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Children in Burial Archaeology

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Children in Burial Archaeology THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER - APPROVED ELECTRONICALLY GENERATED THESIS/DISSERTATION COVER-PAGE Electronic identifier: 18312 Date of electronic submission: 04/05/2016 The University of Manchester makes unrestricted examined electronic theses and dissertations freely available for download and reading online via Manchester eScholar at http://www.manchester.ac.uk/escholar. This print version of my thesis/dissertation is a TRUE and ACCURATE REPRESENTATION of the electronic version submitted to the University of Manchester's institutional repository, Manchester eScholar.Approved electronically generated cover- page version 1.0. Missing, Presumed Dead: Searching for infant mortality in excavated historic cemeteries, and finding high casualties in the archaeological record 2016 AMANDA LAUREN MURPHY A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Life Sciences TABLE of CONTENTS Table of Contents Table of Tables 2 Table of Figures 5 ABSTRACT: 6 DECLARATION: 8 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT: 9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: 9 ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 9 CHAPTER 1: Introduction 10 AIMS & OBJECTIVES: 10 RESEARCH QUESTIONS: 10 BIOARCHAEOLOGY: In Defence of a Bahn? 12 HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY: Those Who Do Not Study It Are Doomed to Repeat It. 18 ART & LIES: Debunking One Paradox at a Time 24 CHAPTER 2: Research Design 28 ORIGINAL RESEARCH DESIGN: 28 AMENDMENTS TO RESEARCH DESIGN: 31 THE FOLLOWING VOLUME: 36 CHAPTER 3: Literature Review 39 INTRODUCTION: 39 DEMOGRAPHY: 39 Infant Mortality, Past & Present: 42 Birth Control & the Fertility Transition: 48 Studying Demography & Mortality in Historical Populations: 50 TAPHONOMY: 53 PREVIOUS STUDIES: 56 Archaeologists in the Archives, Sites with Records: 57 Infant Mortality in Late & Post‐Medieval Archaeology: 60 Infant Bone & Preservation; Palaeolithic to Present: 60 Representing Children at Stara Torina: 61 Missing, Presumed Buried: 64 CONCLUSIONS: 64 CHAPTER 4: Matters of Life and Death: children in burial archaeology 67 INTRODUCTION: 67 CHILDREN IN ARCHAEOLOGY: 67 DEATHWAYS & BURIALWAYS: 68 The Body: 76 THE SMALLEST COFFINS ARE THE HEAVIEST: Historic Attitudes to Infant Death 80 CONCLUSIONS: 88 CHAPTER 5: Meet Me at the Cemetery Gates: historic cemeteries in an archaeological context 90 INTRODUCTION: 90 HISTORIC CEMETERY STUDIES: 90 Introduction: 90 Historic Cemeteries: An archaeological perspective 92 Physical Anthropology: A brief history 94 God’s Acre: A unique archaeological landscape 96 Historic Cemetery Excavation: Laws, ethics, and guidelines 99 PUBLIC ARCHAEOLOGY: 104 2 PART ONE CHAPTER 6: Fifty Shades of Gray Literature; Deconstructing ‘high’ infant mortality with new data sets in historic cemetery populations 108 INTRODUCTION: 108 Fifty Shades of Gray Literature; Deconstructing ‘high’ infant mortality with new data sets in historic cemetery populations. 110 Introduction: 110 Materials and Methods: 113 Results: 117 General Infant Mortality 117 Age‐Specific Infant Mortality: 119 Region‐Specific Infant Mortality: 121 Discussion: 123 Conclusions: 126 Works Cited: 128 CHAPTER 7: Lost, But Not Alone: Burial records as a means of determining absolute taphonomic loss by age in cemetery populations. 131 INTRODUCTION: 131 Lost, But Not Alone: Burial records as a means of determining absolute taphonomic loss by age in cemetery populations. 133 Introduction: 133 Methods: 139 Results: 142 St Benet Sherehog: 142 The Alameda Stone Cemetery: 143 The Voegtly Cemetery: 145 Discussion: 148 Conclusions: 149 Works Cited: 150 CHAPTER 8: Looking Forward to Look Back; How Investigations of Historical Burial Populations Can Inform Our Interpreta‐ tions of Prehistoric Burial Practice 153 INTRODUCTION: 153 Looking Forward to Look Back; How Investigations of Historical Burial Populations Can Inform Our Interpretations of Prehistoric Burial Practice 155 Introduction: 155 Methods: 159 Results: 161 Discussion: 168 Conclusions: 171 Works Cited: 172 CHAPTER 9: Limbo; The Surprising Void Between the Question and the Answer 177 PART TWO CHAPTER 10: Publishing the Perished; Uniform collection standards and the future of cemetery excavations in the United States. 182 INTRODUCTION: 182 Publishing the Perished; Uniform collection standards and the future of cemetery excavations in the United States. 183 Introduction: 183 3 Methods: 187 Results: 189 General Findings: 189 Grave Features & Archaeological Methods: 190 Osteological Data: 193 Artifacts & Material Culture: 196 Secondary Data & Historic Sources: 197 Synthesis: 199 Discussion: 199 Conclusions: 202 References: 203 CHAPTER 11: Hollowed Ground; Where destruction becomes respect in bioanthropology. 205 INTRODUCTION: 205 Hollowed Ground; Where Destruction Becomes Respect in Bioanthropology. 212 Introduction: 212 Who Do You Think You Are: What Does the Public ‘Know’ About Archaeology?: 214 The Letter of the Law, But Not the Spirit: 218 Swept Under the Tarp; Dogged Developers, Archaeological Middle‐Men, and Public Sensibilities: 223 Whose Dead? Whose Respect?: 225 Conclusions: 229 Works Cited: 232 CHAPTER 12: Shouting to Wake the Dead; Is it time for a Historic Graves Protection Act? 237 INTRODUCTION: 237 Shouting to Wake the Dead; Is it time for a Historic Graves Protection Act? 242 Introduction: 242 For the Record: What are the standards for archaeological recordation of historic cemeteries? 243 On the Books: What are the laws protecting historic cemeteries? 245 In the Field: What are the realities? 261 Conclusions: 263 Works Cited: 265 CHAPTER 13: Conclusions & Future Research 272 INTRODUCTION: 272 INFANT MORTALITY & TAPHONOMIC SURVIVABILITY: 273 HISTORIC CEMETERY EXCAVATIONS: 275 RECOMMENDATIONS & CHALLENGES: 277 CONCLUDING REMARKS: 282 WORKS CITED: 284 APPENDIX A: Cemeteries Included in “Publishing the Perished: Uniform Collection Standards and the Future of Historic Cemetery Excavation in the United States” I APPENDIX B: North American Cemetery Report Gazetteer II APPENDIX C: Mortality Tables XXXV APPENDIX D: Curriculum Vitae LXXIII 4 TABLE of TABLES CHAPTER 2: Research Design Table 1: Factors Affecting Infant Mortality, Preservation, and Retrieval 29 Table 2: Cemeteries and Records Surveyed within the First 1.7 Years of Study 34 CHAPTER 3: Literature Review Table 1: Infant Mortality by Country from 1950‐1999 43 Table 2: Infant Mortality by Country in the First Year of Life in 1995 45 Table 3: Infant and Child Mortality Rates from (qx) from 12 Reconstitution Studies 45 Table 4: Infant Mortality by Country 1883‐1903 47 Table 5: Infant & Child Mortality by City, Habitat, and Religion 1750‐1820 48 Table 6: Changes in Population Structure and Vital Rates during Demographic Transition 49 Table 7: Comparison of the Number of Infants and Children by Age in the Dunning Poorhouse and Monroe County Poorhouse 59 CHAPTER 6: Fifty Shades of Gray Literature; Deconstructing ‘high’ infant mortality with new data sets in historic cemetery populations Table 1: US Cemeteries Used in This Study 114 Table 2: UK Cemeteries Used in This Study 114 Table 3: Samples Aggregated by US State 116 Table 4: Samples Aggregated by Region 116 Table 5: Percent of the Population Expressing Age‐Specific Modality (Peak) Combinations in Cemetery Mortality Profiles 121 CHAPTER 7: Lost, But Not Alone: Burial records as a means of determining absolute taphonomic loss by age in cemetery populations. Table 1: Populations Used in this Study 139 Table 2: Stillborn Population from Records & Foetal Remains from Excavation 142 CHAPTER 8: Looking Forward to Look Back; How Investigations of Historical Burial Populations Can Inform Our Interpretations of Prehistoric Burial Practice Table 1: British Neolithic Sites Utilized 161 CHAPTER 10: Publishing the Perished; Uniform collection standards and the future of cemetery excavations in the United States. Table 1: Five Categories & Sixty Subcategories Assessed 188 Table 2: Inclusion of Methodological Focuses 190 Table 3: Inclusion of Archaeological Data in Eight Categories 191 Table 4: Primary Means of Excavation 191 Table 5: Primary Methodological Approaches to Collecting Osteological Data 194 Table 6: Inclusion of Secondary Data and Historic Sources 198 Table 7: Inclusion of Synthesis 199 CHAPTER 12: Shouting to Wake the Dead; Is it time for a Historic Graves Protection Act? Table 1: Legislation Pertaining to Historic Burials and Approximate Number of National Register of Historic Places Listed Burials by State 249 Table 2: States with Non‐Native‐Specific Unmarked or Historic Burial Protection Acts 254 5 TABLE of FIGURES CHAPTER 2: Research Design Figure 1: An image of one database of parish records, illustrating the data points collected 32 Figure 2: An example of an untranslated early New Mexico parish record 33 Figure 3: Bone Mineral Density of the Best & Worst Preserved Long Bones 63 CHAPTER 4: Matters of Life and Death: Children in burial archaeology Figure 1: Danse Macabre by Hans Holbein the Younger 70 Figure 2: Death's Head & Hourglass Iconography, Cherub, and Willow 75 Figure 3: Public Health Advertisement from the Chicago Health Department, Early 1900s 87 CHAPTER 5: Meet Me at the Cemetery Gates: Historic cemeteries in an archaeological context Figure 1: Catacombs, Paris 91 Figure 2: A Churchyard, Bakewell, an urban burying ground, Sheffield General Cemetery 91 CHAPTER 6: Fifty Shades of Gray Literature; Deconstructing ‘high’ infant mortality with new data sets in historic cemetery populations Figure 1: Infant (0‐1.9 Years) Mortality in 21 UK Cemeteries 118 Figure 2: Infant (0‐1.9 Years) Mortality in 18 Aggregated US States
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