Determine mortality patterns of the Iron Age Iberian Children

Human primary teeth start to form between the sixth and eighth week of prenatal development. An accentuated marking line, the neonatal line (NNL), forms at birth caused by the physiological changes. The NNL identification is the only method in paleoanthropological studies that allows us to distinguish if a child died before or after birth and to calculate an infant's exact period of survival, but it is difficult to determine. Dean et al (2019) recently discover thet NNL coud be detected by SRXRF, by the increment of Zn (20-100 ppm). We want to determine the chronological age of perinatal skeletal remains and establish mortality patterns in 22 individuals of Iberian archaeological site of Olerdola (Spain) and analyze them using SRXRF. This study will help provide insights into the practices of infanticide in Iberian culture and contribute to the field of physical and forensic anthropology.