Disability in a Time of Low Tech
Or, What A Dead Hand Can Tell Us
A construction company was doing pipeline work in Friesling, near Munich, when they dug up a very special skeleton this October.
Or at least, I think it was.
The Iron Hand
The skeleton belonged to a man who had died sometime between 1450 and 1620 (so sneaking into the early modern era instead of the high medieval era.) He was between 30 and 50 when he died.
But what is really interesting is that his left hand was missing four fingers. In their place were an iron and non-ferrous metal hollow replicas made of sheet metal. They were probably tied to the hand with straps of some kind.
The remains of the man have decayed over the last six hundred or so years, but enough was found to suggest that the prosthesis was padded with cloth and covered in leather. The assumption seems to be he was a soldier that had lost his fingers in one of the many armed conflicts the area was prone to. He seemed to have been alive when the amputations occurred, and the thumb was kept inside the prosthetic. (My guess- to make it functional for everyday use in some way. At least as balance.)
Prevalence?
While this was only the 50th bionic hand from the era to be found, there is evidence of prosthetic limbs and people surviving amputations for long enough to use the prosthetic limbs dating back to the 6th century. An old man found in an Italian necropolis had evidence of having a whole forearm removed a long time before his death, and a paper on his body holds that he probably had a replacement arm tied on for most of his life.
Even further back, ancient Egyptian finds have included prosthetic toes and other bits. So, the idea of amputating and replacing something is old as humanity. It just can be hard to find people with them.
Usefulness
But the big question is: why? Why have one installed? The earliest examples are merely for looks. They couldn’t move.
However, roughly the time that this recently-discovered gentlemen died, a mercenary named Gottfried “Götz” von Berlichingen invented a prosthetic hand with gears and switches that could be used in a variety of ways. It doesn’t seem like our gentleman had something quite so fancy- the working bionic arm really didn’t become possible until the 1960's- but he could at least move his hand some.
Even if it wasn’t going to allow him to grab stuff, it has always been important to people to look and feel normal. The prosthetics really highlight that:
A) People did at least sometimes survive amputation long enough to be worried about their looks
B) People were always willing to help people achieve the appearance they want.
Sources:
https://www.medievalists.net/2018/06/survival-to-amputation-in-pre-antibiotic-era-a-case-study-from-a-longobard-necropolis-6th-8th-centuries-ad/
https://www.medievalists.net/2023/10/medieval-skeleton-with-prosethetic-hand-discovered-in-germany/
Archaeologists Discover Centuries-Old Prosthetic Hand in Germany | Smart News| Smithsonian Magazine
The History of the Prosthetic Hand | Artificial Hands (wordpress.com)