The very earliest moments of our lives are frequently acknowledged as the most fundamental to our longevity and success. Today, investigations into the impact of poverty, maternal well-being and sociocultural practices on fetal-infant development and health have demonstrated the fragility of the early life-course. Yet our understanding of this brief but vital period, and the factors that impact it, is severely lacking for past populations. With fetal-infant individuals commonly overlooked in our investigations and narratives of the past, this project will be the first to examine relationships between fetal-infant survival, health, and the social worlds in which they were born and nurtured. Assessing individuals from geographically and temporally diverse populations, this research will investigate fetal-infant mortality, morbidity, and sociocultural treatment, exploring change and continuity in these early life-course experiences between populations. Through skeletal and funerary analysis, this project will establish a comprehensive narrative of fetal-infant life in Britain through time.
Objective:
• To investigate change and continuity in survival, health, and sociocultural and funerary practices for fetal-infant individuals within geographically and temporally diverse populations in Britain.
Aims:
1. Examine demographic profiles to establish patterns of fetal-infant mortality.
2. Investigate skeletal changes associated with detrimental birth experiences (e.g. SGA, IUGR, and stillbirth).
3. Record evidence of skeletal pathology to determine both infant and maternal health status.
4. Investigate differences in health and birth experiences by biological sex.
5. Analyse archaeological, funerary and contextual records to establish patterns of funerary treatment, burial location, and adornment.
6. Explore historic records and literature to integrate skeletal and funerary data within the socioeconomic and cultural milieu.
Why this project?
The study of non-adults has only emerged substantially over the last two decades. Typically, discourse has been dominated by studies of the material culture of childhood, rather than the individuals themselves. Furthermore, it has typically been older children and adolescents who have received the majority of scholarly attention.
Despite this, recognition that fetal-infant individuals provide important insights into the early life-course, and both individual and population health, has emerged. Consequently, the first 1000 days of life – from conception through to infancy – have been recognized as the most fundamental and influential in shaping an individual’s future life-course. Hence, the skeletal analysis of fetal-infant individuals can now provide unparalleled insights into pre- and postnatal experiences within different sociocultural, temporal and economic milieus.
Furthermore, the development of life-course models (e.g. Developmental Origins of Health and Disease hypothesis) has recognised that both short and long-term health outcomes are not a product of genetic endowment alone, but are also regulated by environmental, sociocultural and psychological factors experienced. Both previous and existing maternal life-course experiences can impact upon the growing fetus-infant; with some epigenetic traits becoming ‘embedded’, effects can be transferred from parent to child and subsequently to grandchild. This means that detrimental prenatal environments can have a generational effect on health and wellbeing.
As such, assessment of the skeletal remains of these young individuals is paramount to understand temporal changes in fetal-infant health over time, as well as being critical for understanding health implications for infants today. With an enduring legacy of underrepresentation, and a clear lack of knowledge still existing in regard to the assessment of fetal-infant individuals, this is a critical and emerging area of research that requires further investigation and engagement from the scholars interested in both general population health and dynamics, as well as archaeological and childhood specialists.