Mafart Heart Burial Art

7/28/2019 Mafart Heart Burial Art

1/7

International Journal of OsteoarchaeologyInt. J. Osteoarchaeol. 14: 6773 (2004)DOI: 10.1002/oa.692

SHORTREPORT

Post-mortem Ablation of the Heart:a Medieval Funerary Practice.A Case Observed at the Cemetery ofGanagobie Priory inthe FrenchDepartment of Alpes De Haute Provence

B.MAFARTa,*, J.-P.PELLETIER

bAND M.FIXOT

b

a Department of Anthropology, University of Mediterranee, Marseille, Franceb Laboratory of Mediterranean Medieval Archeology, Aix-en-Provence, France

ABSTRACT The skeletal remains of a medieval warrior were found in an 11th century tomb in the church ofGanagobie Priory in the French Department of Alpes de Haute Provence. Examinationrevealed evidence of multiple injuries including an arrow in the thorax, several sword blows,and a fractured sternum. The chest had been opened probably to allow removal of the heartafter the last fatal blow to the skull. Post-mortem ablation of the heart was a widespreadmedieval funerary practice among elite classes in northern Europe. Numerous cases havebeen described involving British and French royalty. The practice was based on a mysticalMiddle Age belief that the heart was the spiritual and moral centre. After ablation, the heartwas buried separately in a high place of holy worship where the living could pray for thesalvation of deceaseds soul. The rest of the body wassometimesdismembered and boiled tokeep only the skeleton. Pope Boniface VIII forbade body boiling in 1299. In France thepractice of removing and burying the heart in a sacred worship place continued amongroyalty, noblemen, and ecclesiastics until the Revolution of 1789. A few cases were reportedinto the 19th century. Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Key words: heart; ablation; sternotomy; thorax; funerary practice; middle ages

The heart held a wide range of symbolic mean-ings in Middle Age Europe. For this reason it wassometimes removed after death and buried in ahigh place of religious worship such as a churchor monastery. This funerary practice was parti-cularly widespread among royalty, noblemen,

and ecclesiastics. The purpose of this article isto report the discovery in Provence, France of theskeleton of a Middle Age warrior who probablyunderwent post-mortem median sternotomy toallow ablation of the heart

Description of the archeological site

A medieval cemetery was discovered and exca-vated during restoration of the Ganagobie Prioryin the French Department of the Alpes de HauteProvence. The site extended northward and east-

ward from the edge of the priory church to thefoot of a cliff overlooking the Durance RiverValley. Nineteen stone sepulchers originallylocated outside have been covered during subse-quent construction. Discovery of the tombs wasmade during work to uncover a Roman mosaic inthe transept. The present report describes tombnumber 10 which intersected with another tombthat had been placed across the lower extremities

Copyright# 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 25 July 2002Revised 17 March 2003

Accepted 19 March 2003

* Correspondence to: Laboratoire d Anthropologie, UMR 6569,University of Mediterranee, Faculty of Medicine, Secteur Nord, BdPierre Dramard, 13916 Marseille Cedex 20, France.e-mail: [email protected]


2/7

and covered by a small memorial chapel adjacentto the church at approximately the same time.This tomb was included in the first monasticcemetery dated, by the association of radiocar-bon dating and archaeological context, to thebeginning of the 11the century (Fixot et al.,

1996).

The Individual t 10

The remains of a 50-year-old man (using thestandards of Ferembach, 1980; Lovejoy et al.,1985), estimated stature approximately 1.75 m(Olivier et al., 1978), were found in a grave duginto the ground. The tomb was lined with quad-rangular stone blocks assembled with crudecement and featured a compartment for thehead. The body had been buried in supineextended position with the hands on the abdo-men (Figure 1). The well preserved skeletondisplayed extensive evidence of traumatic injuryinvolving the left upper extremity, skull andsternum. In addition to these injuries, which

will be detailed in this report, the skeleton pre-sented signs of mild diffuse arthrosis.

Description of injuries

The upper edge of the external end of the leftclavicle had been transected.

The left humeral condyle was transected diag-onally downward and outward. The olecranonprocess of the left ulna was also cut midway upthe greater sigmoid cavity. The section path wasdiagonal, downward and inward. Since the pathof these two wounds followed the same plane atan 140 angle of flexion, it can be assumed thatthe elbow was transected in the bent position(Figure 2).

The bones of the distal third of the left forearmwere also transected. The anterolateral quarter ofthe diaphysis of the left ulna was divided along adiagonal downward and outward path. Theradius displayed a cut involving a quarter of the

diaphysis along a diagonal downward and out-ward path. Detachment of the remaining frag-ments resulted from secondary fracture.

The skull presented a gaping 180 mm holecrossing the left posterior aspect from the upperpart of the left temporal plate to the posterioraspect of the right temporal plate. The woundpath was diagonally oriented forward, downwardand toward the right (Figure 3).

Figure 1. Skeletal remains found in tomb10 uncovered under thechurch of Ganagobie Priory in the French Department of Alpesde Haute Provence. Arrows indicate wounds located on the leftforearm, left elbow, andsternum.This picture alsoshows the lesionon the upper edge of the external end of the left clavicle and partofthe lesion involving the skull.

Figure 2. Bones of the left elbow in anatomical position.The sec-tion planes of the humerus and olecranon, on the one hand, fromtheulnar shaft, onthe otherhand, indicatethattheblow was struckwhile the elbow was in flexion at an angle ofabout 140.

68 B. Mafart, J.-P. Pelletier and M. Fixot

Copyright# 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Osteoarchaeol. 14: 6773 (2004)


3/7

The manubrium and gladiolus were not joinedbut the xyphoid process was completely calcified.The sternum was divided vertically into threeparts. One incision in the sagittal plane comple-tely separated the manubrium and gladiolus.Another, along the right lower edge of the manu-brium, split the right side of the gladiolus into twoparts thus creating a central band about 1 cm wideextending to the xyphoid process (Figure 4).

The surface of the sectioned bones was smoothand showed no sign of healing.

In addition, a metal arrowhead was found in thechest between the posterior arches of the 9th and10th right ribs. The tip of the arrowhead pointedtoward the back of the body but there was nodiscernible rib or vertebral damage (Figure 5).

Interpretation of findings

Anatomical findings were consistent with combat

injuries inflicted using one or several sharp edgedweapons. None of them exhibits a trace of heal-ing. It is possible to reconstruct the probablescenario and sequence of events.

The victim was hit first between the bottomribs on the right side by an arrow shot from adistance. Although the relative position of thearcher and trajectory of the arrow cannot beknown, a plunging arrow shot from above would

have perforated the lung while an arrow shothorizontally would have perforated the liver.Neither of these injuries would have been fatal

and it is probable that the subsequent injurieswere inflicted to finish the victim off. Thewounded victim attempted to protect himselfwith his left arm.

A total of four blows were then struck using oneor more sharp weapons wielded with greatenough force to cut the clavicle, section the elbowand wrist, and split the skull. The injuries of theleft arm would have led to section of muscle and

Figure 3. Drawing showing the posteroexternal aspect of the skull.

The blow wasstruck from behindandwent through three quartersofthe skull vault.

Figure 4. Opening of the sternum.The cut on the left side failed tosplit the manubrium and thus did not open the chest. The cutthrough the middle resulted in complete midline sternotomy.

Figure 5. Metal arrowhead foundinside thorax (scale in cm).

Medieval Post-mortem Ablation of the Heart 69



4/7

nerve tissue with the following functional con-sequences: section of the clavicle with division ofthe deltoid muscle preventing elevation of thearm; section of the elbow with joint dislocationand almost complete severing of the forearm;section of the forearm: functional disability and

almost complete amputation of the hand.The blows were most likely inflicted in ascend-

ing order; i.e. forearm, elbow, and shoulder. Withan arrow in his right side, the victim probablyoffered little resistance. The wound pattern ischaracteristic of parry lesions. The blow to theleft forearm was inflicted on the internal edge ofthe ulna which was probably turned upward in anattempt to protect the head with the forearm.The elbow was bent when struck. The fourth andfinal blow to the head was inflicted from behind,after the blow to the shoulder, and split the skull.The attacker must have been on foot and wasprobably armed with a heavy sword.

The wounds involving the sternum cannot beexplained by this combat scenario, since the blowto the head was fatal, or by an uncontrolledfrenzy since they are the only lesions otherthan the sword wounds. The person who openedthe chest appears to have struck the sternumtwice. The first blow failed to split the manu-brium because the point of impact was too lowand off centre. The second blow split the full-length sternum in the median sagittal plane. Theprecision of this blow supports the hypothesisthat the purpose was to open the thorax as for amedian sternotomy. The most likely explanationfor opening the chest is to allow extraction ofinternal organs and mainly the heart. This wasprobably done not as an act of mutilation butrather as a medieval funerary practice. Post-mor-tem ablation of the heart has been described innumerous writings.

CommentsThe place and conditions of burial were a majorconcern for educated classes of medieval societysuch nobles and ecclesiastics. Nobles maintainedclose ties to religious orders, churches or abbeysthat they founded and/or contributed to lavishly.They wanted to be buried in these sacred placesso that their souls could benefit from prayers for

their salvation. The possibility of dying far fromthe chosen burial place was dreaded and bodiescould be transported over long distances to beburied there (Golding, 1986).

In the Middle Ages the heart represented thewhole body. Unlike modern man for whom the

brain is the centre of higher function, medievalChristians saw the heart as the moral and intel-lectual centre. Saint Augustine contributed muchto this attitude by describing the heart not onlyas the seat of intelligence, will power, memory,emotion, and other feelings but also as theauthentic and indivisible source of life. The heartwas considered as a receptacle in which a recordof each mans life was kept. Artists often depictedthe heart as an open book in the chest document-ing good and evil deeds for the final judgment(Jager, 2000). God had a copy of this ledger andsometimes made his own entries in the heart ofsaints. Based on belief in divine entries, the heartof a dead cleric bearing the odor of saintlinesswas some times removed and examined. It wasreported that the hearts of two Italian abbotscontained images of Christ and the Holy Familyand even nails from the Cross (Park, 1994).

Funerary practices differed greatly betweenItaly and Northern Europe. This discrepancywas due to a different conception of how thesoul left the body. In the South, separation of thebody and soul took place immediately while inthe North separation was a gradual process. InItaly burial was done at the place of death andcould be delayed for a few days by embalming toallow time to organize the funeral. In the North,i.e. France, England and Germany, there was awindow of opportunity during which the living atthe scene of death could intervene on behalf ofthe deceased (Park, 1995).

Several funerary traditions developed in North-ern Europe but all involved removal and burial ofthe heart in a specially chosen place. The simplest

method in terms of its principle but often short-lived due to poor technique was embalming bysalt-curing. This process consisted of removingthe heart, burying the rest of the viscera, whichdecompose rapidly, at the death site, and trans-porting the body to the final burial place wrappedin an animal hide after washing in wine andfragrances and then salting. This method wasdescribed in the Chanson de Roland, song CCXIII,




5/7


6/7

When Robert the Bruce, the King of Scotland,died in 1329, his body was buried in Dunfermlineafter ablation of the heart. In keeping with thekings wishes, his comrade-in-arms, JamesDouglas, aka Black Douglas, took the heart onCrusade to the Holy Land (MacNair Scott,

1996). On the way, Douglas was killed in a battleagainst the Moors at Teba, Spain in 1330. Tradi-tion holds that just before dying Douglas hurledthe receptacle containing Robert the Brucesheart at the enemy. The heart was recoveredand returned to Melrose Abbey in Scotlandwhere a small conical casket containing a mum-mified heart was found during archeologicalexcavations in 1996 (Bonie, 2002). James Dou-glas heart was also removed and is conserved inSaint Brides Church along with the heart of oneof his descendants (MacNair Scott, 1996).

Gradually separate burial of the heart changedfrom a strictly religious practice to a sentimental,aristocratic, or family tradition. When QueenAnne of Brittany died in Paris in 1514, herbody was buried in the Abbey of St Denis andher heart was placed in a golden case in thecathedral of her native realm in Nantes. Until theFrench Revolution, the hearts of French kings andqueens and of their children were placed in thechurches of Paris. In 1715 the heart of Louis XIVwas placed in the Church of St Paul & St Louis inParis. After the French Revolution in 1792 all thegolden and silver cases containing the hearts ofroyal family members were melted down uponorder of the revolutionary authorities and themummified hearts were sold to a painter. Sincethe Middle Ages painters used mummifiedorganic matter as a pigment in oil to produce apaint called Mummy Brown. In any case, themedieval practice of post-mortem ablation of theheart persisted in France even into the 19thcentury mainly for sentimental reasons. Whenthe Duke of Berry was assassinated in 1820, his

widow had his heart extracted and placed in achapel where it remained until 1965 when it wasmoved to the Abbey of St Denis (Brown, 1981).In Switzerland the extracted heart of a bishopwho died in 1882 was found in the cathedral ofBasel (Weber, 1996).

The techniques and instruments used to openthe thorax during the Middle Ages are obscure.Ablation was performed by various people. In

some cases it was done by someone in the deadmans entourage, e.g. confessor for King John andfellow soldier for James Douglas. These peoplehad little surgical experience but were familiarwith cleaning animals killed during hunts. Inother cases ablation was performed by non-med-

ical professionals, e.g. a cook for King Baudoin ora butcher for Henry the First of England. Theperson who removed the heart of the warriorpresented in this report probably had to strike thechest a second time after the first blow failed. Thewarriors body was buried at Ganagobie Priorybut we cannot know where the heart was buried.Since the body was not dismembered, it is likelythat the deceased was buried shortly after thechest was opened.

This case is the first described in France at ourknowledge. No archeological information havebeen found concerning the identification of thisprobable knight. It is comparable with a previousreport describing a 12th century knight whoprobably died while fighting the Moors in Portu-gal. The skeletons open sternum was interpretedas a fatal wound but it is likely that this findingwas related to the practice of post-mortem heartablation (Santos et al., 1998). Careful examinationof the thorax of high-ranking figures buried inmedieval tombs should provide further documen-tation of this funerary practice based on mysticalbelief in the power of the heart.

Acknowledgements

We express many thanks to Valerie Spanu andClaude Navarro of the French Armed ForcesTropical Health Institute for their help for theillustrations.

References

Anonymous. 1028. Chanson de Roland, Oxford. Originaltext and English translation [online]. Available:http://www.orbilat.com/Modern_Romance/Gallo-Romance/French/Texts/Period_02/Roland/200-249.htm.

Bonie L. 2002. Melrose Abbey and the heart of theBruce. Bulletin of the Melrose Historical Society 5, [on-line]. Available: http://www.melrose.bordernet.co.uk/mha/5/bruce.html.




7/7

Brown E. 1981. Death and the human body in the LateMiddle ages: the legislation of Boniface VIII on thedivision of the corpse. Viator12: 221270.

Bynum CS. 1991. Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays onGender and the Human Body in Medieval Religion . ZoneBooks: New York.

Dodson A. 1994. The King is dead. In The UnbrokenReed: Studies in the Culture and Heritage of Ancient Egypt InHonour of A. F. Shore, Eyre C, Leahy A, Leahy LM(eds). Egypt Exploration Society: London.

Erlande-Brandeburg A. 1975. Le roi est mort: Etudesur les funerailles, les sepultures et les tombeaux desrois de France jusqua` la fin du XIII sie` cle. Bibliothe-que de la SocieteFrancaise dArche ologie 7: 1192.

Ferembach D, Schwydeski I, Stloukal M. 1980. Re-commendations for age and sex diagnoses of skele-tons. Journal of Human Evolution 9: 517550.

Fixot M, Barruol G, Pelletier JP. 1996. Ganagobie,Mille ans dun monaste` re en Provence. Les Alpes de

Lumiere 120121: 1259.Franchet L. 1933. Le bouillage des cadavres au Moyenage. La Revue Scientifique 36: 5162.

Golding B. 1986. Anglo-Norman Knightly Burial. In Theideas and Practice of Medieval Knighthood I, Harper-Bill C,Harvey R (eds). The Boydell Press: Woodbrodge.

Jager E. 2000. The book of the heart. University ofChicago Press: Chicago.

Legoff A. 1996. Saint-Louis. Gallimard: Paris.

Lovejoy CO, Meindl RS, Pryseck TR, Mensforth RP.1985. Chronological metamorphosis of the auricu-lar surface of the ilium: a new method for thedetermination of adult age at death. American Journalof Physical Anthropology 68: 1528.

MacNair Scott R. 1996. Robert the Bruce, King of Scots.

Carroll & Graf: New York.Olivier G, Aaron C, Fully G, Tissier G. 1978.New estimations of stature and cranial capacityin modern man. Journal of Human Evolution 7: 513518.

Park K. 1994. The criminal and the saintly body:autopsy and dissection in Renaissance Italy. Renais-sance. Quarterly 48: 133.

Park K. 1995. The life of the corpse: division anddissection in the late medieval Europe. Journal of theHistory of Medicine and Allied Science 50: 111132.

Santos AL, Umbelino C, Goncalves A, Dias Peireira F.1998. Mortal combat during the Medieval Christian

Reconquest in Evora, Portugal. International Journal ofOsteoarcheology 8: 454456.Sawday J. 1996. The body emblazoned. Routledge:

New YorkShafer D. 1920. Mittelalterlicher Brauch bei der

Uberfuhrung von Leichen. Sitzungsberichte der Preus-sischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Berlin) 478498.

Weber W. 1996. The heart of Frederic de Wangen,Bishop of Basel, 17761882. Gesnerus 53: 1526.

Medieval Post-mortem Ablation of the Heart 73


Mafart Heart Burial Art

Documents

Transcript of Mafart Heart Burial Art