The Custom of Placenta Burial @museum.de

F: The year was 1984. Members of the Bönnigheim Historical Society, led by Kurt Sartorius, were at work in the cellar of a house at Michaelsbergstrasse 17-19. The old building was due to be demolished, and this was the last chance to take a closer look. Perhaps gain some fresh insights into the history of the village.

M: And indeed, they did make a discovery. Small pots were buried in the cellar floor. They were covered by about ten centimetres of soil – roughly four inches. Remarkably, most of the pots were buried on the east side of the house, in the corners there and along the walls.

F: Some of the pots had lids, while only the base of others had survived. Some seemed to have been deliberately smashed. In all, some 50 pots were unearthed in the cellar. What was behind this strange discovery?

M: Kurt Sartorius did some more research and came across an essay. The title translates as: "Custom and Tradition surrounding Birth, Christening and Childhood". It was published in a book called "Volkstümliche Überlieferungen in Württemberg" – Folk Traditions in Württemberg. The book was edited by one Karl Bohnenberger and published in 1904. In the essay in question, a clergyman describes the old custom of burying the afterbirth.

F: People used to believe that a magical being lived in the placenta. A kind of guardian angel for the child. If this being was unwell, it was thought to affect the child, who might be at risk of illness and, in the worst case, even death. So the placenta had to be treated with reverence and buried in the cellar – returned to Mother Earth, as it were. In 1869, a doctor called Gottfried Lammert wrote:

M: "The placenta shall not be discarded in an unclean place, in the privy or on the muck, but rather flung into running water or buried in the earth; then mother and child shall remain in good health".

F: And in a footnote he added.

M: "In the olden days, the placenta was buried in the ground in specially fashioned pots".

F: That would seem to solve the mystery of the buried pots.