Social implications of mortality patterns of juveniles from Poundbury Camp, Romano-British Cemetery

Abstract

Attempts have been made to reconstruct the Romano-British population that was buried at Poundbury Camp, Dorchester, England. Over 1400 graves were excavated and about 1200 skeletons of adults and juveniles were recovered, dating from the 1st to the 5th Centuries AD. The burial patterns indicate that the family was the important unit in the community that was served by Poundbury Camp. The newborn but perhaps not the stillborn were buried in the cemetery. Infanticide was not practised. Infant mortality was high and weaning may have been at a very early age. There were relatively few children and family sizes must have been small. Among the adolescents there were three times as many girls as boys. This is interpreted as a consequence of the materialism of a society with an agrarian economy.