ABSTRACT
An examination of the remains in Romano-British cemeteries reveals a considerable imbalance in the numbers of males and females buried. This trend is marked from an early period and continues until the end of the Roman Occupation, with a couple of notable exceptions. It is proposed here that the disparity is due to the practice of selective infanticide and that, in those parts of Britain which were Romanised, until Christianity took hold very late in the Roman period between one and six out of ten females born were not allowed to survive.
