A publication of the Archaeological Institute of America How and
why the bones of nearly 100 infants were deposited in a late
Roman-early Byzantine sewer beneath a bathhouse at Ashkelon, on
the southern coast of Israel, continue to baffle scholars. An
initial examination of the remains by Patricia Smith and Gila
Kahila of the Hebrew University revealed that most of the bones,
discovered in 1988, were intact and that all parts of the
skeletons were represented, suggesting that the infants had
probably been thrown into the drain soon after death. All of the
bones and teeth (unerupted) are comparable to those of newborn
infants. The absence of neonatal lines--prominent marks in the
enamel of deciduous teeth and first permanent molars, which are
considered evidence of survival for more than three days--
indicates the babies died shortly after birth. The number of
infants, all of the same age and with no signs of disease or
skeletal malformation, suggested infanticide rather than a
catastrophe such as epidemic, war