What other evidence is there that there was a brothel on the grounds of Yewden Villa? Archaeologists and historians use literary references and government records to identify the potential sites that may have housed a Roman brothel. The well-preserved brothels of Pompeii are currently the standard of comparison for identification. None of the buildings at Hambleden have been identified as a brothel, using these methods. The characteristics of the structures are more suited to an agricultural settlement, and the town is too far away from other larger Roman communities to have attracted a legitimate business.
The grave itself certainly doesn’t confirm the theory. Even if some of the infants were abandoned in the burial ground, that does not mean that their mothers were prostitutes who were forced to such measures. The settlement could have had other women, such as servants or slaves, who may not have had the money or the means to use birth control, which could explain why they relied on infanticide as a form of family planning.
Before archaeologists and historians can understand the significance of the Hambleden site, they must determine if the grave was a site of infanticide or not. New research may definitively answer this question through a non-invasive method of studying ancient bones through x-ray microtomography. Very soon after birth, our bodies develop bacteria in our stomachs that will disintegrate the interior of our bones after death; a stillborn child’s bones would not show this kind of deterioration. Using a scanner to see inside bones without damaging them, scientists can now determine if infants were alive when they were born based on the density of the bone.
Scientists have not tested the bones found at Yewden villa with this new research method, but it may be the only way to determine if the babies were stillborn, killed at birth, or a combination of the two. Before this testing can take place, it is more accurate to identify the grave as a burial ground for infants who died from either natural causes or abandonment, as opposed to presuming that all of the babies were victims of infanticide.
Using the infanticide theory as the only support for the presence of a brothel is a hasty judgment, especially since none of the structures at Yewden Villa show any of the standard markers for being a brothel. Historians and archaeologists have a responsibility to use all of the facts at their disposal to investigate their studies, and there isn’t enough evidence to support either theory that the Roman villa regularly abandoned their babies or that the burial ground is evidence for a brothel.
Keep Reading:
University of Oxford – Roman Infanticide, Modern Abortion
Knowledge Nuts – Common Practice of Roman Infanticide
Berkeley Blog – Dead Babies, Brothels, Contraception and Presentist History
Live Science – Bones of Roman-era Babies Killed at Birth Reveal a Mystery
CNN – Archaeologists Investigating Mass Infant Burial at Roman Villa