infant

26 September, 2021 - 20:50 Meagan Dickerson

St Rumwold: The Infant Saint and Medieval Miracle Stories

Tucked away in an almost-forgotten manuscript from the 11th century is the extraordinary tale of St Rumwold, an infant saint who lived on this earthly plane for only three days. But in that short...

Elongated Skulls in utero - Morton Collection

2 June, 2021 - 00:29 Igor Gontcharov

Elongated Skulls in utero: A Farewell to the Artificial Cranial Deformation Paradigm?

Elongated skulls are usually explained in terms of head-binding or artificial cranial deformation. This paradigm emerged in the first half of the 19th century as a way of explaining unusual skulls...

4 May, 2021 - 18:52 Sahir

Child Cemetery in Thessaloniki Sheds Light on Infant Plague Burials

A recent exploration of burial sites in Thessaloniki, Greece, has revealed that dozens of the burials are of children and infants. These poor young souls were not victims of a bloody war or tyrannous...

A royal child from the Middle Ages. Source: liyasov / Adobe Stock

8 February, 2021 - 14:00 Joanna Gillan

7 Amazing Glimpses into the Ancient Lives of Children

Over the centuries, historians have told us in detail about the rise and fall of civilizations, the leaders and rulers of our world, dramatic battles and magnificent monuments, but the history of...

26 December, 2020 - 21:59 ashley cowie

An Ancient Baby Skeleton Was Found Buried In A Jar, But Why?

Israeli archaeologists excavating in Jaffa have made further discoveries beneath the streets of this ancient Greek settlement, but this time, they’ve discovered a baby’s skeleton buried in a jar!...

The remains of what appears to have been a unique funeral ceremony and Greek burial have been discovered at the ancient colony of Gela in southern Sicily. Source: Superintendence of Caltanissetta

16 December, 2020 - 14:13 ashley cowie

Evidence of Deceased Baby Burning Discovered in Sicily

The remains of what appears to have been a unique funeral ceremony and Greek burial have been discovered at the ancient colony of Gela in southern Sicily. Founded some time between 689 and 688 BC,...

Thanks to new DNA analysis, the Krems-Wachtberg infants discovered in 2005 have now been identified as the earliest twins discovered to date. Source: OREA / Austrian Academy of Sciences

10 November, 2020 - 17:05 Ed Whelan

DNA Reveals Earliest Twins Buried 30,000 Years Ago in Austria

Thanks to news DNA analysis, prehistoric remains discovered in Austria have been found to contain the earliest evidence of twins found to date anywhere in the world. The discovery of infant remains...

A Middle Bronze Age infant from the Lebanese site of Sidon buried in a large jar. (Claude Doumet-Serhal/ CC BY-NC-ND)

21 December, 2019 - 19:27 ancient-origins

Babies Found in Jars Reveal Insights into Ancient Breastfeeding

Historians down the ages have examined the ebb and flow of populations in ancient societies. But most of these examinations have tended to focus on male dominated events – the wars, the politics, and...

Infant burial site, Gela, Sicily. Source: Regione Siciliana

3 December, 2019 - 03:31 Ed Whelan

Unusual Greek Baby Burial Unearthed in Sicily

An unusual discovery has been made on the Italian island of Sicily. A 2700-year-old burial of a new-born infant has been unearthed accompanied by the remains of an animal. The find is expected to...

‘The Birth of the Milky Way’ (1636-1637) by Peter Paul Rubens.

1 December, 2018 - 18:50 dhwty

Breastfeeding Beliefs: From Invincibility to Universal Creation

Breastfeeding is an infant feeding practice in which a child is fed breast milk directly from breast to mouth. Breastfeeding could be performed by the mother herself or by a wet nurse. Evidence of...

Left: The baby was found tucked under the arm of a woman in a grave in Nieuwegein, the Netherlands. Right: An artist's impression of the grave.

1 February, 2018 - 13:58 Alicia McDermott

Stone Age Grave of a Mother and Child is the Oldest Baby Burial in the Netherlands

Researchers working at an archaeological site in the Netherlands have made a startling Stone Age discovery. They have unearthed the earliest known example of a baby’s grave in the Netherlands...

A scientific illustration of what the Upward Sun River camp, where the remains of the ancient child were discovered, would have looked like. Source: Eric Carlson in collaboration with Ben Potter.

4 January, 2018 - 18:50 Theodoros Karasavvas

Ancient Infant DNA Rewrites the History of Humans Entering North America

Scientists claim that a genetic analysis of the 11,500-year-old remains of an infant girl from Alaska has shed new light on the populating of the Americas. The new finds suggest that the “Last...

A dragon-like animal head (pictured), made from antler or horn, was found in the grave of a small child.

29 December, 2017 - 01:51 ancient-origins

Magical new 4,500 year old finds add to 'oldest toy collection in the world'

By: The Siberian Times reporter Archaeologists have made ‘rare’ discoveries of pre-historic toys at the Itkol II burial ground in the Republic of Khakassia, southern Siberia. At 4,500 years old, they...

The remains of the toddler with an elongated skull in Crimea. Credit: Archaeology Fund

30 July, 2017 - 18:58 aprilholloway

2,000-Year-Old Toddler Skeleton with Elongated Skull Unearthed in Crimea

The remains of a 1.5-year-old boy with a pronounced elongation of the skull have been found by archaeologists at a 2,000-year-old burial site in Crimea. Russian archaeologists say that the skull...

19 January, 2017 - 00:44 Natalia Klimczak

Unravelling the Mystery of the Maronite Mummies: Why Were Medieval Mummies Hidden in a Cave?

When archaeologists found a cache of medieval mummies in a Lebanese cave, the amazing discovery took their breath away. The remarkably well-preserved bodies of eight people who were buried in Qadisha...

27 December, 2016 - 01:59 nrushton

Swapping Babies: The Disturbing Faerie Changeling Phenomenon

The worldwide stories of faerie changelings come under a group of motifs recorded in the Aarne-Thompson folklore index as F321: ‘Faerie steals child from cradle and leaves faerie substitute.’ The...