What to expect when you are not expecting. Time and space for infant and child burials at Veii in the necropolis of Grotta Gramiccia

This chapter presents the first results of the on-going study on the infant and child burials discovered between 1913 and 1915 in the necropolis of Grotta Gramiccia, which is one of the Early Iron Age cemeteries of the Etruscan town of Veii (north of Rome). Among the 800 tombs discovered by Natale Malavolta, despite the fact that many were found looted or destroyed by agricultural activities, a large number can be identified as infant and child burials. Considering the number of these burials and the relatively short life of the cemetery (mid-9th to late 8th century BC), the necropolis of Grotta Gramiccia offers a particular ‘window’ into the world of children in Iron Age Veii, presenting part of the social body of the ancient community ‘frozen in time’ through the filter of funerary ideology. This chapter addresses both the potential and the limitations involved in the attempt to work on infant and child burials whose excavation dates back almost a hundred years. Furthermore, when it comes to describing the inter-site spatial analysis between tombs and clusters of tombs and combining the spatial patterns with the chronological sequence of the cemetery, we can observe a multitude of ritual ‘strategies’ of burial which demonstrate the complexity of the society of Veii and the different identities involved in the transformation of infants and children within it. From invisible to visible, infants and children seem to have played different roles both at the centre and at the margins of society.