The Frog, the Toad, and the Womb

Back in the remote past it was customary, in case of sterility, high risk pregnancy, difficult parturition, or miscarriage, to devote oneself to divinity or to the saints. Surviving testimonies of this practice from late Antiquity to the late Middle Ages are mainly in the written form. In many other instances (Prehistory, Ancient World, and partly even Modern Age) we have several artefacts about which, because of their ambiguity or lack of written clues, we can hardly make out the purpose of the donors, the awareness of the observers, and the aims of the users. Modern and contemporary votive tablets are more explicit in their meaning and earier to classify as offerings for pregnancy and parturition: but even so they represent more than mere documentation of clinical events, of customary or well-known technical practices.