- chapter 47: Health and medicine in Etruria –
and some examples show (highly rationalized) details such as malformations (a second,
vestigial but functional uterus attached), or fi broid tumors, or a sectioned cervix that
shows scars of previous births. (Analysis of pelvic bones to determine prior births is
not widely accepted). Allegrezza and Baggieri (1999: 68–69, Figs 68–70) present X-ray
studies of terracotta uterus models from Fontanile di Legnisina (Vulci) showing the
incorporation inside the hollow organs, of one or two carefully fashioned clay pellets:
undoubtedly a complex ritual accompanied the manufacture of these votives, presumably
coded with requests for fertility or fecundity.
One mold-made example in the Manchester Museum had hand-modeled portions of
the urinary tract added to it, presumably to indicate tissues that had been damaged
in childbirth and healed (Fig. 47.6). (I have suggested that such details also indicate
some familiarity with post-mortem C-section, a procedure cited in early Roman law and
probably preceded by Etruscan traditions, Turfa 1994: 227–232). Some uterus models are
fl at, like the two inscribed “to Vei” (Demeter) at Vulci-Fontanile di Legnisina (Ricciardi
1988–89: 189, Fig. 48) and might represent a recently-emptied organ, the result of a
post-mortem attempt at fetal salvage, although this cannot be proven. Live C-sections
Figure 47.5 Liverpool uterus model, inv. 10.4.84.49, collected in nineteenth century by Joseph Mayer;
possible congenital anomaly (?). Courtesy of National Museums Liverpool (World Museum).
Figure 47.6 Manchester uterus model, with added details of urinary tract, Manchester Museum
inv. 35152, ex Sharp Ogden Collection. Courtesy of the Manchester Museum.