Afterbirth

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As Nachgeburtsbestattung is burial of the afterbirth called.

Customs of the after-birth burial

This custom was practiced worldwide, in many places until today. This is to protect the newborn from evil forces or ghosts and to prevent the abuse of the afterbirth - especially for magical purposes. In some cultures, such as shamanistic medieval Korea, the afterbirth was seen as an integral part of the body and was merged with it after death. In 1998, Peter Sloterdijk described the placenta as the primary companion of humans.

Archaeological context

Afterbirth burials took place in the houses where the birth had taken place. As a rule, pots from household kitchenware were used for this (afterbirth pots ). They were buried in the basement in places where no direct light could fall from the basement windows and which normally nobody would walk over, mainly in the corners of the rooms or under basement stairs.

Knowledge

Burials of this kind have been increasingly proven in archaeological excavations in Germany from the Middle Ages to the 20th century since 1943 . By hormone analyzes of the burial contents, the findings could be confirmed as postnatal burials . For this purpose, the content of the relatively stable female sex hormone 17β-estradiol is determined today . The research situation is very different: The sites, usually cellars of private houses, are rarely examined archaeologically, the phenomenon has only been observed for a relatively short time and so far there have only been regionally limited studies. On the basis of the finds in Baden-Württemberg - here the phenomenon is particularly well documented - the number of postpartum burials has been increasing continuously since the beginning of the 16th century, peaking in the 17th and 18th centuries and then falling again. Finds from Hesse, Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia show, however, that it was a general custom that was taboo .

Spiritual history context

The reason for such burials was the idea that the afterbirth is very closely related to mother and child. This means that magic damage done to the afterbirth can affect the mother and / or child. In order to remove the afterbirth from the influence of evil forces, witches or demons , they had to be ritually destroyed, for example burned, or hidden, i.e. buried.

This practice has been documented in Central Europe since the Middle Ages. During the Reformation it was rationalized and retained for a different reason: The afterbirth should be buried so that it is removed from superstitious , magical practices that are supposed to be "dried up" with it. This explains why the practice has been recorded predominantly in Protestant households since the 16th century . In popular belief, however, if the practice remains the same, the old idea that this can prevent harmful spells remains for a long time. It is said to have been practiced until the beginning of the 20th century.

literature

  • Dorothee Ade and Beate Schmid: Where neither sun nor moon shine. The custom of the after-birth burial . In: Religiosität in Mittelalter und Neuzeit = German Society for Archeology of the Middle Ages and the Modern Age (ed.): Communications of the German Society for Archeology of the Middle Ages and the Modern Age 23. Paderborn 2011. ISSN 1619-1439, pp. 227-236.
  • Svenja Dalacker: Considerations on the connection between afterbirth pots and the Reformation. Superstition among the early Protestants . In: State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in the Stuttgart Regional Council (ed.): Preservation of monuments in Baden-Württemberg. News of the State Monument Preservation 4/2017. ISSN 0342-0027, pp. 257-261.
  • Lieselotte Kuntner: On dealing with the afterbirth - placental burial in a cultural comparison . In: Curare 27, 2004, pp. 279-293.
  • Gottfried Lammert: Folk medicine and medical superstition in Bavaria and the neighboring districts . Wuerzburg, 1869.
  • NN: "Where neither sun nor moon shines". Archaeological evidence of afterbirth burials in the early modern period . In: Archaeological information from Baden-Württemberg 36. Stuttgart 1997, pp. 49–55.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Weblinks, homepage of the city of Bönnigheim.
  2. ↑ Kuntner.
  3. ↑ Dalacker, pp. 258f.
  4. ↑ Kuntner.
  5. ↑ Dalacker, p. 259.
  6. ↑ Dalacker, p. 257.
  7. ↑ So probably for the first time Dietmar Waidelich in his diploma thesis : Archaeochemical investigations on some excavated vessels to determine possible afterbirth burials . (See web links, website of the city of Bönnigheim).
  8. ↑ Dalacker, p. 261.
  9. ↑ Dalacker, p. 257.
  10. ↑ Dalacker, p. 259.
  11. ^ Weblinks, homepage of the city of Bönnigheim.
  12. ↑ Dalacker, p. 260.
  13. ↑ Dalacker, p. 261.