Capua pedestal

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Replica of Capua's pedestal in the Science Museum in London.
The Capua pedestal (replica)

The peg of Capua ( English Capua leg ) is a leg prosthesis from around 300 v. Chr. The prosthesis in a grave near the Campanian town of Santa Maria Capua Vetere (the historical Capua was found), was the oldest prosthetic leg preserved and at the same time the only from classical antiquity .

In 1941 the prosthesis was destroyed in a German air raid on London . A copy made around 1910 is now in the Science Museum in London (inventory number A646752).

history

The discovery of this antique leg prosthesis was first mentioned in 1885 in an excavation report printed in the Bulletino dell ' Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica . The actual discovery, however, probably already happened in the winter of 1884/85. The artificial leg was found next to a skeleton that was missing part of its right lower leg. According to von Brunn, the amputation was done “slightly above the middle of the lower leg”. The skeleton wore a hip belt made of sheet bronze "lined with small rivets ".

Some grave goods were also found, especially fragments of red-figure pottery , which Friedrich von Duhn used in 1886 to trace the find to around 300 BC. Chr. Dated. But by then he no longer found the prosthesis itself. The original had been acquired by the Royal College of Surgeons and taken to London.

As a result of the First World War , it was not until 1920 that Karl Sudhoff was able to obtain more detailed information from Great Britain, including photographs and a sectional drawing made by Charles Singer . On this basis, Walter von Brunn published a detailed description in 1926. The original was destroyed during the Second World War in a German air raid on London on the night of May 11, 1941. The replica in the Science Museum is not completely true to the original: the dimensions do not match those of the historical piece.

At the time of its creation, Capua belonged to the Roman sphere of influence, but the inhabitants (and thus very likely also the apparently wealthy owner of the prosthesis) were predominantly Etruscans or Samnites . The artificial leg from Capua cannot therefore simply be regarded as "Roman".

description

The Capua prosthesis is a faithfully modeled artificial leg that replaced the right lower leg . The representation of the calf muscles is similar to contemporary greaves . The artificial leg consists mainly of a wooden core, partially hollowed out in the upper third and from below , to which an outer shell made of thin bronze is attached with bronze nails . At the upper end of the Bronze cover two (possibly originally three) are eye-like brackets of iron (iron bars) attached. At the time of the find, the wood core had largely disintegrated.

The lower leg prosthesis is a total of 39.5 cm long, its circumference at the thickest point is 45.75 cm. The top of the bronze shell protruded about 15 cm beyond the remains of the wooden core.

It is unclear whether an artificial foot was originally present and how it could have been connected to the leg. A square piece of iron found nearby may have formed the lower end of the prosthesis. In any case, the bronze material in the lower area did not appear worn .

Although the prosthesis was very likely to serve more than just cosmetic purposes, the actual level of functionality remains unclear. The functionality depends largely on the way the prosthesis is worn, about which one can only speculate. Sudhoff and von Brunn suspect that the artificial leg was attached to the hip (although the existence of the bronze belt was unknown to both). However, this alone would not be sufficient for a practical prosthesis. A secure attachment of the artificial leg would only have been possible with a thigh sleeve , possibly made of leather . But there is no archaeological evidence for this. It is also unclear whether - as was quite common until the 19th century - the stump surface was directly loaded, which would have further restricted its suitability for everyday use.

literature

  • Walter von Brunn: The pedestal from Capua and the ancient prostheses. In: Archives for the History of Medicine . Vol. 18, No. 4 (November 1, 1926). Steiner, Stuttgart 1926, pp. 351-360.
  • Lawrence J. Bliquez: Prosthetics in Classical Antiquity: Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Prosthetics. In: Wolfgang Haase, Hildegard Temporini (Hrsg.): Rise and decline of the Roman world. Part II: Principat, Volume 37.3. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1996, pp. 2640–2676, here: pp. 2667–2673.

Web links

Commons : Pedestal of Capua  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Lawrence J. Bliquez: Prosthetics in Classical Antiquity. P. 2672.
  2. ^ Bulletino dell'Instituto di Correspondenza Archeologica. No. 7/8 (1885), p. 169 ( digitized version ). Quoted in excerpts in: Karl Sudhoff: Der Stelzfuß aus Capua. In: Communications on the history of medicine and the natural sciences. No. 16 (1917), pp. 291-293.
  3. ↑ a b Lawrence J. Bliquez: Prosthetics in Classical Antiquity. P. 2667.
  4. ↑ a b c Walter von Brunn: The stilted foot of Capua and the ancient prostheses. P. 351.
  5. ^ Walter von Brunn: The stilted foot of Capua and the ancient prostheses. P. 357.
  6. ↑ a b c d e f Lawrence J. Bliquez: Prosthetics in Classical Antiquity. P. 2668.
  7. ↑ Lawrence J. Bliquez: Prosthetics in Classical Antiquity. P. 2673.
  8. ↑ Lawrence J. Bliquez: Prosthetics in Classical Antiquity. P. 2671.
  9. ↑ Lawrence J. Bliquez: Prosthetics in Classical Antiquity. P. 2668 f.
  10. ^ A b Walter von Brunn: The stilted foot from Capua and the ancient prostheses. P. 358.
  11. ^ A b Walter von Brunn: The stilted foot from Capua and the ancient prostheses. P. 359.
  12. ^ A b c d Lawrence J. Bliquez: Prosthetics in Classical Antiquity. P. 2670.
  13. ↑ Lawrence J. Bliquez: Prosthetics in Classical Antiquity. P. 2669.
  14. ^ Carl Ferdinand Graefe: Norms for the detachment of larger limbs according to principles of experience designed by Carl Ferdinand Graefe. Hitzig, Berlin 1812, p. 149 f.