Intramural Nonadult Burials at Tell Muhammad (in Baghdad) During the Old Babylonian Period (1894-1595 BCE)

This article investigates infant and child burial practices at Tell Muhammad (Baghdad) during the Old Babylonian period (1894-1595 BCE). Using previously published excavation reports, it examines 53 inhumations found within a 0.8 ha area of the ancient settlement. Raw data are evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively to provide summary statistics and highlight diachronic patterns, while accounting for limitations arising from the lack of detail in the original reports. Despite these gaps, the findings indicate that at the site, nonadult inhumations primarily consisted of jar burials placed in dedicated burial grounds, initially of a residential nature. Finally, this study outlines future research directions: on the one hand, the temporal distribution of the burials might have implications for the site chronology; on the other hand, they supplement data to known burials excavated elsewhere, which can be analyzed on a regional scale to gain more information on the Old Babylonian Mesopotamian funerary landscape.