Infant death during the Iron Age: The case of El Palomar (Oliete, Iberian Peninsula)
Résumé
In Western Europe, during the Iron Age, while most of the individuals were cremated, some perinates were buried in urban contexts. However, although this phenomenon was widespread, not all the individuals deceased around birth may have been buried. A specific selection process could determine which individuals were buried in these urban contexts.
El Palomar is a settlement from Oliete (Aragon, Spain) dated to the 3rd century BCE. From the original settlement, only a block formed by 11 houses and four warehouses rounded by four streets is preserved. Seventeen perinates were discovered in seven houses, and six of them were concentrated in Room 24. This concentration provides an opportunity to investigate the common factors that influenced their selection for burial. Macroscopic, microscopic and biomolecular investigation techniques were applied to determine the biological profile of these individuals and to get insights into their conditions of life and death. Specifically, dental developmental stages and measurements of long bones have revealed that 16 of these individuals died at an age of 38 and 40 weeks of development, while one was a 16-weeks-old fetus. By applying synchrotron propagation phase contrast micro-tomography (scan resolution: 3 μm pixel size), the neonatal line was identified in tooth germs of some individuals. The palaeo-genetic analyses showed the presence of both sexes, the absence of chromosomal abnormalities, and the lack of kinship relationship between these individuals.
This multi-proxy study allowed us to better characterize these perinates (e.g. age-at-death, sex, kinship relationships) enriching our understanding of the diversity of funerary practices of the Iron Age in Western Europe. The concentrated discovery of these burials in El Palomar, particularly in Room 24, emphasizes the need for further research to explore the reasons behind such specific funerary selections and their broader social implications.