Roman dead baby 'brothel' mystery deepens

The 97 infant burials dated from between 150AD and 200AD were found at a site in a Roman villa in Buckinghamshire, Uk. Archaeologists at the time suspected....

systematic killing of newborn babies and are investigating the theory that the victims were unwanted babies born to workers at a Roman-era brothel.

source

New evidence however has cast doubt on that theory.... The site is far removed from any significant settlement, therefore it is doubtful that any brothel would be so successful as to produce so many unwanted a babies......

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,"

A mother goddess cult is now looking more likely according to Brett Thorn (keeper of archaeology at the Buckinghamshire County Museum)

"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."

Yewden Villa located near Hambleden in Buckinghamshire
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Mu personal feeling is that it could of been a birthing centre..... After having had a c-section myself this just sends chills down my spine... the thought of what women have gone through in child birth over the millennia is terrifying...

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.

The equality in sexes of the infants seems to point towards a birthing centre

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 number 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.

I just shudder to think what women went through before the advent of the epidural!

reply to post by Versa

I just shudder to think what women went through before the advent of the epidural!

They went through life, life hurts sometimes.

Signed,

Boncho -Two separate leg fractures, both times without pain medication for 48 hours.





A very interesting case however. I wonder what the personal feelings were of people who lost their children during pregnancy back then. Or, what type of anxiety Mothers had before birth.

This topic reminded me of the perfume movie where the woman at the market pops out a kid, kicks it under the table and keeps tending to her wares.

This story kind of makes me wonder what other sites history claims to be sacrificial sites or bizarre murder scenes are possibly like what the article says or even early medical areas.

Thousand year old c-section ...........damn

Originally posted by boncho
reply to post by Versa

I just shudder to think what women went through before the advent of the epidural!

 

They went through life, life hurts sometimes.

Boncho -Two separate leg fractures, both times without pain medication for 48 hours.

A very interesting case however. I wonder what the personal feelings were of people who lost their children during pregnancy back then. Or, what type of anxiety Mothers had before birth.

considering how many of the women didn't survive child birth I would imagine they would be quite worried about how the birth was going to go

Originally posted by GhettoRice
This story kind of makes me wonder what other sites history claims to be sacrificial sites or bizarre murder scenes are possibly like what the article says or even early medical areas.

Thousand year old c-section ...........damn

that is a very good point! I suspect a few might of been 'mislabelled'

I don't want to be too gross, but I have seen preterm stillborn babies born and like, uh...their leg came off or an arm came off or some flesh came off. They are really tiny and more fragile than you might think.
I could see like a still born full term back then might get uh, jerked out and - well, I just mean that it might not be ritual sacrifice.

There's a belief that pagans are bad, wicked people that gets taught to a lot of religious people from a very young age. I think sometimes that translates into archeologists always thinking the worst when they find something. JMO.

reply to post by hadriana


ummm yes... that was pretty gross not sure how well Im going to sleep tonight now!

I agree though that an awful lot of things get put down to religious beliefs or practices when there are other possible explanations.

If it was a birthing center, I would expect to find women's remains as well. Many women die in childbirth.

Originally posted by Aeons
If it was a birthing center, I would expect to find women's remains as well. Many women die in childbirth.

Thats a good point, I suppose its possible the women are buried elsewhere and have yet to be uncovered.... It seems quite a strange site

In many pagan traditions it is believed that for a certain amount of time, usually ranging from a year and one day up to sometimes five years that children are holy and not-worldly. it is possible that instead of a birthing center, it was a shine to a mother-goddess for dead children. If a woman had a still birth, being that the child is not of this world till a pre-determined time, perhaps they would bury the child there with the mother to protect it.

reply to post by Versa

From what I have read 1/3 of all Roman births were infanticided.
And 1/3 of all Romans were slaves.
That was life back then.

Originally posted by RRokkyy
reply to post by Versa

 

From what I have read 1/3 of all Roman births were infanticided.
And 1/3 of all Romans were slaves.
That was life back then.

Girls tend to be over-represented in infanticide. Even in Greco-Roman times.

"Everyone, even a poor man, raises a son; everyone, even a rich man, exposes a daughter." - Posidippus

Raising more than one daughter was considered a mark of being well-to-do.

So if this was a place for killing your babies, I would expect to see quite a few more girls than boys.

reply to post by RRokkyy


As Aeons above me said, the puzzling thing about this site is the equality of the sexes. Girls would be expected to out number boys in most cases and if it were a brothel you'd expect more boys to be turning up.