# The material traces of penal death in medieval Europe

Mathieu Vivas

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Mathieu Vivas. The material traces of penal death in medieval Europe. Introduction to the material culture of ancient societies, Ausonius Éditions, pp.223-226, 2024, 978-2-35613-393-9. 10.46608/vadecumecum3.9782356133939.45. hal-04991169

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Submitted on 2 Apr 2025

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THE MATERIAL TRACES OF PENAL DEATH
IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE

Penal death in medieval Europe is a vast subject whose chrono-cultural, institutional,
and regional subtleties have been highlighted by historians of texts, images, law and
procedure, subtleties which sometimes still raise questions.<fnref n="1" /> Through the study of
material remains, the archaeological sciences are now refining this historical reasoning:
while they question the materiality of medieval justice – that is to say, the materiality of
their places of trial and incarceration, but also of their equipment and tools – and take a
new look on the right to punish that marks the landscape as much as the bodies of those
subject to trial.<fnref n="2" />

Among these themes, it is certainly the treatment and fate of criminal bodies and
those condemned to death that is the most fertile field of investigation. This subject is
revealed, among other things, through an archaeology of the places of justice. This is
the case at the Planche-Clément site in Troyes, where excavations have revealed, for the
13th-16th centuries, atypical burials (on the stomach, on the side, etc.) corresponding
to those of men who died in the bishop's prisons.<fnref n="3" /> One should also think of the places of
execution and, particularly, the places of hanging and the burial spaces associated with
them. Well-known in the UK and Central Europe<fnref n="4" /> these archaeologically invested places
provide information about those who owned them, but also about those who ended their
lives there.

<footnote n="1">1 Gauvard 2019; Sabaté 2020.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">2 Vivas 2019.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">3 Marchaisseau, forthcoming 2021.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">4 Reynolds 1997; Auleur 2008-2012; Wojtucki 2009; Mašková & Wojtucki 2015.</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_2.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 1. Draguignan (Var), Col de l'Ange. 3D reconstruction of the royal pitchforks (looking north-east) © M. Faure.</figcaption></figure>

Known as gallows, gibbets or pitchforks, these spaces of penal death undoubtedly deliver a material message. By studying their location (on the edge of a jurisdiction, on the side of a road, on a promontory, etc.), their typology (plan, materials, number of pillars, etc.) and their use (construction, destruction, re-erection), the archaeological approach sheds light on the discourse of institutions and lords who, thanks to the material anchoring of their right to condemn to death, show that they hold it and can apply it. In this respect, it should be emphasized that the monumentality of certain pitchforks, such as the nine royal pillars of Draguignan (Var) or the hangers of the dukedom of Château-la-Vallière, that are tangible witnesses to conflicts of jurisdiction or competition between powers and authorities.<fnref n="5" />

The archaeology of execution sites is also the archaeology of the bone remains found in these spaces.<fnref n="6" /> Studies now identify criminals (sex, age, pathology, etc.) and restore their clothing. Far from the Christian cemetery, criminals could be laid to rest, individually or not, in the ground, in pits, on their stomachs or on their backs and, for some, with their hands tied and their feet bound. Criminals could also be hanged indefinitely: depending on the relative chronology of the release of the joints, parts of their bodies were then detached as the body decomposed and thus fell between the pillars of justice. The archaeology of violence, thanks to paleopathological analyses, is opening the debate on the bone trauma left by amputation, decapitation, hanging and the torture of the

<footnote n="5">5 Vivas 2019b and c.</footnote>

<footnote n="6">6 Dumas 2015; Vivas 2016.</footnote>
wheel.<fnref n="7" /> In France, recent discoveries also question the punishment of live burial, such as the three pits in the rue de la Porte Saint-Jean, in Orléans, in each of which a living woman was buried between the eleventh and twelfth centuries.<fnref n="8" />

Clearly, the archaeology of places of justice and execution extends today's reflection on penal death, by discussing both the judicial fabrication of bodies and the evolution of necro-politics in the medieval period.

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>➤ Fig. 2. Orléans (Loiret), Rue de la Porte Saint-Jean, F179 (photo 671). Female individual buried in a seated position, lower limbs bent under the pelvis, upper limbs bent and brought to the back, wrists joined (most probably bound). Radiocarbon dated to the 11th to the first half of the 12th century © L. Ziegler.</figcaption></figure>

<footnote n="7">7 Mazzarelli *et al.* 2019.</footnote>

<footnote n="8">8 Parisot *et al.* 2021.</footnote>
REFERENCES

Auler, J. (org.), 2008-2012: *Richtstättenarchäologie*, Dormagen, 3 vol.

Duma, P., 2015: *Śmierć nieczysta na Śląsku. Studia nad obrządkiem pogrzebowym społeczeństwa przedindustrialnego*, Wrocław.

Gauvard, C., 2018: *Condamner à mort au Moyen Âge. Pratiques de la peine capitale en France (XIIIe-XVIe siècle)*, Paris.

Marchaisseau, V., 2022: *Troyes, "Planche Clément". Rapport de fouille archéologique*. Inrap.

Maškovà, P. & Wojtucki, D., 2015: "L'archéologie des lieux d'exécution en République Tchèque et en Basse-Silésie (Pologne)", in: Charageat, M. & Vivas, M. (org), *Les fourches patibulaires du Moyen Âge à l'époque moderne. Approche interdisciplinair*, URL: https://criminocorpus.revues.org/3115.

Mazarelli, D. et al., 2019: "First signs of torture in Italy: A probable case of execution by the wheel on at skeleton from 13th century Milano", *Journal of Archæological Science*, 109.

Parisot, M., Carron, D. & Ziegler, L., 2021: *Loiret, Orléans, rues Porte-Saint-Jean et limitrophes : projet de requalification des rues Porte-Saint-Jean, des Bons États, de la Grille et de l'impasse Saint-Jean*, Rapport final d'opération de diagnostic archéologique. Orléans.

Reynolds, A., 1997: *The Definition and Ideology of Anglo-Saxon Execution Sites and Cemeteries*, in: De Boe, G. & Verhaeghe, F. (org.), *Death and Burial in Medieval Europe*. Zellick, p. 33-41.

Sabaté, F., 2020: *The Death Penalty in Late-Medieval Catalonia. Evidence and Significations*, London – New York.

Vivas, M. (org.), 2019: *(Re)lecture archéologique de la justice en Europe médiévale et moderne*, Bordeaux, Ausonius éditions.

Vivas, M., 2016: "L'inhumation des condamnés à mort aux fourches patibulaires (Moyen Âge-Époque moderne)", in: Lauwers, M. & Zemour, A. (org.), *Qu'est-ce qu'une sépulture ? Humanités et systèmes funéraires de la Préhistoire à nos jours*, Antibes, p. 241-259.

Vivas, M., 2019a: "Les fourches patibulaires de Draguignan (Var) (XIVe-XVIIe s.) : premiers résultats d'une investigation interdisciplinaire", in: Vivas, M. (org.), *(Re)lecture archéologique de la justice en Europe médiévale et moderne*, Bordeaux, Ausonius Éditions, p. 157-176.

Vivas, M., 2019b: "Les « pendoirs » de Château-la-Vallière (Couesmes, Indre-et-Loire). Des archives aux sondages archéologiques : étude d'un lieu d'exécution en Touraine médiévale et moderne", *Bulletin de la Société Archéologique de Touraine*, 65. p. 39-20.

Wojtucki, D., 2009: *Publiczne miejsca stracen'na Dolnym Śląsku od XV do połowy XIX wieku*, Katowice.

MATHIEU VIVAS

Université de Lille, IRHIS,
UMR 8529 du CNRS, France

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