Small and in the shape of an animal, this is how the 'bottles' of prehistoric children were

    Prehistoric babies were fed with "baby bottles" of various animal shapes. Scientists have found spouted pots suitable for babies.

    He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

    Even prehistoric babies were fed with "bottles", which were small and of various animal shapes. A team of scientists led by the University of Bristol in the UK found spouted pots suitable for little hands with various animal shapes that could be used for their nourishment.





    Made of clay, ancient baby bottles first appeared in Europe in the Neolithic (around 5.000 BC), becoming more common during the Bronze and Iron Age. They appear different, some even with little feet, and in the shape of imaginary animals. According to paleontologists, they were used to feed children, or possibly sick and infirm.

    But the authors of this extraordinary work did not want to stop with hypotheses and looked for evidence: they then selected three examples found in very rare infantile graves in Bavaria, which suggests that they belonged to the unfortunate little ones who died. They were of limited size (about 5-10 cm in diameter) with an extremely narrow beak.

    At this point, through a combined chemical and isotope approach to identify and quantify the food residues found inside the containers, the scientists demonstrated that these contained ruminant milk from domestic cattle, sheep or goats. In other words, they searched for chemical traces of the substances that were contained thousands of years ago and, unbelievably true, they found them.

    Small and in the shape of an animal, this is how the 'bottles' of prehistoric children were

    Photo: Katharina Rebay-Salisbury / Phys.org

    The presence in the graves of the children and the irrefutable scientific data confirm that the small bottles were used to feed the children with animal milk instead of human one or during weaning with supplementary foods. The study complements previous findings on prehistoric children.

    In the past, isotope analyzes of infant skeletons had been carried out, but this could only provide rough guidelines on when the babies were weaned, not on what they were eating and drinking. This contribution therefore provides important information on breastfeeding, on weaning practices and on the health of infants and their mothers in prehistoric times.



    "These tiny and suggestive 'baby bottles' provide us with valuable information on how babies were fed thousands of years ago - explains Julie Dunne, lead author of the work - providing a real connection with mothers and children of the past ”.

    And they are not the only ones.

    “Similar vessels, although rare, appear in other prehistoric cultures (such as Rome and ancient Greece) around the world - continues Dunne. We would now like to carry out a broader geographic study and investigate whether they have served the same purpose. "

    But as often happens, even in this case the discovery is not a pure curiosity (albeit an important one). In fact, understanding how our ancestors were raised, and in particular how they were fed, opens the door to fascinating investigations into evolution, from which we ourselves descend.



    The work was published on Nature.

    Read also:

    • Sahara, cheeses discovered 7 thousand years ago
    • 3.500-year-old sculpture discovery that could rewrite art history

    Roberta de carolis

    Cover: University of Bristol

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