Violence in European medieval monasteries: Skeletal trauma in Teplá monastery (Czech Republic)

Abstract

Medieval monasteries often went beyond their religious mission and developed into economic, social, and educational centres. These were not spared from violent attack on the part of the gentry. The defence of such monasteries is, however, a poorly investigated area in bioarchaeological studies. A recently excavated skeletal sample found in front of the western gate of the Abbey Church at the Teplá monastery (Czech Republic) dated between the 13th and 15th century AD provides us a unique opportunity to fill this gap. The analysis of skeletal trauma reveals that 13 out of 30 individuals exhibited trauma, of which 69% were confidently related to violence. All individuals with injuries were males, and half of them were younger than 30 years of age. The presence of ante‐mortem injuries indicates that males likely had previous combat experience, were successfully treated, and their bodies were buried with respect and care. The most probable explanation of our findings is that the individuals were a group of clients who were tasked with the defence of the Teplá monastery. Other, less likely explanations assume that individuals were laity, monastery benefactors, and/or canons killed during several different violent attacks directed at the monastery.

Troubles in Tuva: Patterns of perimortem trauma in a nomadic community from Southern Siberia (second to fourth c.CE)

“…In almost all affected individuals multiple lesions are documented on various bones, with blows originating from different positions. In the literature multiple perimortem lesions are frequently observed on victims of hand‐to‐hand combats in preindustrial contexts (Ingelmark, 1939; Jiménez‐Brobeil et al, 2014; Kjellström, 2005; Łukasik, Krenz‐Niedbała, Zdanowicz, Różański, & Olszacki, 2019; Murphy, 2003a; Novak, 2000; Pankowská, Galeta, Uhlík Spěváčková, & Nováček, 2019; Tumler, Paladin, & Zink, 2019; Tur et al, 2018). They may result from the attempt to incapacitate an opponent hitting them repeatedly, and/or by the attack by multiple aggressors in crowded battlefields (see Knüsel & Boylston, 2000; Novak, 2000).…”

Prevalence of cranial trauma in Eurasian Upper Paleolithic humans

“…We consider the GLMM approach a valuable alternative to conventional crude trauma frequencies for the study of past trauma prevalence, especially when skeletal preservation is poor. Crude trauma frequency estimates are in general highly dependent on the completeness of the skeletal remains under study, because the less complete the remains are, the higher is the chance for a traumatic lesion to go unnoticed, resulting in a proportionally growing number of false negative findings in the sample (Judd, 2002, 2004; Pankowská et al, 2019). In trauma research, skeletal samples are therefore sometimes restricted to a predefined preservation threshold, such as >75% complete, to account for the preservation status of skeletal remains and avoid biased trauma frequencies (Cohen et al, 2014; Fibiger et al, 2013; Gheggi, 2016; Judd, 2002; Schulting & Fibiger, 2014; Torres‐Rouff et al, 2018).…”

“…Trauma prevalence estimates depend highly on the preservation status of skeletal remains, because once present traumatic lesions may not be preserved in the skeletal record when skeletal preservation is poor (Judd, 2002(Judd, , 2004Pankowská, Galeta, Uhlík Spěváčková, & Nováček, 2019). Consequently, the uncertainty of trauma prevalence estimates increases with decreasing completeness of the remains.…”