Zacházení s těly popravených ve středověku a raném novověku

• Authors: Unger Josef

Title variants

EN

HANDLING CORPSES OF PEOPLE EXECUTED IN THE MIDDLE AGES AND EARLY MODERN PERIOD

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

Executed individuals often lost their claim to a ritual funeral, and so their bodies were often deposited in various ways around the execution site. In the case of hanging, the body was sometimes left on the gallows until it gradually disintegrated. Somewhere near the gallows a larger pit was dug into which the remains of the executed were deposited. Sometimes the executed body or bodies could be cleared to a junkyard. In Moravia, in the last few years, the remains of two well-type gallows have been uncovered, built on a square ground plan with larger amounts of human bones in the interior. The proof of execution and subsequent removal of the executed body may in some cases be a double-shot. There are also cases when parts of the body of an executed convict were exposed in a special place as a worning to the public. In some cases, the surviving relatives could bury a corpse without ceremony at some of the smaller churches. It also happened that a prisoner died in jail or under tortur, or he was executed directly in jail. Then the body was removed as simply as possible. Human bones (mainly from the execution sites) were used in various witchcraft and magical practices and from the 16th century also in autopsies. Concerns for the remains of the executed that have not been respected have sometimes led to an effort to eliminate them.

Keywords

EN

Middle Ages; early modern period; executions; gallows

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts, Czech Republic
• Journal: Historie – Otázky – Problémy (History, Issues, Problems)
• Year: 2019
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 127-134

Contributors

author

Unger Josef

• Ústav antropologie Přírodovědecké fakulty Masarykovy univerzity v Brně