First bioarchaeological evidence of the familial practice of embalming of infant and adult relatives in Early Modern France.

ABSTRACT: While medieval and modern embalming practices in Western Europe are attested to historically and bioarcheologically, especially for famous historical figures, there are few recorded occurrences of this type of corpse preparation for a large number of archaeological individuals from the same lineage. Moreover, evidence of such practices mainly concerns adult individuals, whereas traces of child embalming are extremely rare. In 2017, the discovery of a crypt in the chapel of the Château des Milandes (Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, Dordogne, France) revealed a collective burial of the scattered remains of seven adults and five children of the aristocratic Caumont family, who died in the 16th and 17th centuries and whose skeletons all show marks of embalming practices. In 2021, another excavation in

SUBMITTER: Partiot C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11564759 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature