Ancient Apocalypse - Ancient types sacrificing and eating children? Really?

[likelysuspect]

Ive just started watching a series on Iplayer about the downfall of various ancient civilisations and only halfway through the series to find each one seems to end or have some degree of cannabilism and child sacrifice of some degree

I mean I know its good drama and people love a bit of blood and gore but as I get older I find it harder to believe that these things happen.

AIBU to believe its a bit exaggerated, I mean how come we hear about it in very very very ancient civilisations but not really in later ones. I dont recall this about the Romans, ME peoples or the Chinese dynasties. (for example)

Eye witness - one of MN's classicists will probably know who it was. His views on slavery reform were unpopular: he wasn't even against it, just disliked excessive abuse. He had an argument with his friend, the farm owner, while staying as a guest. It was a well-known 'truth' at the time that slaves and wives should be beaten every day.

Not far removed from some medieval beliefs. I was shocked when the Spitalfields famine / plague pits were excavated for the Rail link. Because it was a mass death event, normal burial norms were suspended and people were just buried together.

The archeologists found that men had more fractures overall, but women's broken bones were 'far more likely to be' forearm fractures of the sort that only happen when you're holding your arm up to protect against blows. Some reports very specifically refused to draw conclusions about the sort of partnerships women endured! Others do suggest it

https://the-past.com/feature/spitalfields-cemetery-and-the-famine-of-1258/

What an interesting article, @ReleaseTheDucksOfWar! The mega-eruption was in Lombok, conclusively determined the year after this article was published, in 2013.

Isn't it just. Very thought provoking.

Ill look that up, not heard of the Lombok eruption before !

Not sure if either of these is the one but both Varro and Cato wrote about agriculture and chained slaves.

Thank you, @WaryCrow. Cato rings a bell, Varro doesn't. Not that this signifies much - it was 55 years ago and I haven't been speaking to many Ancient Romans since then!

Ironic given that infanticide was legal in ancient Roman society. You could just dump a newborn at the local rubbish tip, alive or dead. Slavers would sometimes go round and pick up live abandoned infants raise them in pseudo orphanages and then sell them once they were 5 or 6.

Romans cremated their dead from late republic to empire probably due to the impact of increasing population. So, likely on a big bonfire (bone fire) after the games.

Sometimes bodies would be dismembered and chucked into the sewers to the river Tiber and then swept out to sea.

The Romans affected horror at the barbarian nature of human sacrifice - probably discussing it whilst watching condemned criminals being torn to pieces by wild animals before the gladiatorial games.