https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-26/archaeologists-discover-prehistoric-babies-were-fed-animal-milk/11550608?section=science"This is the first direct evidence for what babies and infants were eating and drinking in prehistory," Julie Dunne, the study's lead author and a biomolecular archaeologist at the University of Bristol, told AFP.
The research, published in the journal Nature, focuses on three bowls found in children's graves in Iron and Bronze Age burial grounds in modern-day Bavaria.
Two came from a cemetery complex dating to between 800 and 450 BC, and a third from a site dating between 1200 and 800 BC.
The bowls had narrow spouts and in some cases were shaped to look like animals, details that led archaeologists to suspect they were used as bottles to feed children.
To test the theory they extracted samples from inside the vessels and carried out careful chemical analysis.
They found that two of the bowls appeared to have contained milk from ruminants like cows and the third had traces of non-ruminant animal milk, possibly from a pig or human.
That information, paired with the location of the bowls inside the graves of children, led the researchers to conclude that the vessels were used as bottles to wean infants.
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