Professor Andrew N. Williams is currently studying for an MA in The Classical Mediterranean (University of Leicester), but is also an established medical practitioner and medical historian. In this post he reflects on the absence of particular types of anatomical votive and how new discoveries from San Casciano dei Bagni (Italy) might shed new light on this.

We’ve all seen them, those ancient skeletons with the spines, severely bent – most likely due to tuberculosis, although rickets and trauma also have to be factored in as comorbidities. Spinal deformity itself was well described by statuary in the ancient world (Sallares 2004, 236).

However, seeing the spinal deformity, we surely wonder how such individuals could have survived and what their lives would have been like? How much pain were they in? What was the quality of their lives? We can never know. Death may not have come quicky. It’s very possible these individuals requiring increasing care over very many years, could potentially have lived longer than a decade. Such a commitment of care would surely totally dominate the activity of the household concerned.

Isn’t it strange then, given both the suffering and burden of care involved, that there do not appear to be votive offerings to restore a bent back (Figure 1)?

Please tell me that you have been definitely able to identify even one such votive, because using general search terms or more specific such as ‘kyphosis’ or ‘scoliosis’ I haven’t been able to, either on The Votives Project website or indeed in any publications.

Or is that really so strange? Maybe we are asking the wrong question of the wrong object. Could it be perhaps that votive offerings were given for this condition, but reflecting the changing shape of the supplicant’s spine, instead of being made of clay, were fabricated out of beeswax?  Unlike clay votive offerings objects made from beeswax would be far less likely to survive over such a considerable period of time.

In an earlier post on this site, Maureen Carroll describes seeing a potential spinal votive made of beeswax in Larnaca, Cyprus (Figure 2).

Of course we do not have any extant beeswax votives from classical times. However, if we indeed believe that these beeswax votives could be an echo of an earlier time then surely it is reasonable to speculate that a wax offering of a spine could have been given and warmed in the priest’s hands even actively remodelled as part of the ritual process of dedication? Accompanying this would be is the fervent hope from the supplicant and his/her family that hope divine power will mediate the cure.

However, I believe a spinal votive at least by proxy may have been recently recovered. In 2022, this bronze statue was one of twenty four discovered at Etruscan-Roman sanctuary connected to the Bagno Grande (‘great bath’) of San Casciano dei Bagni (Italy), dating between the 2nd century BCE and the 1st century CE (Figure 3).

From the frontal view, the right leg is shorter, externally rotated and demonstrates a hip adduction deformity with a pelvic assymmetry. These are all hallmarks of a possible infection in the right hip. Tabolli (2023) citing (Papini 2023; Maggiani 2023) states ‘The statue of a naked, sick man presents a Latin inscription on its right leg. The inscription reads:

L. Marcius L.f. Grabillo hoc signu(m) et signa sex et femina ap pedibus ad inguen sex Fonti calidae v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito).

Lucius Marcius Grabillo, son of Lucius, (offered) this statue and other six statues and six legs, from the foot to the inguinal, to the Hot Spring of Calida, (and) discharged the vow freely, as is deserved.

Lucius Marcius Grabillo, his physician(s) and votive priests believed his difficulties lay with his presumably right leg, but could the inclusion of the bronze votive itself suggest something more?

A short film of this votive was recently broadcast on a YouTube podcast by Professor Darius Ayra (Arya, 2023). The statue’s back is clearly shown and this dorsal view now completes the picture. It reveals an abnormality in truncal posture most probably spinal secondary compensation as a consequence of the fixed pelvic deformities (Figure 4).

When attempting to fully answer this question we need to remind ourselves that makes this particular statue so fascinating is that these votive statues are depicted in the act of offering (Tabolli, 2023). This is thus a most unusual posture for a statue and maybe it demonstrates additional difficulties in daily living faced by Lucius Marcius Grabillo?

I believe this votive offering demonstrates both tuberculous hip and lumbar spinal pathology and uniquely the characteristic gait as described by Holt (the italics are my own):

‘The first symptoms here are often pain and lameness, referred to one of the lower extremities. This frequently leads to the suspicion that the hip is the seat of the disease. In addition to the lameness there may be a tilting of the pelvis to one side and sometimes a distinct lateral curvature of the spine. Referred pains are not so frequent nor so severe as when the upper part of the spine is affected; they may be felt in groin, in the loin in the thigh, in the buttock, or in the hypogastrium. The gait and attitude are very characteristic, throwing the shoulders well back, the patient walks stiffly with short steps, holding the spine with the greatest care’ (Holt, 1899, 840).

It may well be that Lucius Marcius Grabillo’s text mentioning six additional statues, and in particular six votive offerings of the entire leg, would surely indicate desperation at his predicament. Thus, Lucius Marcius Grabillo in presenting this votive as a sick man with clear right leg, right hip pathology and in the act of offering is demonstrating a characteristic gait as well of signs of progressive spinal pathology.

By Andrew N. Williams

[I would like to thank Mr R. Natarajan MS FRCS  for reviewing the dorsal and ventral images of Lucius Marcius Grabillo.]

References

Arya, D. 2023. New archaeological discovery. Bronze statues of San Casciano. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz-bbPgQBn0 accessed 13^th December 2023

Holt, L.E. 1899. The diseases of infancy and childhood. London, Thomas Lewin & Co.

Maggiani, A. 2023, Le iscrizioni etrusche su votivi di bronzo. La divinità e i suoi devoti, in Mariotti, E., Salvi, A. and Tabolli, J. (eds). Il Santuario Ritrovato 2. Pisa, Sillabe, pp. 181-193.

Sallares, J. R. 2004. Disease. In Hornblower, S., and Spawforth, A. (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Classical Civilisation. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Tabolli, J. 2023. Digging into a Display The ‘Voices’ of the Bronzes from San Casciano dei Bagni

https://engramma.it/eOS/index.php?id_articolo=5221 accessed December 21 2023.

Papini, M. 2023. Immagini di divinità e devoti di bronzo, in Mariotti, E., Salvi, A. and Tabolli, J. (eds). Il Santuario Ritrovato 2. Pisa, Sillabe, pp. 117-135.