Archaeological news about the Archaeology of Early Medieval Europe from the Archaeology in Europe web site

Tuesday 12 January 2016

1,500-Year-Old Amputation Wound Studied


VIENNA, AUSTRIA—Bioarchaeologist Michaela Binder of the Austrian Archaeological Institute examined the bones of a middle-aged man who died in the sixth century A.D. He had been buried in a high-ranking area close to a church with a short sword, a brooch, and a prosthetic device for his missing left foot and ankle. The wood of the device had deteriorated, but excavators recovered an iron ring that stabilized the device. The leg bones are also stained, perhaps indicating the man had been buried with leather pieces that attached the prosthesis to his leg. “Losing a foot—and especially when it’s not cut through the joint but through the bone—would have lacerated a lot of blood vessels and caused an extensive amount of bleeding,” Binder toldAtlas Obscura

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