During archeological site of a bathhouse in Ashkelon , Israel , archaeologists came across a grim breakthrough . Beneath the bathhouse – built in the quaternary C cerium and used until the sixth century CE – in the gutter , they found the bone of nearly 100 male babe , immix in with creature bones .

Astudyof the bones , carefully reconstruct the lot , found all parts of the skeletons to be there , though the sheer number of ivory entail that they could not fall apart out the individuals . The good condition of the clappers suggested that the infants had been toss away of shortly after demise " when the soft tissue paper were still present " .

Burial within sewers was unusual for the time and field , with thrifty jar burial of infant being found in a nearby court around 182 meters ( 600 feet ) away .

" The presence of the baby in the toilet thus wake up mistrust that they might be victims of infanticide , " the squad wrote in their paper , " or some mass disaster that had cause a partitioning in normal burying practice . "

They reasoned that if the children were all new-sprung that they were likely victims of infanticide , given that the tumid intensity of consistence part hint they were not spontaneous abortion .

" If they were of dissimilar age , then we could arrogate that they either conk from rude causes , or were massacred . "

examine the remains closer , they found atomic number 26 oxide stains on many of their tooth which was not present on the bones , and analyzed it using mass spectrography .

" The iron oxide was concentrated in the outside layer of developing immature enamel and may represent degradation products of haemoglobin released by leech into the oral tissue at the sentence of death , " the team wrote . " Breakdown product of hemoglobin have been previously name in the dentine of grownup teeth , especially after asphyxiation . It is attribute to ancestry being forced into the dentine tubuli . "

depth psychology of the bones put them all at roughly the same age .

" Infanticide would appear to be the most likely explanation for the disposal of only newborn infants in the gutter , " the squad wrote in their treatment , adding that infanticide was " widely practice in Hellenistic and other Roman companionship " , and was used in Greek andRomansocieties as a ghastly elbow room to limit kinfolk size .

" Disposal of the infant in the toilet at Ashkelon , is then anomalous , and presumably reflects either indifference or an exigency step result from some catastrophe , such as an epidemic or slaughter , " the team concluded .

However , it was usually females who were " discarded " . Anotherpaper , which analyse the DNA to confirm the sex of the bones and determine some distaff babe among the many male , propose a low-spirited explanation : According to the team , the bathhouse could have been a house of ill repute , and the infants undesirable offspring .

" The bathing machine was posit in what was probably a well established part of the ‘ ‘ red - light ’’ territorial dominion of Roman Ashkelon . The linkage of bath with prostitution has been alluded to by definitive generator and reinforce by the architectural and epigraphic remain from Ashkelon , " the team wrote . " The bearing of both manly and female victims in the gutter beneath the bathing machine raises the challenging possibility that these infant may have been the undesirable offspring of concubine serving in the bagnio . "

The squad write that male person did work in bathhouses , but female were more in demand .

" In the Roman Catholic imperium one of the primary rootage of prostitution was abandoned child who had been deliver and erect to cultivate as prostitutes at an early eld , " they write .   " We can conceive of that the courtesans of Ashkelon selectively kept and parent some of their illegitimate materialization ( mostly females ) in the profession and throw out others . "

This explanation has been question , with historiographer John M. Riddle of North Carolina State University observe that contraceptive method were used at the time .

" The literary grounds – definitive , knightly , and former modern – is virtually united in take that prostitute knew what to do to prevent full - full term pregnancies , " hesaidat the clip . " Why would lady of pleasure at Ashkelon be different ? "

In short , there is a sewer full of male bones underneath a Romanic - era bathing machine , and nobody really knows what make their destruction .