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By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 (Reuters) – Scientists say ceramic vases, sometimes fashioned in fanciful animal shapes, were used thousands of years ago as baby bottles to feed infants with animal milk , offering an intriguing look at how infants were fed times.
Archaeologists said Wednesday they confirmed the function of these ceramic objects by discovering chemical traces of milk belonging to animals such as cows, sheep and goats in three objects of this type, buried in tombs. children in Germany.
The oldest of the three ships described in the study was made between 2800 and 3200 years ago, in the Bronze Age. Other similar objects dating from around 7,000 years ago, in the Neolithic era, were found in various other places, the researchers said.
"I think this provided us with the first direct evidence of what the baby ate or weaned in prehistory," said Julie Dunne, biomolecular archaeologist from the University of Bristol in Britain, lead author of the Study published in the journal Nature. "I think it shows us the love and care that these prehistoric people had for their babies."
These objects, small enough to fit in the hands of a baby, served as containers for milk, with a narrow beak for the baby to suck a liquid. While the three objects examined for the study were fairly simple, others boasted animated forms including animal heads with long ears or horns and feet of human appearance.
"I find them incredibly cute, and prehistorics might have thought it too, and they would certainly have the dual function of entertaining children, like modern stuffed animals," said archaeologist Katharina Rebay-Salisbury of the United States. Institute of Oriental and European Archeology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, co-author of the study.
"They testify to the creativity and fantasy that we often forget to attribute to our ancestors," added Rebay-Salisbury.
At the time, life was not easy, added Rebay-Salisbury. Many people lived in unsanitary conditions, lived in famine and disease, and lived in reduced life expectancy. During the Bronze Age and Iron Age in Europe, about one-third of newborns died before their first birthday and only about half of the children reached adulthood said Rebay-Salisbury.
These feeding vessels may have made life easier for mothers, as cow's milk could replace breastfeeding, the researchers said. "Maternity-related tasks – of which food is an important element – can also be assumed by other members of the community when children are fed with food vessels," he said. said Rebay-Salisbury. (Will Dunham report, edited by Sandra Maler)
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