Expressions ostéoarchéologiques de la pratique chirurgicale en Touraine médiévale : le prieuré Saint-Cosme et la léproserie Saint-Lazare

Samuel Bédécarrats (1) , Nadine Travers (2) , Matthieu Gaultier (3, 1) , Valentin Miclon (1) , Hélène Coqueugniot (4, 5)

1 CITERES - Cités, Territoires, Environnement et Sociétés
2 CHRU Tours - Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire de Tours
3 SADIL - Service de l'archéologie du département d'Indre-et-Loire
4 PACEA - De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel : Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie
5 EPHE - École Pratique des Hautes Études

The area around Tours offers a unique chance to document examples of medieval surgery. Two sites revealed cases of surgical procedures: six trepanations were discovered at St Cosme priory. Another trepanation and one amputation were identified at St Lazare leprosarium. According to medieval texts, trepanation was used for cleaning cranial wounds. If the osseous examples from this study show a good concordance with those texts regarding the modus operandi, the use of 3D imaging tends to favor the treatment of neurological conditions as the main therapeutic motivation. Regarding the amputation, the archaeological context suggests use of this procedure for the treatment of a perforating ulcer of the foot. Isotopic data support the idea that the operation was not conducted in situ.

Mots clés: trepanation; amputation; Middle Ages; Touraine; virtual anthropology

Domaines: Anthropologie biologique; Archéologie et Préhistoire

Samuel Bédécarrats, Nadine Travers, Matthieu Gaultier, Valentin Miclon, Hélène Coqueugniot. Expressions ostéoarchéologiques de la pratique chirurgicale en Touraine médiévale : le prieuré Saint-Cosme et la léproserie Saint-Lazare. Sacha KACKI; Hélène RÉVEILLAS; Christopher J. KNÜSEL. Actes de la 10e Rencontre du Gaaf, Reugny : Gaaf, pp.275-284, 2021, Rencontre autour du corps malade. Prise en charge et traitement funéraire des individus souffrants à travers les siècles. ⟨hal-03328278⟩