The 97 dead babies at Yewden Roman Villa

Work currently being undertaken by Chiltern Archaeology has investigated much about the lifestyle during the Roman period, and we have come up with some shocking discoveries. Amongst these discoveries comes the investigation of the burial of 97 babies within the villa grounds.  Examination of the baby bones has shown that these babies have been the victims of infanticide as they were found to have died around the time of birth.  But why would they have been murdered?  

Simon Mays, a human bone expert from English Heritage in Portsmouth, examines one of the infants

Location

The infants are mostly located in an area to the north of the main villa buildings which Mr Cocks, the 1912 excavator calls ‘The Yard’. This is an area lying outside the main perimeter wall, but within an outer wall. There are a good number of burial locations across the yard, including some in rubbish pits, and one tiny skeleton was placed in a wall cavity. In a different location to the others, there are two babies found under the floor in the 2^nd House, and a further three skeletons are notable for being in and on the edge of Pit 6 adjoining the 3^rd  house.  This Pit is also the location for the disposal of other bodies – two adult males, one adult female and two children (18 months and 6 years) were found together in the bottom of this pit with building materials thrown in on top. But generally the babies were buried fairly haphazardly, in small unmarked graves.  The burials are marked with crosses in the figure below. Some crosses are multiple burials.

Infanticide – why and by who?

It should be noted that people have practised infanticide since prehistory. For instance, studies on skeletons from the Upper Palaeolithic period in Europe show a higher proportion of male to female skeletons (of c. 1.5 to 1). There is evidence from the archaeological record, and then from written records later on, that babies were simply left out to die as a form of birth control. This practise was widespread up to the Medieval period in Britain and was still widespread into the 1800s. It no doubt led to the many folklore stories based on ‘foundlings’. It was not until 1938 that the Infanticide Act finally brought a conclusion to what was deemed ‘infanticide’ and what was deemed ‘murder’, but even in the early 1960s in Britain only one of the 72 women found guilty of infanticide was sent to prison! So, this exemplifies that the Romans were not so very different from recent practise in our own communities.

Evidence for murder

How would you be able to tell if babies were murdered or died naturally?  Firstly, look at the adult population (as these bones often survive better than infants). In many Roman cemeteries there is a higher proportion of males in the buried population than females.

Secondly, look at the infant burials.  These are commonly located within the villa grounds as infants are deemed not to have a ‘soul’ until they are two years old (in some parts of the Roman Empire it was when they first teethed). Infants are therefore often not found in cemeteries for this reason.  If you have a population of infants dying natural deaths there would be a spread of ages from premature to 2 years old in villa grounds. But, if infanticide was practised then you would expect to find a larger proportion of the infants to have died at the time of birth. 

So was this family planning or something more sinister? When the Hambleden infant bones were examined by archaeologists recently it was discovered that one of  them had little knife marks, on one of the long bones.  It was considered for a while that this  may possibly be evidence of ritual killing. However, after all the skeletons have been fully studied for similar marks by Alice Roberts and Simon Mays, it was concluded that this was very likely to be the result of one poor little infant that became stuck in the birth canal. It was common practice for such infants to be swiftly removed by dismembering them to remove them, and hence to save the mother’s life. Soranus, a famous medical adviser to the Roman world gives a full account of the method to be adopted by surgeons of the time.

For further information:

The project formed part of a new BBC TV series launched in August 2010. Here is presenter Alice Roberts filming with Jill on the site. The project will feature again in the next series in 2011.

Alice Roberts the presenter and Tim Robinson (producer) of the 360 Productions filming for Digging for Britain. This was the dive in the Thames looking for a Roman quay.

Alice Roberts with Dennis our diver

Alice and Dennis both making an

elegant exit from the Thames.