The study of childhood diet, including breastfeeding and weaning, has important implications for infant mortality, early and later life health and fertility in past societies 1. Nitrogen stable isotopic analyses of infant bone collagen and dentine have provided information on the timing and duration of weaning 2 , yet little is known of what foods were consumed by infants in prehistory. Possible infant feeding vessels, made from clay, first appear in Europe in the Neolithic, becoming more commonplace throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages. However, these vessels, complete with a spout, through which liquid could be poured, have also been suggested to be feeding vessels for the sick or infirmed 3,4. Here, we report the first unequivocal evidence for the foods contained in such vessels based on lipid 'fingerprints' and the compound-specific δ 13 C and Δ 13 C values of the major fatty acids (FAs) from three small, spouted vessels found in Bronze and Iron Age infant graves in Bavaria. The results confirm the vessels were used for feeding ruminant milk products to infants, possibly mixed with small amounts of meat broth. This first direct evidence of the type of foodstuffs used either to feed or wean prehistoric infants confirms the importance of animal milk from domesticates for these early communities and provides the first direct information on infant feeding behaviours practised by prehistoric human groups.

From raw material to sacred clay, from wall plaster to garden plots, soil plays an intimate role in the lives of agriculturalists. In the lives of archaeologists, however, soil too frequently plays the role of overburden, or the stuff holding the more important things, like stones and bones. At best, soil studies are seen as essential for environmental reconstruction or coming to grips with formation processes. A more grounded approach to interpreting agrarian life involves an understanding and appreciation of soil as a partner. In turn, thinking about soil opens new terrain in the study of landscape perception, ideology and memory. This article explores the potential offered by the materiality of sediments and soilscapes.

This article utilises skeletal evidence (n = 57) from settlement features and graves at Unterhautzenthal, Lower Austria, to outline our methodological approach to researching motherhood in prehistory. Unterhautzenthal includes the grave of a pregnant teenager, a triple burial of a woman with two children and a family grave of a man, woman and baby; additional women's graves include remains of neonates and young children. Comparing archaeological context information with osteobiographical data allows us to draw inferences about the social status of women and the ways Bronze Age motherhood was conceptualised. The archaeological approach includes a gender and age analysis of material culture and Social Index calculations. The osteological analyses include age at death, sex, body height, health indicators, and pathologies, with an emphasis on pelvic changes. Physical traces that may relate to strain through pregnancy and childbirth were explored in detail. In addition to morphological assessment of the entire skeletal collection, we applied tooth cementum annulation analysis, 14 C dating, and δ 13 C/δ 15 N isotope analysis to selected individuals. These data, in conjunction with demographic modelling, enable us to draw conclusions about women's age at first pregnancy and the average number of children per woman, as well as the cultural and social context of motherhood.

No abstract