Infant Death in Late Prehistoric Southeast Asia

Abstract

Important information on demography, epidemiology, inter-population differences in growth, infant burial practices, and social aspects of the community can be gleaned from the study of perinatal bones. The increasing number of perinates unearthed from prehistoric sites in Southeast Asia provides a rare opportunity to investigate these issues. The high number of full-term infants represented at the site of Khok Phanom Di in Central Thailand (4000–3500 b.p. ) remains an enigma. This is an important issue for bioarchaeologists as infant mortality patterns are sensitive barometers of the health and fertility of a population. This study investigated the perinatal age distributions of several chronologically spread sites in prehistoric Southeast Asia with differing subsistence modes and evidence of social complexity. Results show that the age distribution in the collection from Khok Phanom Di is different from the other skeletal samples, with a comparatively higher number of full-term perinates represented. Explanations including infanticide, issues of health and disease, and infant burial practices are considered. It seems likely that the age distribution results from different burial rites of pre-term infants as a consequence of social and cultural differences between Khok Phanom Di and the other sites. This study emphasizes the important contribution bioarchaeological research and the comparative study of infant burial rites can make in understanding aspects of social change in prehistoric communities.

Postmortem treatment of preterm infants at the Gangshang site during the Late Neolithic period, Shandong Province, China

“…Combined with the results of the new five jar burials excavated at the Gangshang site in 2022, in which the age of the infants was estimated to be less than 38 weeks, the jar burials of the Dawenkou culture period at the Gangshang site may have been used for the burial of stillborn infants who died abnormally or were unable to survive for a longer period after delivery and should be a special way for the ancient residents of the Gangshang site to treat the death of such population. Placing a dead infant in a ceramic jar coffin is a perinatal custom at the Khok Phanom Di site in Thailand (Halcrow et al, 2008), whereas in the Jomon period, jar burials were mainly containing infant individuals over 40 weeks of gestational age (Yamada, 1997). Although the age range and growth stages of infant individuals buried in jar burials vary slightly from region to region, they all have a relatively fixed pattern, which may be due to the different reflecting the importance that ancient residents attached to these infants who died abnormally and the emotion that they could not bear to be separated from them.…”

“…This practice appeared in the Mumun period of Korea as well (Rhee et al, 2007; Song‐Nai & Mong‐Lyong, 1992). It has also occurred in Southeast and South Asia, as Khok Phanom Di (4000 bp –3500 bp ) in Thailand (Halcrow et al, 2008; Higham et al, 1992) and Iron Age in Myanmar (Coupey, 2008), Cambodia (Shewan et al, 2020), Vietnam (Yamagata & Matsumura, 2017), the Philippines (Bellwood & Dizon, 2013), and Baluchistan of Pakistan (6000 bp –5300 bp ) (Dibyopama et al, 2015). Meanwhile, this practice even spread to Oceania dating around 2500 bp (Ono et al, 2018).…”

“…In terms of burial style, it is basically a straight-limbed burial with a supine position (Xu, 1989). This form of jar burial is used by both adult and subadult groups, with no age With accurate age estimation of infant individuals buried in jar burials, researchers can obtain age at death, social status, and paleodemographic information from the bone remains (Halcrow et al, 2008;Jerardino et al, 2000;Mcsweeney et al, 2016;Ogden & Schutkowski, 2004). Previous studies of jar burials in China are mainly focused on the cultural nature of the vessels used in burials and give priority to the typology of the vessels themselves (Bai, 2021;Li, 2012).…”