In May of this year, exactly 125 years after the publication of Bram Stoker's novel about Dracula, two researchers were analyzing a letter written 500 years ago by Vlad Tepes, better known as Vlad the Impaler, the bloodthirsty prince of Wallachia that inspired the myth of the fictional Transylvanian vampire.
Gleb and Svetlana Zilberstein were trying to extract genetic material from the sheet written in 1475, from ancient drops of sweat, saliva or fingerprints. His objective is to reconstruct the image of this warlord fond of displaying his enemies on stakes, in addition to determining the environmental conditions in which he lived.
"We mainly determined the presence of proteins and metabolites. These molecules are more stable than DNA and provide more information about the character's environmental conditions, health, lifestyle or nutrition," the experts tell The Guardian.
The Zilbersteins were born in Kazakhstan and have lived and worked in Tel Aviv for the past 26 years. Together with Professor Pier Giorgio Righetti of the Polytechnic University of Milan they have developed the biochemical analysis system used to extract proteins from items touched or worn by long-dead people.
His first experiment was with the original manuscript of The Master and Margarita by the Soviet writer Mikhail Bulgakov. "We found traces of morphine and kidney proteins on the text pages, which shows that he wrote it while he was under the influence of narcotics that he used to relieve acute pain in his kidneys," he says.
"After Bulgakov, we focused on Anton Chekhov. We analyzed the shirt he died in and his last letter. Chekhov suffered from tuberculosis and used various substances such as painkillers, but died of a stroke. After Chekhov, we began to investigate George Orwell and found traces of tuberculosis, which he contracted in Spain."
In the case of Vlad Tepes, the object studied was a letter that he wrote to the people of Sibiu, which is in present-day Romania, on August 4, 1475, informing them that he would soon settle in their city.
"With our analysis, we hope to obtain a snapshot of the molecular portrait of Vlad the Impaler when he wrote or signed this document. That is, his health, what he ate and what the place where he lived was like," the researchers conclude.
