Rumors about the prevalence of this practice were probably exaggerated
The large number of children's bones found during excavations of ancient Roman cities have long been considered evidence of incredibly brutal ancient traditions. However, experts from the University of Durham and two British museums have come to the conclusion that infanticide was actually not as common in the largest state of Antiquity as some other experts believe.
Until now, it was believed that in ancient Rome it was completely common practice to decide whether to raise a newborn child, and often the decision was made to leave him to die. Some historians even suggest that it was illegal to raise known sick children in the country. Scientists have long been trying to explain how in one of the most progressive states of their time such wild, in the current view, customs could exist. Among the probable grounds for infanticide, historians call the desire to "save" a child from illness or poverty in the future, as well as a slightly different worldview of ancient people - for them a newborn baby was not yet a full-fledged person with all the rights due to him.
One way or another, specialists, for the most part, followed the path of justification, and not denial of such a repulsive practice as infanticide. However, in a new study, British archaeologists have questioned the very fact that a cruel tradition was widespread in ancient Rome. To this end, they resorted to a rather "young" method of analysis, X-ray microtomography. Applying it to some of the remains of children, scientists came to the conclusion that they were not killed or left to die in infancy, but were born dead. This is evidenced by the fact that the bones of children were not exposed to their own intestinal bacteria.
Thus, the researchers came to the conclusion that infanticide as a phenomenon in ancient Rome, in all likelihood, really existed, but the extent of its spread is largely overestimated.
Scientists reported on the results obtained in the pages of the scientific publication Journal of Archaeological Science.
Dmitry Istrov