10th May 2005, 10:05 PM
Neo-nates and infants were buried in and beneath floors of aceramic and later ceramic Neolithic houses in Khirokitia (Cyprus) from about the 10th Millennium BC and including 7000 BC calibrated. Not just once but, in some cases, layers of floors containing one, two or four babies. "foundation" burials within Roman domestic structures are not uncommon and a "law" was generally followed dictating that babies be buried "within the canopy of houses". A good example from the U.K would be the Dorchester Roman townhouse (Dorset). Dr Raimund Karl and Klaus Locker of the Universities of Bangor and Vienna have studied a central European Iron Age (450BC) community where infants were buried beneath internal walls of houses and in boundary ditches and also along pathways. Perhaps the act of burying children within the home could be seen as an act of "seeding" your home/nuclear family? Burial along/near boundaries may be representative of liminality or indeed, transition?
I worked on a site in north Nottinghamshire where infants were buried within a large, shallow pit. From memory, at least five were recovered. This is exactly what I am trying to get at-why? and what did all this mean? The treatment of infants and children in any period could be a good insight into the communities on the whole. My recent work in the near east recovered over 30 infants and children among adults in one rock-cut chambered tomb (2,500BC) from only one two metre square test trench! Analysis is under way-will keep you informed.
I worked on a site in north Nottinghamshire where infants were buried within a large, shallow pit. From memory, at least five were recovered. This is exactly what I am trying to get at-why? and what did all this mean? The treatment of infants and children in any period could be a good insight into the communities on the whole. My recent work in the near east recovered over 30 infants and children among adults in one rock-cut chambered tomb (2,500BC) from only one two metre square test trench! Analysis is under way-will keep you informed.