THE CHILDREN ARE MISSING! SOME THOUGHTS ON THE UNDERREPRESENTATION OF NON-ADULT BURIALS IN LATVIAN IRON AGE CEMETERIES

Abstract

It is generally accepted that the mortality of young children (0–5 years) in past societies was approximately 40%, but archaeological material yields considerably lower non­adult percentages over and over again. The purpose of this study is to analyse subadult representation in Latvian Iron Age cemeteries (5th–13th c. AD) by critically approaching and discussing various taphonomic and cultural aspects that could affect the preservation of burials. The proportion of children aged between zero and five years comprises less than 6% of all studied burials, and there are only two confirmed infant burials from the Iron Age. In order to analyse the underrepresentation of non­adult burials, two hypotheses were tested: 1) non­adults are missing because of intrinsic and extrinsic taphonomic factors; 2) infants and small children were buried elsewhere/differently. It was concluded that skeletal material has been considerably affected by taphonomic processes and that better preservation of skeletal material could increase the quantity of non­adult burials. Although the shallowness of non­adult burials is frequently mentioned as one of the reasons that significantly affect preservation, it was concluded that there is no correlation between the depth of a burial and the age of an individual. In the course of research it was hypothesized that there could have been different burial traditions for infants and that the majority of infants may have been buried elsewhere or in a different manner.