As per the reports published, archaeologists in Europe, have found the small containers of children and infants in the graves of children in Iron and Bronze Age burial grounds of Bavaria in Germany. The findings offer the first evidence that they were using these bottles for weaning children. This discovery gives a rare glimpse into the ways adopted by prehistoric families to deal with the challenges of infant nutrition and weaning.
The research paper, published in the journal ‘Nature’, mainly focuses on three bowls recovered during the excavation. Two of the bowls were from a cemetery complex dating between 800 and 450 BC, and the third was from a site dating between 1200 and 800 BC. These small vessels have nipple-like spouts.
To make their conclusion evidence-based, the British and German researchers ran a series of chemical tests called organic residue analysis on the containers. They found that two of the bowls appeared to have contained milk from ruminants such as a cow or a goat. The third container had traces of non-ruminant animal milk contained a mix, possibly sourced from a pig or a human.
Apart from giving glimpses into the lives of mothers and inflants in the past the discovery throws on the fact that light it was at that time people started farming and agriculture. They would have first started domesticating animals, such as cows, sheep, goats, and pigs. This would have ultimately leading to the ‘Neolithic demographic transition’. It is also possible that it was at that time that the practice of use of animal milk to feed babies or as a supplementary weaning food started. Child mortality would also have been high at that time as unpasteurised milk carries the risk of contamination from bacteria. It could also have led to transmission of diseases from the animal.