新疆吐鲁番加依墓地的母婴合葬现象

Phenomenon of mother-infant joint burials from the Jiayi cemetery in Turpan, Xinjiang

新疆吐鲁番加依墓地位于吐鲁番市亚尔乡加依村南3公里的戈壁台地上,其年代大致在青铜-早期铁器时代。本文结合人类骨骼考古学、死亡考古学与临床医学的方法,对其中4例疑似的母婴合葬墓(M31、M70、M222、M224)进行了研究。通过对墓葬中遗骸的生物学信息以及埋藏位置信息的采集与分析,判断这4座墓葬中的个体关系应当为母亲和其婴儿。其中,3座墓葬中的母婴个体为分娩后死亡,1座墓葬中的母亲和胎儿个体死于孕期或者分娩过程中。造成这些个体死亡的直接原因可能是难产和产褥期疾病,营养不良和感染性疾病等因素也增加了他们的死亡风险。这4座墓葬一方面体现了古代女性生育所面临的困难,一方面体现了加依先民们对于母婴联结以及"灵魂"的认识,将母婴葬于一室不仅是对死者的关怀,更是对生者的告慰。本文的研究旨在为解读古代遗址中的母婴合葬墓提供一个新视角。

The mother-infant relationship has long been considered as an important topic both in the fields of anthropology and psychology. Anthropologically, the nutritional metabolism of the mother and infant during pregnancy is closely related to their long-term health status;while from the psychological perspective, this relationship is important to the formation of consciousness, psychological development, identity of the children, which is also reflected in the social and cultural constitution. Exploring mother-infant nexus of the ancient populations provides an approach to the understanding of the social life and ideology of our past. This paper presents a study of four mother-infant joint burials from the Jiayi Cemetery, a Bronze-Early Iron Age cemetery from Northwest China, using the methods from human osteoarchaeology,archaeothanatology and clinical medicine. Biological data of the human remains, and the distribution of these skeletons were collected and analyzed. Results show that all the adult individuals were females of childbearing age, and the infant individuals were in their perinatal periods. Three infants were put between the arms and bodies of the female individuals, while another fetus(M224:2) was found between the adult’s pelves. These findings indicate that the former mothers and infants died after childbirth, while the latter group seemed to have died together during childbirth. Combining the previous bioarchaeological research, malnutrition and infectious diseases were common among the Jiayi population, which could be an explanation for their high risk of death. These burials also reflect the Jiayi people’s understanding of the bond between mother and child, and their belief in ’soul’. Burying the mother and infant together is a way not only to show the respect for the dead, but also to comfort the living.