Using Bone Histology to Identify Stillborn Infants in the Archaeological Record

Abstract

Various osteological techniques can be used to assess the developmental age of an infant skeleton, but it is more difficult to discern whether an infant had died before or after birth. Histological analysis of bone microstructure to look for microbial tunnelling (bioerosion) by putrefactive gut bacteria may represent a novel method of determining whether an archaeological infant had been a live birth. Gut bacteria spread around the body in the days following death and are primarily responsible for the putrefactive stage of decomposition. Most archaeological human bones that have been looked at using this method have been extensively bioeroded by bacteria. However, around half of archaeological young infant human skeletons remain free from bacterial tunnelling. The infant gut microbiome is thought to develop soon after birth and the best explanation for the large proportion of unbioeroded archaeological young infant skeletons is that they represent the remains of stillborn and short-lived infants that had not yet developed their bioerosive gut bacteria. The ability to identify stillborn and short-lived infant skeletons in the archaeological record has useful applications to the study of demography, health and social belief towards infancy and the beginnings of life in past populations. This chapter will discuss the use of histological analyses of bone diagenesis to identify stillborn infants in the archaeological record and demonstrate how this method may be applied to specific archaeological questions.