Death of a pregnant woman

The phenomenon of post-mortem abortion was discovered in the tomb of an Italian woman who lived in the 7th - 8th century.

The 1,300-year-old remains of a woman with holes in her skull and fetus between her legs were found in a narrow stone tomb beneath the medieval town of Imola in Italy, according to Live Science. The fetus is now only a small skeleton scattered beneath the mother's pelvis, certainly born in the grave due to the phenomenon of " coffin birth" (born in a coffin or expelled after death. ).

This phenomenon causes the unborn baby to be pushed out of the mother's uterus by the gas accumulated in the corpse after both mother and child died.This is a rare sight in archeology , but it is even rarer than a circular wound drilled into the mother's skull.

Archaeologists from Ferrara University and the University of Bologna attempt to discover the mystery of the death of the mother and daughter in a new study published in the May 5 issue of World Neurosurgery. According to the researchers, these two remarkable sets of remains may be a medieval example of what is called a bone drill (trepanation) . The surgical process involves drilling or punching a small hole in the patient's skull to relieve pressure to help treat a variety of diseases. But in this case, the surgery failed.

The tomb contains the body of the mother and the 38-week-old fetus.(Photo: World Neurosurgery).

"Our hypothesis is that women with pre-eclampsia or eclampsia (two high blood pressure pregnancy disorders) and are treated by drilling the frontal bone to reduce intracranial pressure," the team said. know. "Despite the intervention, pregnant women do not survive and die with the fetus in the womb."

The tomb was discovered in 2010, during an excavation of the town of Imola in northern Italy, near the city of Bologna. The mother's remains are mingled with some burial items dating from the Lombard period (lasting from the 7th to 8th centuries). Because the woman's body was lying face-up and surrounded by stones, the research team concluded that the mother was intentionally buried and had not been moved or touched.

The woman is more likely to be in her 20s to 30s and is likely to become pregnant soon after birth. Although it is impossible to determine the sex of the fetus, the results of the thigh bone measurement indicate the fetus is nearly 38 weeks old.

At the top of the woman's skull, the researchers found a small round hole 4.6 mm in diameter, slightly smaller than the pencil's diameter. The hole is very accurate and round, showing that this is not a result of violent acts or a strong blow. The wound seemed to fit well with the technique of drilling straight into the skull.

Because the skull heals the wound around the wound, the hole may be created at least a week before the woman dies. The team also found a straight cut above the drill hole a few centimeters long, less than three millimeters long. They think this is the area where the scalp is cut or shaved to prepare for a skull surgery.

The researchers found that there was enough evidence to show a woman's head injury due to a similar procedure in bone surgery. Why are pregnant women pregnant several weeks before birth? One possible reason is to reduce pregnancy-related symptoms such as high blood pressure.

Although the bone-drilling wound was recorded in more than 1,500 skulls dating from the Neolithic period, this medieval example is still a mystery. Scientists will need further research to find out how the surgery takes place.