The skeleton of a Medieval woman has been discovered near Bologna, alongside the tiny bones of the foetus she delivered in her grave.
Experts from the University of Ferrara who found the remains, believe they date back to the 7th or 8th century AD.
Initial analysis suggests that the woman was around 38 weeks pregnant when she died, and that the baby was ‘forcibly expelled’ in the coffin after her death.
This strange delivery occurs when gases build up in the body during composition, causing the foetus to be pushed out. However, this process isn’t well understood.
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Speaking to Forbes , Dr Jen Gunter, a gynaecologist in San Francisco who wasn’t involved in the study, explained: “The cervix shouldn’t relax with death after rigor mortis disappears.
“I suspect that what happens is the pressure from the gas builds up, and the dead fetus is delivered through a rupture – it basically blows a hole through the uterus into the vagina, as the vagina is much thinner than the cervix.”
The woman also had a strange cut mark on her forehead, with a hole next to it.
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The researchers believe this indicates she may have undergone an ancient form of skull surgery called trepanation.
Writing in the journal World Neurosurgery , the researchers, led by Alba Pasini, wrote: “Given the features of the wound and the late-stage pregnancy, our hypothesis is that the pregnant woman incurred preeclampsia or eclampsia, and she was treated with a frontal trepanation to relieve the intracranial pressure.”
The researchers hope that further analysis will shed more light on what happened to the woman, as well as a wider understanding of ancient health and disease.
