Infancy and Earliest Childhood in the Roman World

Maureen Carroll is Professor of Roman Archaeology at the University of Sheffield and is also a founding member of its Centre for the Archaeology of Childhood. She studied Classical Archaeology in Canada, the USA, and Germany, and was the recipient of the prestigious Balsdon Fellowship and the Hugh Last Fellowship at the British School at Rome in 2008 and 2016 respectively. She has published widely on infant death and burial in Roman Italy, on Roman funerary commemoration, and on Roman gardens, and has conducted excavations at major sites in the Roman world, including Pompeii and Vagnari in Italy and Cologne in Germany.

• FrontmatterList of FiguresList of AbbreviationsMaps1: Introduction1.1: Locating Children in the Roman Family1.2: Roman Infancy: Developing a Research Theme1.3: Aim and Organization of this Study2: Infants and Children in Pre-Roman Mediterranean Societies2.1: Infant Death and Burial2.1.1: Location and Method of Disposal: Cultural Differences2.1.2: Grave Goods for Infants2.2: Pregnancy and Childbirth in Pre-Roman Art2.3: Images of Infants and the Family in Life and Death2.4: Infants and the Divine in the Greek World3: Mother and Child: Pregnancy, Birth, and Health3.1: Fetal Development in the Womb3.2: Childbirth and Death in Childbirth3.3: The Life Course: Milestones in the First Year of Life3.4: Health and Disease of Infants: The Bioarchaeological Evidence3.5: Divine Protection of the Infant4: The Material Culture of Infancy4.1: Feeding Bottles4.2: Clothing4.3: Cribs, Cradles, and Blankets4.4: Apotropaic Jewellery4.5: Pets and Toys5: Picturing Infants and Families in Roman Art5.1: Imperial and Ideological Images of Roman Infants and Families5.2: Barbarian Parents and Infants5.3: Biographical Sarcophagi and Vignettes of Roman Family Life5.4: Portraits and Statues of Infants6: Mors Immatura I: Contextualizing the Death and Burial of Infants6.1: Infant Mortality and Age at Death6.2: Burial Sites of Infants: Integration or Exclusion?6.2.1: Infant Burials in Communal Cemeteries6.2.2: Infant Burials in Settlements and Buildings6.2.3: Infant Burials in Roman Forts6.3: Infant Sacrifice, Infanticide, and Exposure7: Mors Immatura II: The Treatment of the Infant Body in Death7.1: Marseille: Greek and Roman Burials in Cultural Comparison7.2: Cremation vs. Inhumation . . . and Mummification7.3: Containers, Coffins, and Wrappings for the Infant Body7.4: Investment and Expense7.5: Grave Goods and Offerings8: Funerary Commemoration of Infants8.1: Age at Death in Epitaphs8.2: Expressions of Grief and Loss8.3: Funerary Images of Infants8.4: Mother and Infant Commemorated8.5: Children and the Social Status of the Family9: Integrated Perspectives on Roman Infancy9.1: Re-Evaluating Laws on Mourning9.2: Compensating for Lives Unlived?Appendix: Tables 1-8EndmatterBibliographyIndex

This useful book offers a broad, readable overview of the evidence for the youngest Romans-children less than one year old-from the fourth century BCE to the fourth CE across the Empire...Recommended