Editing Infanticide (section)

====In the Old World====
Three thousand bones of young children, with evidence of sacrificial rituals, have been found in [[Sardinia]]. [[Pelasgians]] offered a sacrifice of every tenth child during difficult times. Many remains of children have been found in [[Gezer]] excavations with signs of sacrifice. Child skeletons with the marks of sacrifice have been found also in Egypt dating 950–720 BCE.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tort |first=César |title=Day of Wrath |publisher=Daybreak |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-291-88444-9 |location=Minneapolis |page=165 |language=English}}</ref> In [[Carthage]] "[child] sacrifice in the ancient world reached its infamous zenith".{{attribution needed|date=December 2017}}<ref name="Hardness" />{{rp|324}} Besides the Carthaginians, other [[Phoenicians]], and the [[Canaanites]], [[Moabites]] and [[Sepharvite]]s offered their first-born as a sacrifice to their gods.

=====Ancient Egypt=====
In Egyptian households, at all social levels, children of both sexes were valued and there is no evidence of infanticide.<ref>''Egypt and the Egyptians'', Emily Teeter, p. 97, Cambridge University Press, 1999, {{ISBN|0521449847}}</ref> The [[Ancient Egyptian religion|religion of the ancient Egyptians]] forbade infanticide and during the [[Greco-Roman]] period they rescued abandoned babies from manure heaps, a common method of infanticide by Greeks or Romans, and were allowed to either adopt them as foundling or raise them as slaves, often giving them names such as "copro -" to memorialize their rescue.<ref>"''Eroticism and Infanticide at Ashkelon"'', Lawrence E. Stager, Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 1991</ref> [[Strabo]] considered it a peculiarity of the Egyptians that every child must be reared.<ref>''Folkways: A Study of Mores, Manners, Customs and Morals'', [[William Graham Sumner]], p. 318, org pub 1906, Cosmo 2007, {{ISBN|978-1602067585}}</ref> [[Diodorus]] indicates infanticide was a punishable offence.<ref>''Life in Ancient Egypt'', [[Adolf Erman]], Translated by H. M. Tirard, p. 141, org pub 1894, republished Kessinger 2003, {{ISBN|0-7661-7660-6}}</ref> Egypt was heavily dependent on the annual flooding of the Nile to irrigate the land and in years of low inundation, severe famine could occur with breakdowns in social order resulting, notably between {{CE|930–1070}} and {{CE|1180–1350}}. Instances of cannibalism are recorded during these periods, but it is unknown if this happened during the pharaonic era of ancient Egypt.<ref>''Ancient Egypt'', David P. Silverman, p. 13, Oxford University Press US, 2003, {{ISBN|0-19-521952-X}}</ref> Beatrix Midant-Reynes describes human sacrifice as having occurred at Abydos in the early dynastic period ({{circa}} {{BCE|3150–2850}}),<ref>''The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt'', Ian Shaw, p. 54, Oxford University Press, 2002, {{ISBN|0-19-280293-3}}</ref> while [[Jan Assmann]] asserts there is no clear evidence of human sacrifice ever happening in ancient Egypt.<ref>''Of God and Gods'', Jan Assmann, p. 32, University of Wisconsin Press, 2008, {{ISBN|0-299-22554-2}}</ref>

=====Carthage=====
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Before making any edits regarding the alleged practice of child sacrifice, please read the archived discussion at [[Talk:Carthage/Human Sacrifice]]. We have been around this block several times before.

Please refrain from entering text that comes down conclusively on the question of whether or not child sacrifice was, in fact, practiced in Carthage. This question has been the subject of long and heated debate among editors of this article and has occasioned edit warring, semi-protection, etc.

The current consensus is that nobody knows for sure and that we should simply report both sides of the question without asserting which one is right. Any departure from this stance is likely to get edited out fairly quickly.

Parts of this section may be canted towards the assertion that child sacrifice ''was'' practiced in Carthage. It is reasonable to put in qualifying text that asserts that the details of the child sacrifice are based on accounts that may not be altogether reliable.

We are in the process of looking for sources for these details so that the descriptions can be based on [[WP:RS|reliable sources]].

See [[Talk:Carthage/Human Sacrifice]] for details of past debate on this topic.

-->

{{Main|Punic religion#Tophets and child sacrifice|l1=Carthaginian religion – child sacrifice question}}

According to Shelby Brown, [[Ancient Carthage|Carthaginian]]s, descendants of the [[Phoenicia]]ns, sacrificed infants to their gods.<ref name="Brown 1991">{{Cite book| last = Brown | first = Shelby | title = Late Carthaginian Child Sacrifice and Sacrificial Monuments in their Mediterranean Context| publisher = Sheffield Academic Press| year = 1991| location = Sheffield }}</ref> Charred bones of hundreds of infants have been found in Carthaginian archaeological sites. One such area harbored as many as 20,000 burial [[urn]]s.<ref name="Brown 1991"/> Skeptics suggest that the bodies of children found in Carthaginian and Phoenician cemeteries were merely the cremated remains of children who died naturally.<ref>Sergio Ribichini, "Beliefs and Religious Life" in Moscati, Sabatino (ed), ''The Phoenicians'', 1988, p.141</ref>

[[Plutarch]] ({{circa}} {{CE|46–120}}) mentions the practice, as do [[Tertullian]], [[Paulus Orosius|Orosius]], Diodorus Siculus and [[Philo]]. The [[Hebrew Bible]] also mentions what appears to be child sacrifice practiced at a place called the [[Tophet]] (from the Hebrew ''taph'' or ''toph'', to burn) by the [[Canaan]]ites. Writing in the {{BCE|3rd century}}, [[Kleitarchos]], one of the historians of [[Alexander the Great]], described that the infants rolled into the flaming pit. [[Diodorus Siculus]] wrote that babies were roasted to death inside the burning pit of the god [[Baal#Ba'al|Baal Hamon]], a bronze statue.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Brown| first = Shelby| title = Late Carthaginian Child Sacrifice and Sacrificial Monuments in their Mediterranean Context| publisher = Sheffield Academic Press| year = 1991| location = Sheffield | pages = 22–23}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last = Stager| first = Lawrence| author-link = Lawrence Stager|author2=Samuel R. Wolff| title = Child sacrifice at Carthage – religious rite or population control?| journal = [[Biblical Archaeology Review]]| volume = 10| issue = Jan/Feb| pages = 31–51| year = 1984}}</ref>

=====Greece and Rome=====
[[File:Eugène Ferdinand Victor Delacroix 031.jpg|thumb|[[Medea]] killing her sons, by [[Eugène Ferdinand Victor Delacroix]] (1862)]]

The historical Greeks considered the practice of adult and child sacrifice [[Barbarian|barbarous]],<ref>{{Cite book| last= Hughes|first = Dennis D.|title = Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece | publisher = Routledge|year = 1991|page = [https://archive.org/details/humansacrificean00hugh/page/n201 187]|url =https://archive.org/details/humansacrificean00hugh| url-access= limited| isbn=978-0-415-03483-8 }}</ref> however, [[infant exposure]] was widely practiced in [[ancient Greece]].<ref>Robert Garland, "Mother and child in the Greek world" ''History Today'' (March 1986), Vol. 36, pp 40-46</ref><ref>[[Sarah B. Pomeroy]], "Infanticide in Hellenistic Greece" in ''Images of women in antiquity'' (Wayne State Univ Press, 1983), pp 207-222.</ref><ref>Richard Harrow Feen, "The historical dimensions of infanticide and abortion: the experience of classical Greece" ''The Linacre Quarterly,'' vol 51 Aug 1984, pp 248-254.</ref> It was advocated by Aristotle in the case of congenital deformity: "As to the exposure of children, let there be a law that no deformed child shall live."<ref>{{cite journal|title=Aristotle (384–322 BCE): philosopher and scientist of ancient Greece| pmc=2672651 | pmid=16371395|doi=10.1136/adc.2005.074534|volume=91| issue=1 |year=2006|pages=F75–77 | author = Dunn PM| journal=Archives of Disease in Childhood: Fetal and Neonatal Edition}}</ref><ref>(Alternate translation: "let there be a law that no deformed child shall be reared") [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:tlg,0086,035:7:1335b Politics, Book VII, section 1335b] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220513082601/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:tlg,0086,035:7:1335b |date=13 May 2022 }}</ref>

In Greece, the decision to expose a child was typically the father's, although in Sparta the decision was made by a group of elders.<ref>See Plutarch's ''Life of Lycurgus''.</ref> Exposure was the preferred method of disposal, as that act in itself was not considered to be murder; moreover, the exposed child technically had a chance of being rescued by the gods or any passersby.<ref>See (e.g.) Budin 2004, 122–23.</ref> This very situation was a recurring motif in [[Greek mythology]].

To notify the neighbors of a birth of a child, a woolen strip was hung over the front door to indicate a female baby and an olive branch to indicate a boy had been born. Families did not always keep their new child. After a woman had a baby, she would show it to her husband. If the husband accepted it, it would live, but if he refused it, it would die. Babies would often be rejected if they were illegitimate, unhealthy or deformed, the wrong sex, or too great a burden on the family. These babies would not be directly killed, but put in a clay pot or jar and deserted outside the front door or on the roadway. In ancient Greek religion, this practice took the responsibility away from the parents because the child would die of natural causes, for example, hunger, asphyxiation or exposure to the elements.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

The practice was prevalent in [[ancient Rome]], as well. [[Philo]] was the first known philosopher to speak out against it.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Philo| author-link = Philo| title =The Special Laws| publisher =[[Harvard University Press]]| year =1950| location =Cambridge| pages =III, XX.117, Volume VII, pp. 118, 551, 549| no-pp = true}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Infanticide {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/anthropology-and-archaeology/customs-and-artifacts/infanticide |access-date=2022-03-23 |website=www.encyclopedia.com |archive-date=23 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220323013809/https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/anthropology-and-archaeology/customs-and-artifacts/infanticide |url-status=live }}</ref> A letter from a Roman citizen to his sister, or a pregnant wife from her husband,<ref name="Woolf2007">{{cite book|author=Greg Woolf|title=Ancient civilizations: the illustrated guide to belief, mythology, and art |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=94NuSg3tlsgC&q=letter+pregnant|year=2007 |publisher=Barnes & Noble |isbn=978-1-4351-0121-0|page=386}}</ref> dating from {{BCE|1}}, demonstrates the casual nature with which infanticide was often viewed:

{{blockquote|I am still in Alexandria{{nbsp}}... I beg and plead with you to take care of our little child, and as soon as we receive wages, I will send them to you. In the meantime, if (good fortune to you!) you give birth, if it is a boy, let it live; if it is a girl, expose it.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lefkowitz |first1=Mary |author-link=Mary Lefkowitz |last2=Maureen |first2=Fant |title=249. Exposure of a female child |url=https://diotima-doctafemina.org/translations/anthologies/womens-life-in-greece-and-rome-selections/vii-private-life/249-exposure-of-a-female-child/ |website=[[Diotíma (website)|Diotíma]]: Women's Life in Greece and Rome (selections) |date=1992 |access-date=28 December 2022 |archive-date=28 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221228211344/https://diotima-doctafemina.org/translations/anthologies/womens-life-in-greece-and-rome-selections/vii-private-life/249-exposure-of-a-female-child/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | contribution = Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 744| editor-first = Naphtali| editor-last = Lewis| editor-link = Naphtali Lewis | title = Life in Egypt Under Roman Rule| page = 54| publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]| place = Oxford| year = 1985}}</ref><ref name="Woolf2007 1">{{cite book|author=Greg Woolf|title=Ancient civilizations: the illustrated guide to belief, mythology, and art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=94NuSg3tlsgC&q=expose+money|year=2007 |publisher=Barnes & Noble |isbn=978-1-4351-0121-0|page=388}}</ref>}}

[[File:Schnorr von Carolsfeld Bibel in Bildern 1860 172.png|thumbnail|[[Massacre of the Innocents]] by [[Julius Schnorr von Karolsfeld]], 1860]]

In some periods of [[Roman history]] it was traditional for a newborn to be brought to the ''[[pater familias]]'', the family [[Patriarchy|patriarch]], who would then decide whether the child was to be kept and raised, or left to die by exposure.<ref name=Crossan>John Crossan, ''The Essential Jesus: Original Sayings and Earliest Images'', p. 151 (Castle, 1994, 1998) {{ISBN|978-1-55635-833-3}}</ref> The [[Twelve Tables]] of [[Roman law]] obliged him to put to death a child that was visibly deformed. The concurrent practices of [[Slavery in ancient Rome|slavery]] and infanticide contributed to the "background noise" of the [[Crisis of the Roman Republic#Institution of Slavery|crises during the Republic]].<ref name=Crossan />

Infanticide became a [[capital offense]] in Roman law in 374, but offenders were rarely if ever prosecuted.<ref name="SXR">{{Cite book| last=Radbill| first=Samuel X.| contribution=A history of child abuse and infanticide| editor-last=Steinmetz| editor-first=Suzanne K. |editor-last2=Straus |editor-first2=Murray A. |editor-link2=Murray A. Straus| title=Violence in the Family| pages=173–79| publisher=Dodd, Mead & Co.| place=New York| year=1974}}</ref>

According to mythology, [[Romulus and Remus]], twin infant sons of the war god [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]], survived near-infanticide after being tossed into the Tiber River. According to the myth, they were raised by wolves, and later founded the city of Rome.

=====Middle Ages=====
Whereas theologians and clerics preached sparing their lives, newborn abandonment continued as registered in both the literature record and in legal documents.<ref name="Ex&Ob"/>{{rp|16}} According to [[William Edward Hartpole Lecky|William Lecky]], exposure in the [[early Middle Ages]], as distinct from other forms of infanticide, "was practiced on a gigantic scale with absolute impunity, noticed by writers with most frigid indifference and, at least in the case of destitute parents, considered a very venial offence".<ref name="InfHisSu">{{cite journal | last = Langer| first = William L.| author-link = William L. Langer|title = Infanticide: a historical survey| journal = History of Childhood Quarterly| volume = 1| pages = 353–66| year = 1974| pmid = 11614564| issue = 3}}</ref>{{rp|355–56}} However the first foundling house in Europe was established in [[Milan]] in 787 on account of the high number of infanticides and out-of-wedlock births. The [[Ospedale di Santo Spirito in Sassia|Hospital of the Holy Spirit]] in Rome was founded by [[Pope Innocent III]] because women were throwing their infants into the [[Tiber river]].<ref>{{cite journal | last = Trexler| first = Richard| author-link = Richard Trexler|title = Infanticide in Florence: new sources and first results| journal = History of Childhood Quarterly| volume = 1| page = 99| year = 1973| issue = 1| pmid = 11614568}}</ref>

Unlike other European regions, in the Middle Ages the German mother had the right to expose the newborn.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Westrup| first = C.W.| title =Introduction to Roman Law| publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]| year = 1944| location =London| page = 249}}</ref>

In the High Middle Ages, abandoning unwanted children finally eclipsed infanticide.{{Citation needed|date=August 2013}} Unwanted children were left at the door of church or abbey, and the clergy was assumed to take care of their upbringing. This practice also gave rise to the first [[orphanage]]s.

However, very high sex ratios were common in even late medieval Europe, which may indicate sex-selective infanticide.<ref>Josiah Cox Russell, 1958, ''Late Ancient and Medieval Population,'' pp. 13–17.</ref> The [[Waldensians]], a pre-Reformation medieval Christian sect deemed heretical by the [[Catholic Church]], were accused of participating in infanticide.<ref name="Griesse Barget de Boer 2021 p. 97">{{cite book | last1=Griesse | first1=M. | last2=Barget | first2=M. | last3=de Boer | first3=D. | title=Revolts and Political Violence in Early Modern Imagery | publisher=Brill | series=Brill's Studies on Art, Art History, and Intellectual History | year=2021 | isbn=978-90-04-46194-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vIRSEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA97 | access-date=2023-02-27 | page=97 | archive-date=27 February 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230227230232/https://books.google.com/books?id=vIRSEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA97 | url-status=live }}</ref>

=====Judaism=====
[[File:Schnorr von Carolsfeld Bibel in Bildern 1860 028.png|thumbnail|In this depiction of the [[Binding of Isaac]] by [[Julius Schnorr von Karolsfeld]], 1860, Abraham is shown not sacrificing Isaac.]]
Judaism prohibits infanticide, and has for some time, dating back to at least the early [[Common Era]]. Roman historians wrote about the ideas and customs of other peoples, which often diverged from their own. [[Tacitus]] recorded that the Jews "take thought to increase their numbers, for they regard it as a crime to kill any late-born children".<ref name="Histories">{{Cite book| last = Tacitus| author-link = Tacitus| title =The Histories| publisher =William Heinemann| year =1931| location =London|page=Volume V, 183| no-pp = true| title-link = The Histories (Tacitus)}}</ref> [[Josephus]], whose works give an important insight into 1st-century Judaism, wrote that God "forbids women to cause abortion of what is begotten, or to destroy it afterward".<ref>{{Cite book| last = Josephus| author-link = Josephus| title =The Works of Flavius Josephus, "Against Apion"| publisher = [[Harvard University Press]]| year =1976| location =Cambridge| page =II.25, 597}}</ref>

=====Pagan European tribes=====
In his book ''[[Germania (book)|Germania]]'', [[Tacitus]] wrote in {{CE|98}} that the ancient [[Germanic tribes]] enforced a similar prohibition. He found such mores remarkable and commented: "To restrain generation and the increase of children, is esteemed [by the Germans] an abominable sin, as also to kill infants newly born."<ref>Tacitus, ''[https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/tacitus-germanygord.asp Germania] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211106154709/https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/tacitus-germanygord.asp |date=6 November 2021 }}, translated by Thomas Gordon (1910)''</ref> It has become clear over the millennia, though, that Tacitus' description was inaccurate; the consensus of modern scholarship significantly differs. [[John Boswell]] believed that in ancient Germanic tribes unwanted children were exposed, usually in the forest.<ref name="KofS">{{Cite book| last = Boswell| first = John| author-link = John Boswell| title =The Kindness of Strangers| publisher = Vintage Books| year = 1988| location =New York}}</ref>{{rp|218}} "It was the custom of the [Teutonic] pagans, that if they wanted to kill a son or daughter, they would be killed before they had been given any food."<ref name="KofS"/>{{rp|211}} Usually children born out of wedlock were disposed of that way.

In his highly influential ''Pre-historic Times'', [[John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury|John Lubbock]] described burnt bones indicating the practice of child sacrifice in pagan Britain.<ref name="Pre-historic Times">{{Cite book| last = Lubbock| first = John| author-link = John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury| title =Pre-historic Times, as Illustrated by Ancient Remains, and the Manners and Customs of Modern Savages| publisher=Williams and Norgate | year =1865| location =London| page =176}}</ref>

The last canto, ''Marjatan poika'' (Son of Marjatta), of [[Finnish literature|Finnish]] national epic ''[[Kalevala]]'' describes assumed infanticide. [[Väinämöinen]] orders the infant [[Legitimacy (family law)|bastard]] son of Marjatta to be drowned in a [[marsh]].

The ''[[Íslendingabók]]'', the main source for the early history of [[Iceland]], recounts that on the [[Íslendingabók#7. Conversion of Iceland to Christianity|Conversion of Iceland to Christianity]] in 1000 it was provided – in order to make the transition more palatable to Pagans – that "the old laws allowing exposure of newborn children will remain in force".
However, this provision – among other concessions made at the time to the Pagans – was abolished some years later.