2023-10-30 14:54:00
Bavarian archaeologists have reported details of a rare find – an iron hand from the late Middle Ages or early modern times. The prosthesis was found two years ago during work to repair underground communications near the parish church of St. George in the Bavarian city of Freising. For further study and conservation, the find, removed from the burial, was taken to a special workshop in Munich.
The main fragment of the prosthesis in the restoration workshopPhoto: BLfD
The artificial limb was found in the grave of an adult male who died between 1450 and 1620, as evidenced by radiometric dating, according to a statement from the Land Office for the Protection of Monuments (BLfD) published at the end of October.
Photo: BLfD
Iron Hand from Freising
A hollow, motionless prosthesis was made for the left hand, which was missing four fingers – the index, middle, ring and little fingers. Leather belts were presumably used as fastenings.
Apparently, the prosthesis was covered with leather and also had a soft tissue pad at the attachment point. In addition to iron, one of the non-ferrous metals was used to produce the prosthesis, from the sheets of which the bent fingers were made.
As noted in the department’s statement, a total of about fifty different prostheses from this historical period have survived or been discovered in Central Europe to this day. Some of them are simple and fixed, some are equipped with various kinds of mechanisms for changing the position of individual fingers or other parts.
The production of such prostheses testifies to the desire of doctors of the Late Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern Age to make the lives of people who had lost limbs easier. This period in European history saw many devastating, bloody conflicts – most notably the Thirty Years’ War of 1618-1648.
Top view Photo: BLfD
Medieval dentures
The most famous and technically complex iron prosthetic hand of these times was made around 1530 for Gottfried “Götz” von Berlichingen zu Hornberg, 1480-1562. The Swabian knight lost his right limb during the siege of Landshut as a result of cannon fire in 1504 – during the War of the Landshut Succession.
The story of this participant in the Peasant War in Germany (1524-1525) formed the basis of the play “Götz von Berlichingen” – the first significant work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
The iron hand of Goetz von BerlichingenPhoto: akg-images/picture-alliance
The first simple prosthesis was made for Berlichingen between 1504 and 1510, the second and more complex one about twenty years later. Both of these iron hands have been preserved and are now on display in the Berlichingen family’s ancestral castle – Burg Jagsthausen in Baden-Württemberg.
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