Girding the loins? Direct evidence of the use of a medieval English parchment birthing girdle from biomolecular analysis.
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Authors
Goodison, Natalie J
Brenner, Elma
Signorello, Stefania
Price, Kierri
Publication Date
2021-03-10Journal Title
R Soc Open Sci
ISSN
2054-5703
Publisher
The Royal Society
Volume
8
Issue
3
Pages
202055
Language
eng
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Physical Medium
Electronic
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Fiddyment, S., Goodison, N. J., Brenner, E., Signorello, S., Price, K., & Collins, M. (2021). Girding the loins? Direct evidence of the use of a medieval English parchment birthing girdle from biomolecular analysis.. R Soc Open Sci, 8 (3), 202055. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202055
Abstract
In this paper, we describe palaeoproteomic evidence obtained from a stained medieval birth girdle using a previously developed dry non-invasive sampling technique. The parchment birth girdle studied (Wellcome Collection Western MS. 632) was made in England in the late fifteenth century and was thought to be used by pregnant women while giving birth. We were able to extract both human and non-human peptides from the manuscript, including evidence for the use of honey, cereals, ovicaprine milk and legumes. In addition, a large number of human peptides were detected on the birth roll, many of which are found in cervico-vaginal fluid. This suggests that the birth roll was actively used during childbirth. This study is, to our knowledge, the first to extract and analyse non-collagenous peptides from a birth girdle using this sampling method and demonstrates the potential of this type of analysis for stained manuscripts, providing direct biomolecular evidence for active use.
Sponsorship
European Research Council (787282)
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.202055
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/330067
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