Mystery of the dead babies at the bottom of an Athenian well

Archaeologists have solved the 80-year-old riddle of the remains of over 450 infants found at the bottom of an ancient Athenian well, shedding light on the brutal reality in a world where infant life was counted cheap. The remains were discovered along with hundreds of dog skeletons when archaeologists started excavating the Athenian agora, the marketplace in the centre of the ancient Greek city, in the 1930s.

Scholars had previously put forward two main hypotheses to explain the bizarre find, which is unlike anything uncovered in the ancient world, both because of the number of dead babies and the canine carcasses. Some ventured the trove could be the result of a mass infanticide; others guessed that a plague was to blame.

But now a team of researchers have concluded that both hypotheses are incorrect. Mixed in with the bones, including a total of 457 dead infants, along with 150 dogs, and the skeleton of one adult with serious physical deformity, Maria Liston, a biological anthropologist at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, and her team found tons of pottery shards which enabled them to date the remains to sometime between 165 and 150BC, at the end of the Hellenistic period following the conquests of Alexander the Great shortly before the Romans invaded Greece.

The well babies appear to have died naturally, and not of a pandemic. All the infants, save three, were less than a week old at the time of death. Liston's study of the skulls suggests that as many as a third died of bacterial meningitis, an infection of the brain and surrounding tissues often caused by cutting the umbilical cord with an unsterile object – still a common cause of death in some parts of the developing world. The other Greek babies likely died from one of the many other diseases and health conditions common at the time.

But why were the bones all found in this well? The answer is also an explanation to a discrepancy in our understanding of the ancient world: while many babies died at a young age, for the most part babies are not a large part of the archeological record. The well findings suggest that if a baby died, its body was discarded, rather than being properly interred. This is because Greek babies, like those in Rome, weren't considered full human individuals until a special naming ceremony a week to 10 days after birth, explains Susan Rotroff, an archaeologist at Washington University in St Louis. If non-citizen babies died before that ceremony, they'd end up at the bottom of a well.

But not all the babies died naturally. One 18-month-old infant shows signs of frequent abuse and is likely the oldest example of a battered child ever found, Liston says. A final jaw fracture happened at the time of his or her death. As for the dogs, they are thought to be street dogs killed as sacrifices to "cleanse" Athenians of the "pollution" of the death of a child.

Uncommon Knowledge

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

About the writer

Team

To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.

Newsweek cover
  • Newsweek magazine delivered to your door
  • Newsweek Voices: Diverse audio opinions
  • Enjoy ad-free browsing on Newsweek.com
  • Comment on articles
  • Newsweek app updates on-the-go
Newsweek cover
  • Newsweek Voices: Diverse audio opinions
  • Enjoy ad-free browsing on Newsweek.com
  • Comment on articles
  • Newsweek app updates on-the-go