Baby Beaten to Death (2,200 Years Ago) - Polidicks

[url=https://www.sciencenews.org/article/earliest-case-battered-child-found-greece]Source[/url] [quote]A pit where Athenians living 2,200 years ago typically deposited fetuses and babies who had died of natural causes contained a grim surprise for Maria Liston, an anthropologist at the University of Waterloo, Canada. In the pit, she found the skeleton of a roughly 1-year-old child who was probably beaten to death before being thrown into what’s known as the [B]“baby well.”[/B] The unfortunate youngster represents the earliest documented case of severe child abuse, Liston said on April 10 at the American Association of Physical Anthropologists annual meeting.[/quote] "Baby Well" what the christ

Was about to type. 2200 years ago corresponds with the Greek period. And low and behold. [editline]18th April 2014[/editline] This is around what greek was like 2200 years ago. They were pretty into that whole thing, or at least Sparta was. Sparta stretched themselves out quite a bit. [img]http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/clasdram/images/05/mapAthens&Sparta.jpg[/img]

Don't make me go all socrates on your ass

[QUOTE=Paul McCartney;44582973] [img]http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/clasdram/images/05/mapAthens&Sparta.jpg[/img][/QUOTE] I never knew that Sparta got that blobby, I thought they were always snugg'd down in Achaea* *(naming?)

And thus Ephialtes was born!

[QUOTE=Zillamaster55;44583006]I never knew that Sparta got that blobby, I thought they were always snugg'd down in Achaea* *(naming?)[/QUOTE] Well. Allied states. This is the source I got it from, I generally trust edu's on this. [url]http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/clasdram/chapters/051clasgk.htm[/url]

Yeah, that's a map of the Alliances in the Peloponnesian War.

[QUOTE=Foxton;44583009]And thus Ephialtes was born![/QUOTE] And then he died a year or so later from being beaten to death and thrown down a sodding well.

[QUOTE=Zillamaster55;44583006]I never knew that Sparta got that blobby, I thought they were always snugg'd down in Achaea* *(naming?)[/QUOTE] "Sparta and allied states".

[QUOTE=Freakie;44583067]"Sparta and allied states".[/QUOTE] Bad reading for me ;-;

[QUOTE=FurrehFaux;44582990]Don't make me go all socrates on your ass[/QUOTE] I am a pacsifist yo

This reminds me a little of that story about the 'fetus room'

[QUOTE]Earliest documented case of severe child abuse[/QUOTE] I'm not sure about that, it was a different time. Contemporary concepts like child abuse cannot be judged on, if anything, the child was probably put out of its misery. As for the other 'abuse markers', parents in antiquity simply didn't care for infants and children the way we do now, I don't think [B]most[/B] of it was deliberate but the final blow probably was.

Probably a way society dealt with disabled or sick children they could not maintain.

Get well soon.

Hope they catch the guy who did it :v:

Probably still better than what the Spartans did

[QUOTE=JohnFisher89;44583580]Probably a way society dealt with disabled or sick children they could not maintain.[/QUOTE] Are you making a generalization about that society based on one baby being killed?

[QUOTE=Rubs10;44583792]Are you making a generalization about that society based on one baby being killed?[/QUOTE] I agree, v. poor historical method

Fun fact: I lived in Crete, Greece for two years. It was really an awesome and life changing experience to get in touch with another culture and its very interesting history.

[QUOTE=Bredirish123;44583899]Fun fact: I lived in Crete, Greece for two years. It was really an awesome and life changing experience to get in touch with another culture and its very interesting history.[/QUOTE] How many babies did you murder and throw down a well? I mean, when in Rome, right?

[QUOTE=Paul McCartney;44582973] [IMG]http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/clasdram/images/05/mapAthens&Sparta.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE] I swear [U]Salamis[/U][sp]not Samos, my mistake[/sp] was allied to the Athenians during the Peloponnesian war

[QUOTE=JohnFisher89;44583580]Probably a way society dealt with disabled or sick children they could not maintain.[/QUOTE] The Spartans and Romans in the early republic era definitely did this. The rest of Greece, the Hellenistic world, and Rome in the Middle, Late republic and the Empire did not. Most of ancient Greco-Roman civilization didn't do this, those that did were strongly in the minority. And those that did, most famously now and then, the Spartans, would expose the infant to the wilderness to die of starvation (or quite often, picked up by passerby's and raised as a member of the family, a servant, a slave, or worse - a future prostitute) rather than beat it to death senselessly. What we're probably seeing is a evidence of a murder, like an ancient serial killer or one of those crazy parents that kills their children. Perhaps the child was illegitimate, and the father killed it out of passion, and they may have felt that the infant was worth or deserving of being placed in the well. Alternately, it could have been placed in the well to conceal a murder. To think people in the ancient world didn't have empathy is to mistake the fact that biologically they were the same as modern humans. Often infants that were exposed (or killed), occured out of due to a lack of bare necessities or simply because the world at that time was too harsh for someone who was deformed to survive in. In all likelihood, the child was probably killed from extreme child abuse.

[QUOTE=JohnFisher89;44583580]Probably a way society dealt with disabled or sick children they could not maintain.[/QUOTE] In ancient times, if you weren't Egyptian or Jewish killing unwanted infants was the norm [editline]19th April 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=Xystus234;44586205]The Spartans and Romans in the early republic era definitely did this. The rest of Greece, the Hellenistic world, and Rome in the Middle, Late republic and the Empire did not. Most of ancient Greco-Roman civilization didn't do this, those that did were strongly in the minority. And those that did, most famously now and then, the Spartans, would expose the infant to the wilderness to die of starvation (or quite often, picked up by passerby's and raised as a member of the family, a servant, a slave, or worse - a future prostitute) rather than beat it to death senselessly. What we're probably seeing is a evidence of a murder, like an ancient serial killer or one of those crazy parents that kills their children. Perhaps the child was illegitimate, and the father killed it out of passion, and they may have felt that the infant was worth or deserving of being placed in the well. Alternately, it could have been placed in the well to conceal a murder. To think people in the ancient world didn't have empathy is to mistake the fact that biologically they were the same as modern humans. Often infants that were exposed (or killed), occured out of due to a lack of bare necessities or simply because the world at that time was too harsh for someone who was deformed to survive in. In all likelihood, the child was probably killed from extreme child abuse.[/QUOTE] Nooope [url]http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infanticide[/url]

jesus christ the "baby well"? the idea of having tons of dead babies in a well is creepy as fuck.

[QUOTE=Lonestriper;44584405]I swear [U]Salamis[/U][sp]not Samos, my mistake[/sp] was allied to the Athenians during the Peloponnesian war[/QUOTE] wtf how can salami be allied w/ anyone it's a sossedge

For as advanced as the Greeks were... their answer to the problem of infant deaths was to build a "baby well"? Not cremate or bury them, but throw them down a well.

[QUOTE=outlawpickle;44592104]For as advanced as the Greeks were... their answer to the problem of infant deaths was to build a "baby well"? Not cremate or bury them, but throw them down a well.[/QUOTE] Maybe they thought that if you threw enough incomplete babies in, a full one would come out?

I wonder if the dad did it and when he came back home his wife asked "Where's the baby?" and he replied "Well..."

I like how movies like 300 paint the Greeks as good guys. They were total cunts. Actually, that isn't fair. This kind of shit happened all the time. Unwanted children -either due to defects or simply not needing another mouth to feed- were often left out in the wilderness to be eaten by whatever was passing by, or starve to death. In fact, there is a morbid idea that when the Romans and Greeks looked down on the Carthaginians for child sacrifice, it had nothing to do with the fact that they killed children because the Romans and Greeks did it too. It was because the Carthaginians did it for religious reasons. Although to also be fair, those nobles Greeks practiced slavery and the entire Spartan economy was built on slaves. The Greek pantheon was also filled with dickish gods, and challenging those gods was a bad idea (look what happened to Socrates). The Persians -pretty much the only other civilization around at the time, considering they conquered Egypt- outlawed slavery and had a benevolent god, Ahura Mazda. It encouraged good behavior in human beings and explored the dualism of human behavior, later becoming the basis of the Abrahemic Faiths. Compare that to the Greeks believing in a dickish warrior god like Ares who wanted you to kill and murder and rape everything that moved, or Zues, a treacherous and manipulative asshole who was as petty as a pudgy child being denied candy. And the highly-touted "democracy" that American teachers preach like the god damn bible was highly restrictive. Persian women held a higher stance than most Greek women (although this differed from city to city) and the Persians also offered a fair degree of autonomy. Maybe they dabbled less in philosophy, but the Persians also brought us standardized currencies, weights, and measures for the first time. So yeah, suck it Greeks.