MORE ON THE BUCKINGHAMSHIRE SITE that may preserve evidence for extensive ancient infanticide at a brothel. I noted the original story
here last year. The BBC now has a follow-up:
Roman dead baby 'brothel' mystery deepens
By Louise Ord Assistant Producer, Digging For Britain
New research has cast doubt on the theory that 97 infants were killed at a Roman brothel in Buckinghamshire.
In 2008, the remains of the newborn babies were rediscovered packed in cigarette cases in a dusty museum storeroom by Dr Jill Eyers from Chiltern Archaeology.
[...]
Brett Thorn, keeper of archaeology at the Buckinghamshire County Museum, has disputed her hypothesis.
"My main concern with the brothel theory is that it's just too far away from any major population centres. I'm just not convinced," he said.
He has put together an exhibition of other objects from the villa excavation that could point to the villa having associations with a series of mother goddess cults from around the world.
"There are a few significant religious objects from the site that indicate possible connections with a mother goddess cult," he explained.
"They may indicate that the site was a shrine and women went there to give birth, and get protection from the mother goddess during this dangerous time. The large number of babies who are buried there could be natural stillbirths, or children who died in labour."
Last year during filming for BBC Two's Digging for Britain series, presenter Dr Alice Roberts noticed cut marks made by a sharp implement on one of the bones, a discovery that was not revealed to the public until now.
Then we turn to some macabre matters for which evidence from ancient Ashkelon becomes relevant:
Last year during filming for BBC Two's Digging for Britain series, presenter Dr Alice Roberts noticed cut marks made by a sharp implement on one of the bones, a discovery that was not revealed to the public until now.
Cut marks can indicate anything from ritual practices involving human sacrifice, the de-fleshing of bones before burial, or the dismembering of a baby during childbirth to save the life of the mother.
Keri Brown at the University of Manchester carried out DNA tests on the 10 sets of the ancient bones to determine the sex of some of the infants.
It is common throughout history in cases of infanticide for girls to be killed rather than boys, but the opposite holds true for brothel sites. A brothel site at Ashkelon in Israel revealed that nearly all of the babies were boys.
Although the tests represented a very small sample of the total amount of baby skeletons found, there seemed to be an equal number of victims of both sexes at the Buckinghamshire site, and so the mystery for now remains unsolved.
Dr Eyers said she believed that only further excavation at the site would clear up the mystery once and for all.
And it would be great if someone would come up with the money for that.