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

Bibliographic Data

ID8312818
AuthorsElizabeth Craig‐atkin (0000-0003-2560-548X, University of Sheffield Sheffield South Yorkshire United Kingdom, corresponding author), Jacqueline Towers (University of Sheffield Sheffield South Yorkshire United Kingdom), Julia Beaumont (0000-0002-7166-5857, The University of Bradford Bradford West Yorkshire United Kingdom)
Year2018
Volume167
Issue3
Pages644-655
Publication date2018-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9483 • E-ISSN: 1096-8644
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/ajpa.23691
PMID30132793
OpenAlexW2888433815
LanguageEN
Citations received32
References cited51

OBJECTIVES: Isotope ratio analyses of dentine collagen were used to characterize short-term changes in physiological status (both dietary status and biological stress) across the life course of children afforded special funerary treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: C isotope profiles for incrementally forming dentine collagen were obtained from deciduous teeth of 86 children from four early-medieval English cemeteries. Thirty-one were interred in child-specific burial clusters, and the remainder alongside adults in other areas of the cemetery. Isotope profiles were categorized into four distinct patterns of dietary and health status between the final prenatal months and death. RESULTS: Isotope profiles from individuals from the burial clusters were significantly less likely to reflect weaning curves, suggesting distinctive breastfeeding and weaning experiences. This relationship was not simply a factor of differential age at death between cohorts. There was no association of burial location neither with stage of weaning at death, nor with isotopic evidence of physiological stress at the end of life. DISCUSSION: This study is the first to identify a relationship between the extent of breastfeeding and the provision of child-specific funerary rites. Limited breastfeeding may indicate the mother had died during or soon after birth, or that either mother or child was unable to feed due to illness. Children who were not breastfed will have experienced a significantly higher risk of malnutrition, undernutrition and infection. These sickly and perhaps motherless children received care to nourish them during early life, and were similarly provided with special treatment in death

Breastfeeding · Deciduous teeth · Differential treatment · Environmental health · Infant mortality · Malnutrition · Pathology · Population · Weaning · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Demography · Dentistry · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Medicine · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Gerontology · Pediatrics