Research Article
Shattered lives and broken childhoods: Evidence of physical child abuse in ancient Egypt

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2013.03.009Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Earliest documented case of child abuse in the archaeological record.

  • Application of macroscopic, paleohistological, and radiographic analyses to aid diagnosis.

  • Novel application of stable isotope analysis to assess physiological stress in response to trauma.

Abstract

Much can be learned about cultural attitudes of violence towards children from the analyses of their skeletal remains and mortuary patterns of the communities in which they lived and died. A bioarchaeological approach integrating biological, socio-cultural, and physical environments is used in analyzing the remains of a 2–3-year-old child from Kellis 2, a Romano-Christian period cemetery in the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt. The skeletal remains of this individual show an unusual pattern of trauma and healing events, possibly indicating multiple episodes of non-accidental trauma. Macroscopic, radiographic, and histologic analyses show the extent of the skeletal trauma and healing, while stable carbon and nitrogen analyses of bone and hair reveal metabolic disturbances and changes in diet correlated with these traumatic events. Results from the differential diagnosis demonstrate that this individual exhibits skeletal fracture and healing patterns consistent with repeated non-accidental trauma, which may or may not have resulted in death. In addition, this individual may also represent the earliest documented case of violence against children from an archaeological context.

Introduction

Clinically, child abuse is defined as maltreatment of a child by either parents or caretakers, and can include physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, as well as emotional and/or physical neglect (Campbell, 2001). Soft tissue injuries are the most common presentation in modern cases of child abuse, and 10–70% of physically abused children manifest some form of skeletal trauma (Cramer and Green, 2003). Skeletal trauma resulting from intentional physical contact is the only type of child abuse that may be accessible when analyzing skeletal remains from archaeological contexts. Interpreting skeletal evidence of accidental or non-accidental traumatic injury can be problematic because of the implication of human malevolence or intent to harm. Further, in many societies, the physical discipline of children is socially accepted because it is considered beneficial, or not harmful (Walker et al., 1997, Walker, 2001). However, when instances of traumatic injury are viewed and interpreted within their larger archaeological, social, and environmental contexts, it is possible to constrain the range of alternative explanations for the observed trauma.

Very few cases of child abuse or non-accidental childhood trauma have been documented in the archaeological record (e.g. Blondiaux et al., 2002, Lewis, 2010, Gaither, 2012), however lack of publication cannot be taken as evidence that trauma of this type was a rare occurrence in the past. Numerous factors including adult-centered research design, poor preservation, taphonomic processes, excavation techniques, and differential collection of juvenile remains, potentially limit the analysis and interpretation of skeletal trauma and its association with violence towards juveniles in the past (Lewis, 2007). This study concerns the analysis of a completely skeletonized individual aged between two and three years from the Romano-Christian period cemetery of Kellis 2, located in the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt (Fig. 1). While this individual shows patterns of skeletal trauma consistent with clinical cases of childhood non-accidental trauma, this case is also the oldest representation of probable physical child abuse in the archaeological record.

Section snippets

Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt and Kellis

The Dakhleh Oasis is located approximately 250 km west of the Nile Valley and is one of five major depressions in Egypt's Western Desert (Fig. 1). The Oasis is noted for seasonal extremes in temperature, varying from 25 °C by midday in winter to 40–50 °C by midday in summer (Blume et al., 1984, Giddy, 1987). Precipitation is relatively rare, with a mean annual rainfall of 0.3 mm/year, so the inhabitants’ agrarian lifestyle requires them to be dependent on water supplies from artesian wells and

Macroscopic analysis and radiography

Burial 519's age was estimated using a combination of dental development, cranial and postcranial fusion, and epiphyseal development. Burial 519's deciduous mandibular canine root lengths are half complete, the first and second deciduous mandibular molar root lengths are three-quarters and half complete respectively, and the mandibular first permanent molar crown is complete (Fig. 4b), all of which is consistent with an age of between two and three years (Moorees et al., 1963, Smith, 1991,

Clinical comparisons

While no one particular fracture or trauma is diagnostic for child abuse, there are particular patterns that are associated with non-accidental trauma (Abel, 2011). The pattern of skeletal trauma with differential stages of healing and new bone formation observed in this individual are consistent with clinical patterns of skeletal trauma found in victims of non-accidental trauma or physical child abuse. Complete fractures occur more commonly in children with multiple traumas, as these are

Conclusions

The rarity of archaeological publications concerning child abuse cannot be taken as evidence that violence directed at children was a rare occurrence in the past. It is likely that many cases are overlooked because of incompleteness of remains or contextual information, or the fact that non-accidental injuries can be misdiagnosed, just as with clinical cases, or that complete collection of juvenile remains is a relatively recent archaeological goal. The context and multiple methods of

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to extend their thanks to the Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities for their continued support and to all the members of the Dakhleh Oasis Project (DOP) and the DOP Bioarchaeology Team. Thanks also to Dr. D. Holdsworth at the Robarts Research Institute for the generous micro-CT scanning and to the Bioarchaeology Laboratory, both at Western University in Ontario, Canada. This research was funded in part by the Department of Anthropology, Western University, SSHRCC,

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