Infant burials in the Ninevite 5 mortuary landscape
Infant burials in the Ninevite 5 mortuary landscape

Author(s): Dariusz Szeląg, Zuzanna Wygnańska
Subject(s): Archaeology, Ancient World
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Tell Arbid; infant graves; Ninevite 5 period; burial customs
Summary/Abstract: Several infant burials dating to various phases of the Ninevite 5 periodwere found on Tell Arbid, a site in northeastern Syria excavated byPiotr Bieliński from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean ArchaeologyUniversity of Warsaw. They shed new light on child burials froma period that is otherwise poorly documented in this respect. Simplein type and lacking in grave goods, the infant graves may seemperfunctory at first glance and yet they appear to have a definedposition in the mortuary landscape and social memory of the time asexpressed by their special location, mostly under house floors, as wellas by the attention and care invested in arranging for a formal burial.Even if not full-fledged society members nor hierarchically relevant,fetuses, stillborn babies and deceased infants evidently occupied animportant place in the social consciousness, possibly as negotiatorsbetween ancestors and living successors. This is in itself indicativeof specific Ninevite 5 beliefs regarding the position of infants at thenexus of the two worlds, of the living and of the dead.

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