A team of Italian and German researchers has discovered in the ancient city of Kainua (present-day Marzabotto, near Bologna) the remains of a newborn baby that may be the first solid evidence of the practice of human sacrifices in Etruscan civilization.

The skeleton has been dated to between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE and was found next to a sacred wall of the temple of Uni, the Etruscan goddess associated with fertility and protection. Scientific analyses suggest that the child, a locally born male, was subjected to ritual practices including the defleshing of his bones before being buried.

For a long time, historians have debated whether the Etruscans performed human sacrifices, as claimed by their Greek and Roman enemies. Written sources accused them of ‘barbaric’ customs, but until now there had been no conclusive archaeological evidence, explains the study published in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences.

etruscans sacrifices children
Etruscan temples at Marzabotto. Credit: Exif / Wikimedia Commons

The baby found in Marzabotto had been buried in a pit along with several ritual objects, such as pottery fragments with inscriptions to the goddess Vei, cross symbols aligned astronomically, and animal bones, indicating a religious context. The location and treatment of the body point to a foundation ritual: an offering to consecrate the temple wall, the research notes.

The skeleton, which is extremely fragile, was analyzed with CT scans and radiocarbon dating, and the results confirmed that it was a full-term baby (38–40 weeks of gestation), possibly deceased shortly after birth.

The researchers highlight the discovery of marks on the bones: Some long bones show evidence of perimortem treatment with sharp objects, they explain. These injuries are consistent with cuts and scraping and indicate that the body was deliberately stripped of flesh, though not dismembered. It could be a ritual to accelerate passage to the afterlife or a bloody offering, the researchers hypothesize.

etruscans sacrifices children
Cut marks found on the baby’s bones. Credit: V. Mariotti et al.

Sacrifice or natural death?

The team considered the possibility that the baby had been stillborn and died prematurely, being buried in a sacred place in search of divine protection. They also suggested the case could involve an embryotomy, an ancient practice for extracting fetuses during complicated births, although the anatomical integrity of the skeleton made this hypothesis less likely.

However, they conclude that the alignment between the archaeological context and anthropological evidence supports the idea of a foundation sacrifice.

The study compares this case with other Etruscan finds such as the burials of children near walls in Tarquinia and Orvieto, or animal offerings in sacred wells. It also mentions parallels in Mediterranean cultures such as Greece and Rome, where newborns were buried in liminal spaces (doors, walls) to symbolize spiritual transitions.

Infants, not yet fully integrated into society, were considered ideal intermediaries with the divine, the researchers explain. Moreover, the defleshing could reflect beliefs about regeneration, since bones were seen as seeds of future life.

Nevertheless, the authors acknowledge certain limitations in their study, as no evidence of lethal violence can prove that the baby was murdered. And they recognize that more similar findings are needed to confirm it was a widespread practice. We cannot rule out that this was an exceptional case, they qualify.

SOURCES

Mariotti, V., Tanganelli, V., Morigi, M.P. et al. An integrated archaeological and anthropological approach to investigating human sacrifice among Etruscans. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 17, 141 (2025). doi.org/10.1007/s12520-025-02256-w

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