Bones, teeth, and estimating age of perinates: Carthaginian infant sacrifice revisited

Abstract

Writing about the ‘Tophet’, a children's cemetery in Carthage, Smith et al. argued in these pages that the age distribution of the children peaks at 1–1.49 months, supplying “another link in the chain of evidence—funerary practices, texts, iconography—that supports the interpretation of the Phoenician Tophets as ritual sites set aside for infant sacrifice” (2011: 871). In this they had challenged Jeffrey Schwartz and colleagues, who previously argued (2010) that “skeletal remains from Punic Carthage do not support systematic sacrifice of infants”. Here Schwartz et al. restate their position for Antiquity readers, showing that the verdict on the Phoenician practice of child sacrifice is, at best, not proven.

Cemetery or sacrifice? Infant burials at the Carthage Tophet

“…This note explains why we think that Schwartz et al (2012) erred in their age assessments and introduces additional evidence to show that the age distribution of the Tophet infants supports our contention of infant sacrifice.…”

“…They are consistent for all tooth types examined, with the highest frequency of infant deaths occurring between one and two months of age and dropping markedly in the following months. Schwartz et al (2010Schwartz et al ( , 2012 refer to three types of age assessment: (i) bone measurements, (ii) tooth development and (iii) the location of the neonatal line. All were inaccurate because they misjudged the effects of heat-related shrinkage:…”

“…The recent article on the Carthage Tophet infants by Schwartz et al (2012) takes issue with our paper (Smith et al 2011) that claims the Carthaginians practiced infant sacrifice. Both studies were carried out on the same sample of cremated infant remains excavated by the ASOR Punic project between 1975 and 1980 (Stager 1982).…”

“…Both studies were carried out on the same sample of cremated infant remains excavated by the ASOR Punic project between 1975 and 1980 (Stager 1982). We examined the contents of 334 urns while Schwartz et al (2012) examined the same sample plus an additional fourteen urns (N = 348). We differed, however, in our conclusions regarding the age distribution of the infants and the extent to which it supported or refuted claims that Tophet infants 1 Figure 1 Fazekas and Kosa (1978).…”

“…The first (Smith et al 2011) held that these must be evidence of the infant sacrifice that was so loudly condemned by Greek and Roman writers, since the infants were not perinatal, although most were under two months old at the time of death. In a rejoinder, Schwartz et al (2012) argued that the Carthage Tophet was the place of burial for the very young regardless of the cause of death. They estimated age at death between prenatal and six months, consistent with the recorded incidence of perinatal mortality in certain societies in recent periods.…”