J Archaeol Sci 30 (12)

The authors report 13C and 15N measurements of serial sections of human deciduous and permanent tooth dentine from archaeological samples taken from the medieval village site of Wharram Percy, Yorkshire, UK. They found a pattern of enrichment, for both 13C and 15N, where the tooth crown was greater than the cervical part of the root, which in turn was greater than the apical portion of the root and the associated rib collagen values. This pattern reflects a decrease in the consumption of isotopically enriched breast milk and the introduction of less enriched weaning foods in the diet. The (mean±SD) difference between the deciduous second molar crowns and corresponding rib samples from the same individuals after two years of age was 1.2±0.4 for 13C and 3.2±0.8 for 15N. The 15N values are as predicted, but as there were no C4 plants at Wharram Percy, this 1.2 enrichment in 13C represents clear evidence of a carbon trophic level effect in collagen from breastfeeding infants. Carbon and nitrogen results also show that the infant diet among those who died in infancy did not differ from those who survived into childhood. This study demonstrates the promise of using dentine serial sections to study the temporal relationships of breastfeeding, weaning, and dietary patterns of single individuals.

In 1993, the author published a paper noting that the age distribution of perinatal infants for some Romano-British sites did not conform to a natural mortality pattern but rather showed a pronounced peak at a gestational age corresponding approximately to a full term infant. The author interpreted this as suggestive of infanticide, given that the deed is generally carried out immediately after birth. Gowland and Chamberlain have recently published a reconsideration of the problem of Roman infanticide (see 2003/130) in which they suggest that the peak the author observed in the Romano-British perinatal age at death distribution may have been an artefact of the particular ageing technique the author used, and they hence call into question the evidence for Roman infanticide. In this comment the author argues that their work is flawed and, using a re-analysis of his 1993 data, demonstrates that the perinatal peak he observed in the Romano-British age distribution is a robust result that supports an interpretation of infanticide.