Infanticide and sacrifices among Archaic babies of the central United States

Abstract

A database of 480 Archaic-aged babies buried in twenty-one sites in the Ohio Valley was divided into fetuses, newborns and infants 2 months to 24 months old in order to examine potential differential treatment of the three classes of babies. Most of these babies died between 7000 and 3500 years ago. Burials were examined for single or group interment and types of grave goods. Unlike other papers investigating infants, this research is not directed at social status of parents but rather at the evidence for ritual killings of babies (n = 55) and for infanticide (n = 16). In so doing it has also been possible to offer observations on adultery killings of women and other treatments of mothers. The only significant difference between Middle Archaic and Late Archaic treatment of newborns and older infants was the greater inclusion of both age groups in multiple graves during the Late Archaic.