In Bronze Age communities of present-day Serbia, boys and girls did not have the same burial treatments as adult men and women.
asserted
boys → have → men
Even children who died at a young age received different burial treatment, with rules that distinguished males from females, with the direction of their heads and position of their bodies following different traditions.
asserted
direction → die → traditions
A new study published in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, which analysed 77 children and young individuals from two Bronze Age cemeteries, has confirmed this practice using proteins preserved in ancient teeth.
asserted
which → publish → teeth
The research examined Mokrin and Ostojićevo, two cemeteries associated with the Maros culture, which occupied parts of present-day Serbia, Hungary and Romania during the Bronze Age.
asserted
which → examine → Age
Mokrin was used between approximately 2100 and 1800 BC, while the Maros cemetery at Ostojićevo dates to around 1900–1550 BC.
asserted
cemetery → use → BC
The study also identified six graves that did not follow the usual pattern, raising questions about how these communities expressed gender distinctions during childhood.
asserted
communities → identify → childhood
Males generally lay on their left sides with their heads pointing towards north and their faces turned east.
asserted
faces → lie → north
Whereas females rested on their right sides, with their heads pointing south, also facing east.
asserted
heads → rest → east
While these differences were already familiar to archaeologists studying adult burials, determining whether the same customs applied to children had remained difficult.
asserted
customs → study → children
Identifying gender through tooth enamel
Young skeletons often lack the physical characteristics needed to determine biological sex reliably, making it difficult to compare children’s remains with adult burial traditions.
asserted
it → identify → traditions
The new research addressed this problem by using evidence preserved in ancient teeth rather than relying solely on the appearance of the skeletons.
asserted
research → address → skeletons
Mina Amzirkov of the University of Belgrade and her colleagues examined data from 128 individuals who had not yet completed physical development, ranging in age from approximately 9-12 months to 18-22 years.
asserted
who → examine → years
The researchers established the biological sex of 77 individuals by analysing the proteins preserved in the tooth enamel for 76 and using results from an earlier ancient DNA study for one other.
asserted
researchers → establish → one
These methods allowed the team to compare biological sex with burial arrangements without assuming that a child’s position in the grave necessarily indicated whether the individual was male or female.
asserted
individual → allow → grave
The results showed a clear relationship between biological sex and burial customs at both cemeteries, although the strength of that relationship varied.
asserted
strength → show → relationship
At Mokrin, the direction of the body closely matched biological sex, while the association with the side on which a person rested was somewhat weaker.
asserted
person → match → which
At Ostojićevo, the pattern was especially clear among the 17 individuals included in the body-position analysis: none of the boys lay on their right side, and none of the girls rested on their left.
asserted
none → include → left
Six graves that did not follow custom
Despite the consistency of these customs, six graves at Mokrin differed from the expected arrangement.
asserted
graves → follow → arrangement
Four contained boys buried according to the female pattern, while two belonged to girls whose bodies followed the male tradition.
uncertain
bodies → contain → tradition
Three of the boys were approximately four to seven years old, and their graves were numbered 25, 103, and 236.
asserted
graves → number → boys
Photographs from the original excavations show that their skeletal remains were poorly preserved, so the researchers could not rule out mistakes in the recorded orientation of their bodies.
uncertain
researchers → show → bodies
The other three graves contained better-preserved remains and presented questions that were harder to resolve.
asserted
that → contain → questions
Grave 220 belonged to a boy approximately 10–11 years old, whose biological sex had been established through earlier DNA research.
asserted
sex → belong → research
He lay on his right side with his head toward the south, following the female burial pattern, and his grave contained no accompanying objects.
asserted
grave → lie → objects
Grave 216 contained a girl aged approximately 8–9, buried on her left side with her head pointing north.
asserted
head → contain → side
Her grave also contained no objects, while Grave 238 belonged to another girl, aged approximately 14–15, whose burial included pottery and animal bones.
asserted
burial → contain → pottery
The older girl’s burial became particularly important when researchers returned to photographs from the original excavation.
asserted
researchers → become → excavation
An earlier publication had recorded her as lying on her right side, but the photographs showed that she actually rested on her left, confirming that her burial followed the male pattern.
asserted
burial → record → pattern
The researchers found no shared characteristic that could explain these three better-preserved exceptions.
uncertain
that → find → exceptions
The children differed in age, grave location, and accompanying objects, leaving open the possibility that their burials reflected circumstances or decisions that cannot now be established.
asserted
that → differ → circumstances
Gender distinctions since childhood
The study indicates that Maros communities recognised distinctions between males and females from an early age, at least in the way they treated their dead.
asserted
they → indicate → dead
Children who had not reached adulthood generally received burial arrangements associated with adult men or women, suggesting that these categories were already important during childhood.
asserted
categories → reach → childhood
Other aspects of Maros burial customs also varied according to biological sex and social standing.
uncertain
aspects → vary → sex
Weapons were more commonly associated with adult male graves, while ornaments such as necklaces and decorative pins appeared more often in female burials.
asserted
ornaments → associate → burials
Children’s graves generally contained fewer objects than those of adults, making body position and orientation particularly useful for studying their funerary treatment.
asserted
position → contain → treatment
The findings of the research are consistent with earlier research at Franzhausen I, a Bronze Age cemetery in Austria, where scientists found that 62 of 63 children with comparable evidence followed the burial pattern associated with their biological sex.
asserted
children → find → sex
However, the authors emphasise that burial customs cannot establish how individuals understood their own identities or which roles they held during life.
asserted
they → emphasise → life
The results show that the distinctions applied to adult men and women in Maros funerary traditions generally extended to children as well.
asserted
distinctions → show → children
Even those who died long before adulthood received burial treatment that reflected the social categories recognised by their community.
asserted
that → die → community
The Aporia
