In a rather different kind of exhibition  the museum’s visitors are invited to get close to the people who were onboard the Vasa when it sank. New research findings provide a more in-depth picture of the people and their lives.

In the exhibition, a number of people emerge from the past. They were all onboard the Vasa on 10th August in the year 1628. By all evidence, there were approximately 30 men, women and children who went down with the Vasa into the deep. Skeletons from at least 15 of these people have been found in the
Vasa excavation. Some were found outside the ship, but Carbon-14 dating has shown that the remains are from the same time and are most likely victims of the catastrophe. None of the victims has been identified. The Vasa Museum is now presenting the skeletal findings in a carefully planned exhibit.

“There is a difficult balancing act involved in trying to create an ethical meeting across time”, says the exhibition’s director, Malin Fajersson. “It is something that has to be done with respect – cautiously exposed but boldly interpreted”, she adds.

The goal of the exhibition is to present the osteological and archaeological research as well as to give the visitors an opportunity to imagine “meeting” the people.

The examination of the skeletons and the archaeological excavation provide a remarkably informative picture of the lives of these people.

The researchers gave names to the anonymous individuals to whom the skeletons belong. The names were given as per the Swedish phonetic alphabet, “Adam”, “Beata”, “Cesar” etc.

For example, “Adam” was 35-40 years old, 165 cm tall and in good health, but in his youth he had received a blow to the face that affected his appearance. He was one of the first skeletons salvaged by the divers in 1958.

Person F, “Filip”, was a man who died at his post. He was approximately 30 years old, 163 cm tall and still had some of his baby teeth, which probably gave him a peculiar smile. He was found in the steerage where he was likely the helmsman. From the steerage he could have easily escaped from the

catastrophe, up a short ladder to the upper deck, but “Filip” seems to have chosen to stay with the ship. He may have died at his post trying to turn the ship so that it could right itself.

“Ylva” was initially identified as a boy, but was actually a 16 year old girl in poor health. Her skeleton shows many injuries and she stooped and was malnourished. Her cranium has interesting characteristics similar to the crania of “Beata” and “Tore”. These remains are undergoing DNA testing. Maybe they were siblings…

The exhibition also tries to bring us closer to the crew of the Vasa in other ways. In a sound chamber, the visitor can hear fragments of speech from the time of the Vasa, taken from sources that include records of court proceedings. The filmed characters that feature in the exhibition are based on the scientific
knowledge that we are now able to link to the various individuals.

Some of the meetings with the people from the Vasa are also based on reconstructions. Three faces have been recreated by the sculptor Oscar Nilsson. He has considerable experience in the scientific reconstruction of faces based on crania – experience which, when combined with his skill as an artist, produces
results that are very life-like. The skeletons selected for reconstruction are “Filip”, “Beata” and “Ivar”.

The Vasa Museum’s exhibition “The People from the Vasa” opened on the 9th of September in 2004. Mattias Lind and Per Bornstein of White Arkitekter were in charge of design. The specialist experts are Professor Emeritus Ebba During (osteology) and Fred Hocker PhD, project director for continuing Vasa research.