| Title: |
A Bayesian approach to ageing perinatal skeletal material from archaeological sites:
|
| Subtitle: |
implications for the evidence for infanticide in Roman-Britain |
| Issue: |
J Archaeol Sci 29 (6) |
| Series: |
Journal of Archaeological Science
|
| Volume: |
29
(6)
|
| Page Start/End: |
677 - 685 |
| Biblio Note |
Please note that this is a bibliographic record only, as originally entered into the BIAB database.
The ADS have no files for download, and unfortunately cannot advise further on where to access hard copy or digital versions.
|
| Publication Type: |
Journal
|
| 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. |
| Year of Publication: |
2002
|
| Subjects / Periods: |
|
ROMAN
(Historic England Periods)
|
|
| Skeletal Remains (Auto Detected Subject) |
|
Late Iron Age
(BIAB)
|
|
|
| Source: |
BIAB
(The British & Irish Archaeological Bibliography (BIAB))
|
| Created Date: |
13 Jan 2003 |
