14 DAY TRIAL // Back in 2009, on April 6, a magnitude-6.3 earthquake hit central Italy, and several buildings in the city of L'Aquila and neighboring regions suffered considerable damage. Among these buildings was a church in the village of Casentino, whose floor collapsed.
It was thus revealed that the church had several rooms hidden in its underground. Interestingly enough, these rooms were found to accommodate for several mummified bodies, including the remains of a fetus that died sometime in the 1840s.
What sparked researchers’ interest in this fetus was the fact that its anatomy was not quite right, Live Science informs. On the contrary, it soon became obvious that the bones that made up its skeleton were by no means in their proper place or rightfully connected with one another.
Due to the fact that the remains were in rather poor conditions, scientists were unable to determine whether the fetus was a boy or a girl. They did, however, figure out that it passed away sometime during its 29th week of development, and that it had been operated on while still in its mother's womb.
A gruesome surgical intervention
In a paper in the International Journal of Osteoarcheology, the specialists who found this fetus and examined it say that, having analyzed the child's remains with the help of a radiograph, they found that somebody had dissected its skull in several places.
What's more, the fetus' head was separated from the spine and its arms were cut off from the rest of the body. All these gruesome procedures were performed while the fetus was still in the womb.
As explained in the International Journal of Osteoarcheology, evidence indicates that the fetus was thus butchered during an embryotomy, i.e. a surgical intervention that boils down to dismembering a fetus so as to facilitate a delivery that would otherwise be impossible.
Ruggero D'Anastasio with the University of Chieti in Italy and colleagues say that such surgical interventions were quite common in the 1st and 2nd centuries. They were especially performed in Rome and in Alexandria whenever a fetus was believed to be dead or when a mother's life was at risk.
Still, this fetus discovered in the village of Casentino is the first anthropological proof that folks living in the 19th century in central Italy were no strangers to this procedure either, the scientists who studied the fetus explain.
It is understood that, once removed from its mother's womb, the fetus' body parts were reassembled and even covered in cloths before being laid to rest. Specialists say this indicates that the embryotomy was not performed without regrets.
The other mummies
As mentioned, several other mummies were pulled from the underground rooms revealed by the 2009 earthquake in central Italy. These human remains also date back to the 19th century and some of them show signs of having been autopsied.
Just like the fetus was dressed up before being buried, these people were laid to rest wrapped in textiles and shrouds. What's more, they were wearing clothes and rings, together with rosary beads.