An ancient medieval tomb found near Bologna, Italy, contained a pregnant woman with a head injury and a fetus between her legs. Based on the positioning of the bones, researchers concluded that it was a “coffin birth,” when a baby is forcibly removed from its mother’s body after death.
The tomb, dating from the 7th-8th century AD, was found in 2010 in Imola, northern Italy. It was because the adult skeleton was found face up and intact that archaeologists determined that it was a burial. The fetus between her legs and the head injury, however, required a thorough investigation, published in the journal World Neurosurgery by researchers from the universities of Ferrara and Bologna.
Based on the length of the femur bone, the researchers first determined that the fetus was at approximately 38 weeks gestation. The baby’s head and upper body were below the pelvic cavity, while the leg bones were still inside. This means that he was starting to prepare for the birth. Although rare in contemporary forensic literature – and even more so in the bioarchaeological record – this could be a case of post-mortem fetal expulsion, or coffin birth. Bioarchaeologist Siân Halcrow, from the University of Otago (New Zealand), explains that in the case of the death of a pregnant woman, the gas produced during the normal decomposition of the body sometimes accumulates to the point that the fetus is forcibly expelled.
This birth example is interesting from an archaeological point of view, but the mother’s condition makes it very unique: she had a small mark on her forehead and a 5mm circular hole right next to it. According to researchers, these could be signs of trepanation, an ancient form of skull surgery. Not only was the pregnant woman trephined, but she also lived for at least a week after the primary surgery. In the article, Italian researchers propose a correlation between the mother’s surgery and her pregnancy: eclampsia. “Because trepanation was formerly used in the treatment of hypertension to reduce blood pressure in the skull,” they write, “we hypothesized that this lesion might be associated with the treatment of hypertensive pregnancy disorder.” .
Eclampsia is the appearance of seizures in a pregnant woman suffering from pregnancy-related high blood pressure. And especially a few centuries ago, this condition was probably a common cause of maternal death. A pregnant woman suffering from fevers, convulsions and headaches in the early Middle Ages may well have been trephined. “Given the characteristics of the wound and the late pregnancy, our hypothesis is that the pregnant woman suffered eclampsia, and was subsequently treated with frontal trepanation to relieve intracranial pressure.”note the researchers.
If the researchers’ conclusions are correct, the mother’s condition unfortunately did not improve, and she was buried still pregnant in a stone-lined grave. As her body decomposed, her deceased fetus was then partially expelled.
In addition to the medical and archaeological implications, this discovery offers a poignant insight into early medieval funerary practices. The fact that the woman was buried in a neat, stone-lined grave demonstrates the respect given to the deceased and her unborn child, even in tragic circumstances. It could also indicate a belief in the importance of protecting the mother and fetus in the afterlife, reflecting specific funerary practices and rituals of the time.
