A Bayesian Approach to Ageing Perinatal Skeletal Material from Archaeological Sites: Implications for the Evidence for Infanticide in Roman-Britain

Authors: Gowland R.L.¹; Chamberlain A.T.²

Source: Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 29, Number 6, June 2002 , pp. 677-685(9)

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Abstract:

The skeletal remains of substantial numbers of perinatal human infants have been excavated from within a variety of archaeological contexts dating to the Romano-British period. It has been argued that the distribution of ages at death of these infants, which appears to exhibit a pronounced neonatal peak, provides evidence for infanticide. This study re-evaluates the osteological evidence for infanticide in Roman Britain by first identifying biases in traditional techniques for estimating the age of perinatal skeletons and then using a Bayesian procedure to reassess the ages at deaths of almost 400 infants from a number of Roman sites throughout England. We conclude that the apparent peak in neonatal mortality shown by earlier investigations is an artefact of regression-based age estimation. The distribution of ages at death in Romano-British infants is similar to a natural mortality profile. Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: INFANTICIDE, AGE ESTIMATION, BAYES'; THEOREM, ROMAN ARCHAEOLOGY

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Department of Archaeology, University of Durham, Science Site, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, U.K. 2: Department of Archaeology and Prehistory, University of Sheffield, Northgate House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 4ET, U.K.

Publication date: 2002-06-01