Teeth serve as a remarkable source of information for researchers who study the past. They can reveal insights about an individual's health, diet, and movements across various regions. In a recent study, researchers examined children's teeth from medieval Bavaria and uncovered fascinating details about their ancient lives.
Breastfeeding and Infant Development
Early childhood is a critical period of human life. This is the stage where the development and growth of children are influenced by their living conditions, particularly their diet and exposure to stress.
Breast milk is the primary source of infant nutrition since it offers a hygienic supply of essential macro- and micronutrients. However, breastmilk alone is not enough to meet the requirements for optimal development of an infant. To introduce non-breastmilk liquids and solid foods, parents wean their infants, sometimes resulting in nutritional stress.
Most early bioarcheological studies suggest that "weaning stress" represents a significant health risk or even survival threat to infants. However, other experts criticize most of these studies, claiming they underrate the complexity of breastfeeding and the processes involved.
A Glimpse at Medieval Infant Life
Experts from the Bavarian Natural History Collections discovered human teeth from different archeological sites in Bavaria. The remains were unearthed from various medieval Bavarian cemeteries from around A.D. 500. The teeth were formed during childhood and showed little to no remodeling during their lifetime, a developmental quality that makes them an ideal "archive of childhood."
The archeological findings underwent isotope analyses, which the researchers used to understand adult humans' earliest phase of life from the early Middle Ages. The study "Between Raetia Secunda and the Dutchy of Bavaria: Exploring patterns of human movement and diet" was led by anthropologists Michaela Harbeck, curator at the Bavarian State Collection for Anthropology, and project collaborator Maren Velte.
Strontium isotopes offer insights about a person's geographic origin, while carbon and nitrogen assessments provide information about a person's diet. Serial isotope analysis reveals the course of nutrition from a person's birth to adulthood at around 20 years of age. This technique can be effective in disclosing an individual's transition process from breastmilk feeding in infancy to the inclusion of solid food during early childhood.
Stable strontium isotopes from more than 150 human skeletal remains reveal that at the end of the 5th century, many people of non-Bavarian origin migrated to present-day southern Bavaria. Dietary patterns atypical for Bavaria suggest a foreign origin of some of the buried individuals.
Researchers also detailed dietary reconstruction in some individuals from birth to age 10, including transitioning from breast milk to solid food. The analyses suggest that women in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages breastfed their children much longer than today.
As Velte noted, the weaning process from breast milk was completed between the second and third year of life for most of the early Bavarian individuals under study. In particular, women of foreign origin had long breastfeeding periods, a practice known for nomadic people.
The experts theorized that infants raised in the period after the social crisis in Bavaria experienced a high level of weaning stress. Stress-related developmental changes in dental morphology were widespread in the 7th century. The team assumes that fundamental changes in childhood nutrition, especially related to complementary foods, are to blame.
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