Procedures and Frequencies of Embalming and Heart Extractions in Modern Period in Brittany. Contribution to the Evolution of Ritual Funerary in Europe

Abstract

The evolution of funeral practices from the Middle Ages through the Modern era in Europe is generally seen as a process of secularization. The study, through imaging and autopsy, of two mummies, five lead urns containing hearts, and more than six hundred skeletons of nobles and clergymen from a Renaissance convent in Brittany has led us to reject this view. In addition to exceptional embalming, we observed instances in which hearts alone had been extracted, a phenomenon that had never before been described, and brains alone as well, and instances in which each spouse's heart had been placed on the other's coffin. In some identified cases we were able to establish links between the religious attitudes of given individuals and either ancient Medieval practices or more modern ones generated by the Council of Trent. All of these practices, which were a function of social status, were rooted in religion. They offer no evidence of secularization whatsoever.

The Sommersdorf mummies—An interdisciplinary investigation on human remains from a 17th-19th century aristocratic crypt in southern Germany

“…None of the mummified individuals showed signs of an artificial mummification. No incisions were visible on the trunk, such as described by Mylius [ 74 ] and Colleter et al [ 75 ] for Central Europe, and the skulls were intact so that no removal of the brain or other organs has taken place, such as seen by Piombino-Mascali in Sicily [ 5 , 76 ]. Remnants of the shrunken brain, heart, aorta and trachea were observable on the CT images.…”

Social status in late medieval and early modern Brittany: insights from stable isotope analysis

“…1; Colleter et al 2016;Le Cloirec 2016). Moreover, the presence of a garbage dump contemporaneous and adjacent to the convent allows the direct study of the animals that were eaten by the local population.…”

“…The phase 2 goes from the end of the fourteenth century to the sixteenth century with 137 (22 immature individuals and 115 adults), and the phase 3 covers the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and therefore corresponds to the modern period (73 immature individuals and 383 adults) (Table 1). Between the end of the fourteenth and the eighteenth century, the settlement was an important place of pilgrimage-because of the presence of a Bmiraculous painting^in the convent-and burial, especially for the parliamentary nobility (Croix 1981;Bordeaux 1992;Colleter et al 2016).…”

“…The majority (319/605 subjects, i.e., 53%) correspond to the abovementioned privileged status (A group). Within this group, 26 aristocrats are identified based on specific funeral practices: embalming and/or lead coffins (A′ group; Colleter et al 2016). A second group is identified as less favored as the A group (B group) and includes 188 subjects buried in the nave of the church, in the cloister garden, and in the immediate exteriors of the convent (188/605, i.e., 31% of subjects).…”

Plants and aromatics for embalming in Late Middle Ages and modern period: a synthesis of written sources and archaeobotanical data (France, Italy)

“…Surgical procedures are performed by surgeons and aromatics are prepared by apothecaries. According to written sources and anthropological studies, the operations appear to be quite standardized (Fornaciari and Capasso 1996;Fornaciari 1998;Georges 1999Georges , 2006Marinozzi and Fornaciari 2005;Corbineau 2014;Colleter et al 2016). The body is eviscerated by thoracotomy and/or laparotomy, the brain is removed by craniotomy, and veins and arteries are incised to let blood escape.…”