newly developed methods, Forensic Genetics in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
managed in 2015 to isolate fragments of Theo's nuclear DNA from a bone sample. In this case, the search for descendants had to take place on the male line. Thus, a descendant of another man in question, pan mender Peter Kestenholz, could be tracked down in Liestal. But the analysis of his DNA showed that there was no relationship. Another candidate was removed from the list with certain reservations, leaving ten candidates.
When researching the male line, there is the possibility of so-called milkman's children who interrupt the paternal line with foreign DNA. A genetic comparison of descendants is then no longer possible. Therefore, if there is no proof of kinship in a potential descendant of Theo, the candidate cannot be removed from the candidate list with one hundred percent certainty. A second trail to the top candidate Achilles Itin led to the USA. Here, the contact is still pending; a first attempt failed.
To improve the possibilities of finding Theo's descendants, a whole
genome
In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ge ...
sequencing
In genetics and biochemistry, sequencing means to determine the primary structure (sometimes incorrectly called the primary sequence) of an unbranched biopolymer. Sequencing results in a symbolic linear depiction known as a sequence which succ ...
of Theo was carried out by the
University of Potsdam
The University of Potsdam is a public university in Potsdam, capital of the state of Brandenburg, Germany. It is mainly situated across three campuses in the city. Some faculty buildings are part of the New Palace of Sanssouci which is known ...
(Institute of biochemistry and biology; evolutionary adaptive genomics) and Forensic Genetics Berlin. The data obtained are uploaded to DNA databases such as
GEDmatch
GEDmatch is an online service to compare autosomal DNA data files from different testing companies. The website gained significant media coverage in April 2018 after it was used by law enforcement to identify a suspect in the Golden State Kille ...
which compare about 1 million DNA
autosomal
An autosome is any chromosome that is not a sex chromosome. The members of an autosome pair in a diploid cell have the same morphology, unlike those in allosome, allosomal (sex chromosome) pairs, which may have different structures. The DNA in au ...
markers instead of maternal and paternal lines. The most important statement so far has been that Theo belongs to the exact mitochondrial
haplogroup U
Haplogroup U is a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup (mtDNA). The clade arose from haplogroup R, likely during the early Upper Paleolithic. Its various subclades (labelled U1–U9, diverging over the course of the Upper Paleolithic) are found ...
-3546A, as well as the Y-chromosomal
haplogroup R Haplogroup R may refer to:
* Haplogroup R (mtDNA), a human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup
* Haplogroup R (Y-DNA)
Haplogroup R, or R-M207, is a Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. It is both numerous and widespread amongst modern populations.
S ...
1b-S22194 with the further private mutations BY47236 T and BY126769 G.
If matches are now found between existing gene markers and those of Theo, the people concerned would be contacted. If these people can be shown to have ancestors from Basel, this could lead to the determination of Theo's identity. So it is probably only a matter of time until the mystery of Theo can be solved.
Further applications of the procedure
Such methods are already successfully applied in so-called
cold case
A cold case is a crime, or a suspected crime, that has not yet been fully resolved and is not the subject of a current criminal investigation, but for which new information could emerge from new witness testimony, re-examined archives, new or re ...
investigations. Without prior knowledge, in the case of serious crimes, samples of the murderer's DNA can lead to their identification. A sequencing of the
genome
In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ge ...
from the
cell nucleus
The cell nucleus (pl. nuclei; from Latin or , meaning ''kernel'' or ''seed'') is a membrane-bound organelle found in eukaryotic cells. Eukaryotic cells usually have a single nucleus, but a few cell types, such as mammalian red blood cells, h ...
DNA was also carried out on
Ötzi
Ötzi, also called the Iceman, is the natural mummy of a man who lived some time between 3350 and 3105 BC, discovered in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps (hence the nickname "Ötzi") on the border between Austria and Italy.
Ötzi is believed to ...
.
Interview Dr. Eduard Egarter-Vigl
from: "Ötzi, ein Archäologiekrimi" von Christine Sprachmann; Erstausstrahlung 3sat
In logic and computer science, the Boolean satisfiability problem (sometimes called propositional satisfiability problem and abbreviated SATISFIABILITY, SAT or B-SAT) is the problem of determining if there exists an interpretation that satisfie ...
, 10. August 2011
References
Citations
Sources
* Gerhard Hotz, Liselotte Meyer, Simon Kramis, Fabian Link, Denise Cueni: Theo der Pfeifenraucher – Aus dem Leben eines Kleinbaslers um 1800. In: Basler Stadtbuch 2007, S. 173–177.
* Gerhard Hotz et al.: Theo der Pfeifenraucher, Leben in Kleinbasel um 1800; Naturhistorisches Museum Basel, Edition Christoph Merian, Basel 2010
* Gerhard Hotz, Stefanie Doppler, Marie-Louise Gamma, Diana Gysin, Odette Haas, Guido Helmig, Ludwig Huber, Simon Kramis, Fotios Alexandros Karakostis, Liselotte Meyer, Geneviève Perréard Lopreno, Jürgen Rauber, Lutz Roewer, Jessica Rothe, Albert Spycher, Ursula Wittwer-Backofen und Marina Zulauf-Semmler (2017): Theo der Pfeifenraucher – ein genealogisch-naturwissenschaftliches Identifizierungsprojekt. Annual book Swiss Family Research Society, vol. 44, 29–61 (German).
External links
{{Commons category, Theo der Pfeifenraucher
Citizen Science Basel
* ttps://www.archaeologie.bs.ch Archäologische Bodenforschung Basel-Stadt (Archaeological Soil Research of Basel City)
René Ammann
in Beobachter, 28 march 2018
Guido Kleinhubbert: Der Fall "Theo" – hat seine Frau ihn getötet? (The "Theo" case: Did his wife kill him?) Spiegel Online, 52/2017 (german)
Website of the transcription team
«Theo, the pipe smoker» – Project of the University Basel
Fictional characters introduced in 1984
Archaeological discoveries in Switzerland
Human remains (archaeological)
People from Basel-Stadt