A UAB study in collaboration with the UVic-UCC and the ALBA Synchrotron concludes that the Iberian culture (8th to 1st centuries BCE) newborns buried within domestic spaces died of natural causes, such as complications during labour or premature births, and not due to ritual practices. Researchers applied an innovative methodology, based on the study of the neonatal line of baby teeth using optic microscopy and microflourescence with synchrotron light, to analyse the teeth from 45 infant skeletal remains and precisely identified the moments of both birth and death.
The Iberian culture inhabited the eastern and southern coastal regions of the Iberian Peninsula during the Iron Age (8th to 1st centuries BCE). The most common funeral ritual of the Iberians was the cremation of the deceased and subsequent disposal of the remains in urns that were buried in necropolises. However, archaeologists have also discovered burials with remains of newborns who had not been cremated, but were rather located in areas used for housing or production purposes. These burials have generated controversy among experts. Hypotheses suggested that they could have died of natural causes, be proof of infanticide, or even of ritual sacrifices.
A study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science now provides very precise evidence in favour of the hypothesis that these newborn infants died mainly from natural causes and that, therefore, are a reflection of the high infant mortality during the first year of life in the period studied.
Researchers reached this conclusion after studying 45 infant skeletal remains from five Catalan archaeological sites from the Iberian period: Camp de les Lloses (Osona), Olèrdola (Alt Penedès), Puig de Sant Andreu and Illa d’en Reixac (Baix Empordà), and Fortalesa dels Vilars d’Arbeca (Lleida).
Researchers have applied an innovative methodology based on the histological and elemental analysis (tissue and chemical composition) of the deciduous or primary teeth present in the infant skeletal remains. By means of optical microscopy, researchers were able to visualise the growth lines of the dental crown generated in the formation of teeth during intrauterine life and until shortly after birth. This led them to identify the presence of the neonatal line that is produced at the moment of birth.
The analysis allowed them to identify the moment of birth of the individuals and their survival, as well as to determine very precisely the chronological age at the moment of death. The chronological age takes into account the time elapsed since birth and not the biological development of the skeleton.
Almost half of the infants died during the perinatal period, specifically between the 27th week of gestation and the first week of life. The vast majority of perinatal deaths did not survive the moment of birth, and many of these infants died due to premature births.
“These data reinforce the hypothesis that the majority of perinatal deaths were caused by natural factors, such as birth complications or health problems associated with prematurity, and not by cultural practices such as infanticide or ritual sacrifice, as some hypotheses have suggested,” says Xavier Jordana, Associate Professor in the Biological Anthropology Unit of the Department of Animal Biology, Plant Biology and Ecology at the UAB.
Researchers also observed that of the twenty or so infants that survived beyond the first week of life, the longest lived 67 days.
“In the sites studied, no burial of an infant beyond two months of life has been identified. This leads us to think that it could probably have been due to a cultural practice of burying in domestic spaces the infants who died in the earliest stages,” says Assumpció Malgosa, researcher at the UAB and co-author of the study.
Read more on ALBA website
Image: Burial of a perinatal individual from the Fortalesa dels Vilars (Arbeca, Lleida) site.
Credit: ARQHISTEC-GIP, UdL.