Dolda begravningar av foster i kyrkor under 1700- och 1800-talet: två fallstudier från Sverige

Abstract

Concealed burials of foetuses in churches during the 18th and 19th centuries: two case studies from Sweden. Miscarriage was a stigmatised subject during the 18th and 19th centuries, and although it must have been a common feature in many women’s lives, it is a relatively unexplored subject in archaeology. Two finds from Gällared (Halland) and Bringetofta (Småland) churches (SW Sweden) each provide a snapshot of how even very young foetuses received a dignified and carefully arranged burial in consecrated ground, despite the fact that this was an act defiant of the Church of Sweden Law. This article presents the interdisciplinary study of these two finds. This study has enabled a detailed reconstruction of practices related to the handling and burial of stillborn foetuses in the period around 1800. The results reveal not only the feelings of grief and loss that a miscarriage evoked, but also raise questions of a more existential nature about personhood and when a foetus was considered an individual – if at all. The judicial aspects of studying foetal burials are briefly addressed, and the importance of establishing mutual working relationships between churches and archaeologists is emphasised. Such burials are largely unknown among archaeologists and antiquarians as well as in the Church of Sweden, and one aim of this article is to draw attention to these.