Children's Burials in Fifth-Century Britain and Connections to the Roman Past

The role of infant life histories in the construction of identities in death: An incremental isotope study of dietary and physiological status among children afforded differential burial

“…Children's graves may be located in different cemeteries to those of adults (Lillehammer, ; McKerr, Murphy, & Donnelly, ) or in clusters within cemeteries (Bedford, Buckley, Valentin, Tayles, & Longga, ; Sayer, ). Their remains may also be placed in forms of burial container exclusive to their age group (Carroll, ; Halcrow, Tayles, & Livingstone, ) or accompanied by different grave goods to adults including esoteric items such as amulets and curated objects (Carroll, ; Kay, ) or items which might be interpreted as toys or playthings (Andrushko, Buzon, Gibaja Oviedo, & Creaser, ; Harlow, ; Martin‐Kilcher, ). In some cases, child‐specific burial rites were provided to most individuals of a certain age at death, as with perinates interred at Romano‐British settlement sites (Moore, ), while, in other cases, only a proportion of children were buried in unusual ways and others received more “adult” treatment.…”

New Perspectives on Child and Infant Burial in Britain (100 b.c.e.–c.e. 200)

“…the infant was inherently ambiguous '. 11 This is an understanding based in part on the finding of many younger bodies at boundary locations such 3 For juveniles in the Roman-period archaeological record, see among others : Gowland 2001;Norman 2003;Carroll 2011;Kay 2016. In literature and culture more generally: Gardner and Wiedemann 1991;Rawson 1997;Rawson and Weaver 1997. 4 Fleming 2021, 148-56;Moore 2009. 5 Gowland and Redfern 2010, 28-32;Redfern et al 2012. 6 Millett and Gowland 2015, 185-6.…”

The Justinianic Plague: An inconsequential pandemic?

“…( Left ) Multiple inhumation burials from all First Pandemic cemeteries in which Y. pestis was isolated compared to a near comprehensive British dataset of burials. ( Right ) Increasing frequency in multiple inhumation burials began in Britain at least a century before the JP (16, 64, 65). …”

“…Notably, a closer examination of the British data reveals that burials with multiple inhumations had been slowly increasing since the 4th century. In a study of 8,207 burials across the island from cemeteries used in the late Roman and early medieval periods, the data demonstrate that multiple burials (both contemporary and consecutive) were increasing (64, 65). They comprised ∼2.43% of 3,541 graves from cemeteries used in the late Roman and early post-Roman periods, 3.47% of 2,447 burials in cemeteries used from circa 400 to 500, and 4.10% of 2,219 graves begun in the second half of the 5th century.…”