Infants buried at the Ullastret site in Catalonia died from natural causes, overturning previous theories of infanticide and sacrificial practices, according to a new study conducted by researchers from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and the Catalan Archaeological Museum (MAC).
The multidisciplinary study analyzed the remains of 15 children from the Iron Age settlement, providing new insights into the funerary practices and living conditions of the ancient Iberian community, according to El Punt Avui.
"The pattern of distribution of deaths by age and sex that we identified resembles natural infant mortality in developing populations and leads us to rule out any gender selection or sacrificial practices," said Carolina Sandoval, a researcher from the UAB's Biological Anthropology Research Group (GREAB), according to Catalan News.
The Ullastret site, located in the Girona town of the same name, is recognized as the largest Iberian oppidum—meaning a fortified city—discovered in Catalonia and one of the most important in the western Mediterranean.
The research team applied updated morphology, morphometry, genetic analysis, and dental histology techniques to the skeletal remains to establish their complete biological profiles. This allowed them to determine the age and sex of the infants and investigate possible causes of death.
Eight of the babies studied were girls and five were boys; genetic analysis was not possible for the remaining two individuals.
"The Iberians buried their children in the floor of their homes because they wanted to remember them and keep them part of the household memory," Ara reported.
The study found that the infants ranged in age from 24-week-old fetuses to the oldest baby at three months old.
Some of the burials were of premature deaths during gestation, but most were full-term fetuses and babies who survived more than a month after birth; the babies who lived the longest survived twelve weeks.
The researchers discovered that newborns and infants were buried within their homes as part of a normalized family ritual. The burials occurred in simple pits without linings or covers.
"There was a treatment, a care; they chose to integrate them into daily life, they buried them in the spaces where they lived, and therefore, there is respect and a will to remember them," said Gabriel del Prado, head of MAC-Ullastret.
According to UAB professor Assumpció Malgosa, they have only excavated approximately 5% of the Isla de Reixac and 20% of the Puig de Sant Andreu.
"We have reviewed all the documentation. It could be said that we need to do a re-excavation with new methodologies and a new perspective," Malgosa added.
Two individuals located in the same deposit shared lineage, which could suggest a maternal link. However, since the identified genetic variant is very common in the population, it was not possible to confirm this link with certainty.
In October, a study by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Universitat de Vic - Universitat Central de Catalunya (UVic-UCC), and the Synchrotron analyzed the baby teeth of 45 children and ruled out that the babies buried in homes were infanticides or sacrifices.
"The more data we have, the more we can see if there are differences between groups, with other Iberians from different areas, or if everyone used the same rituals," said Malgosa.
The researchers explained that while the bodies of adult Iberians were usually cremated upon death, the babies were buried without being burned, which is why their bones have been preserved.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.