Despre moartea infantilă și practicile funerare din lumea romană. Studiu de caz: mormintele de copii de la Histria
On infant death and funerary practices in the Roman World. Case study: the graves of children from Histria

Summary/Abstract: This paper aims to discuss attitudes towards infant death manifested in the funerary treatments and practices applied to the youngest members of the Roman society from the ancient city of Histria. We have at least two lines of evidence we can work with in order to do this: on the one hand there are literary sources, which suggestan image of the child as a peripheral element, a social depreciation reflected as such in the funerary treatment; on the other, there are archaeological sources that support a different interpretation. The comparative analysis of funerary practices from the graves of children and those of adults at Histria is mainly based on the American anthropologist Joseph Tainter's approach regarding the relationship between social status and energy expenditure. The main argument of the articleis that there is no exclusion in terms of funerary treatment between the graves of adults and those of children, whichis at variance with the discourse suggested by written sources.

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