Lost children of Roman Ashkelon
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Peace all,
I recently saw this documentary on Discovery civilisations...It was very interesting but the conclusions of one major participant in the research was a tad illogical. I'm hoping anyone having seen the documentary or knowing about it would care to discuss the points presented therein...
Basically, it's about the bodies of around a 100 infants found under a bath house(in a sewer) in the roman town of Ashkelon. The prime points are that according to forensic and dna testing these were newborn babies and that they had a ratio of more males than females, ruling female infanticide out...but having only 19 cases of successful extraction of dna might play a part in the ratio of the overall males to females as the normal ratio is 20 males to 21 females or around 11 in a more general case...or maybe even... more males died than females...
Here is a link to an informative article
http//www.he.net/~archaeol/9703/newsbriefs/ashkelon.html
I agree that the most likely scenario is that the bathhouse doubled as a brothel and these were illegitimate children of the prostitutes whose remains were found...but as the article observes
Based on ancient sources, historian John M. Riddle of North Carolina State University raises additional questions about the new interpretation. "The literary evidence--classical, medieval, and early modern--is virtually united in claiming that prostitutes knew what to do to prevent full-term pregnancies," he notes. "Why would prostitutes at Ashkelon be different?" A variety of contraceptive methods and abortifacients was used in the classical world (see ARCHAEOLOGY, March/April 1994). Among the church fathers, Jerome (348-420) condemned the use of potions that cause "sterility and murder those not yet conceived," while Augustine of Hippo (354-430) held that as long as the fetus was no more than "some sort of living, shapeless thing" homicide laws did not apply because it had no senses and no soul. Riddle also says that after the first century A.D. the value of slaves increased to the point that unwanted babies could be and were sold to dealers. Neither of the proposed explanations--female infanticide or discarding of unwanted children by prostitutes--seems to match the evidence.
This is quite logical...the documentary suggests in addition to the article that maybe these were stillborn babies or babies dying right after their birth that were put here...which is another logical explanation and one which fits more than any other explanation put forth so far...when confronted with this, patricia smith (the forensic expert) said in the documentary to my best recollection something to the effect of, it doesn't make sense because these are newborn babies and she basically feels that it's some form of infanticide still.
I disagree with her opinion as i think based on the evidence and explanations so far, the stillbirth/early death seems to fit in best...
Would love to hear more opinions/discussion.
Nadia