Clay vessels that have been found in Germany could have been used to supplement breast milk and wean children more than 5,000 years ago. They became more common across Bronze and Iron Age Europe and are thought to be some of the first-known baby bottles.
[...]Our results showed that the three vessels contained ruminant animal milk, either from cows, sheep or goat. Their presence in child graves suggests they were used to feed babies animal milk, as a supplementary food during weaning.
This is interesting because animal milk would only have become available as humans changed their lifestyles and settled in farming communities. It's at that time – the dawn of agriculture – that people first domesticated cows, sheep, goats and pigs. This ultimately led to the "Neolithic demographic transition", when the widespread use of animal milk to feed babies or as a supplementary weaning food in some parts of the world improved nutrition, contributing to an increased birth rate. The human population grew significantly as a result, and so did settlement sizes, which eventually became the towns and cities we know today. By holding these ancient baby bottles, we're connected to the first generations of children who grew up in the transition from hunter-gatherer groups to communities based around agriculture.
Apparently, they had been finding these animal-containers at dig sites, but couldn't pin down exactly how they were used. The ones they tested were found in a child grave site. They performed a lipid analysis to figure out the content had been milk.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday September 26 2019, @04:04PM
Asked the wife, "When did they invent the baby bottle?" Actually, I figured that she would throw a date at me - the woman is really smart, and she loves trivia. But, instead, I got, "How would I know?" "Would you believe 5000 years ago?" She just took it in stride, and accepted that it might be so.
Of course, she's a woman who has breast fed her sons. She probably just assumes that the first woman smart enough to say "That hurts!" would whip up something to stuff in the brat's face other than her teat.
I notice that they don't name a cave MAN as the inventor!
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 3, Touché) by RamiK on Thursday September 26 2019, @05:24PM
Real Romans suck straight off the wolf's tits! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus_and_Remus [wikipedia.org]
compiling...
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 26 2019, @05:27PM (7 children)
Milk, the substance that nourished people for millennia, has a weird group of anti-milk ideologues attacking it every time it is mentioned.
It's not NORMAL to drink the milk of another species, you're not SUPPOSED to drink any sort of milk past infancy, don't you know most of the world (meaning non-caucasians in their mind) can't even DIGEST milk?!?
That's OK, you can keep drinking your water with nut or bean residue instead. I'll keep encouraging everyone else to drink the high quality, protein-rich drink of MILK instead.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 26 2019, @05:43PM (5 children)
you should consider that people back then didn't have the option of importing gallons of coconut/almond milk. just like they didn't have the option to eat piles of nuts or fresh/frozen salmon instead of wheat. It's not ideal to drink cow milk as it's too high in carbs and other stuffs that make you get fat and may increase the odds of getting cancer. it doesn't mean it wasn't smart for people back then to develop the rotary grain mill or domesticate animals.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 26 2019, @05:57PM (3 children)
People have been drinking milk for thousands of years with fit (not fat) bodies.
If you think some modern food should replace it, I think the burden of proof is on you, not on the milk people.
As for milk being carb heavy, all I can say is you are better off avoiding the more "processed" varieties, i.e. the 0%, 1%, 2% fat varieties. Go for full fat milk. It satiates and is proven to generally help people stay trim.
And if you don't want to DRINK milk, yogurt is an excellent alternative.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday September 26 2019, @06:31PM (1 child)
Except for the 1 in 3 who don't have the enzymes to process Lactose.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 27 2019, @01:51AM
You just gave out a useless figure.
You mean out of the total population of Earth?
This has no bearing at all on what the recommendation should be for a given country, given the drastic differences by region in lactose intolerance rates.
More precisely, ability to digest lactose correlates overwhelmingly with race. Tell races that can't handle it to not drink milk. Those that can (caucasian for example), should drink up.
Desi people (those of the former British India colony) have always consumed lots of dairy products. You certainly won't convince them they've been doing themselves in for centuries.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday September 26 2019, @06:33PM
And the 9+ in 10 today who have other nutritional options.
None of which totally dishes on milk, either. It's usable. It should not be a primary food, should not be used with kids under 6 months, and kids over 6 months should be weaned to solid (mashed) food when possible. But sure, it's a good part of a diet. When used in moderation.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 26 2019, @06:29PM
Fuck milk, Ima grab me a grape soda instead.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 27 2019, @03:28PM
You can drink all the milk you want, but you'll never convince me that it tastes good. I love cheese and yogurt and other dairy products, but milk makes me gag just from the smell, let alone the taste. It's disgusting.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Thursday September 26 2019, @05:46PM (4 children)
Huh? Farmers and pastoralists are not at all the same thing, and it would seem very likely that the use of animal milk originated with the latter, not the former.
"It's at that time – the dawn of agriculture – that people first domesticated cows, sheep, goats and pigs."
Well, *roughly* the same time probably. In the late neolithic period a lot of this stuff was starting. But it wasn't all the same group. One group was learning to cultivate grain, another to keep goats, they might have traded but they also might have fought over land use.
What's the date they gave? 5k? That's not even all that old, that would be chalcolithic if the find were in the near east instead of Germany.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday September 27 2019, @02:26AM (3 children)
And the pottery isn't amateurish; they'd been doing this a long time already, long enough to develop fanciful forms.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Arik on Friday September 27 2019, @04:30AM (2 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday September 27 2019, @05:20AM (1 child)
Yep, my thoughts exactly. You don't tote around something with all those breaky pokey bits in your skin knapsack. Except since milking is either for-immediate-use or a twice-daily thing, and doesn't keep well in the fresh state -- I doubt the herdsmen were divorced from the village. Rather, did like every other farming settlement, and took the flocks out to pasture every morning. (You don't leave your livestock out overnight, the wolves will get 'em.)
I'd bet they also had some form of cheesemaking.
I think we've had proper agriculture and permanent settlements a LOT longer than is held by conventional archeology.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday September 27 2019, @06:12AM
The location seems to be Bavaria, and while I don't really disagree with you on the rest of this, I'd imagine they could have kept the milk for at least a couple of days without issues. Before we got a refrigerator we kept the milk in the spring, it was probably cooler than most fridges, it felt like ice when you reached in to haul the milk out of it. I don't know for sure there was a nice spring near the remains they found, but it wouldn't be a surprise at all if they picked a spot to settle that had a spring. Handy things, particularly before electricity and running water and all.
"Rather, did like every other farming settlement, and took the flocks out to pasture every morning. (You don't leave your livestock out overnight, the wolves will get 'em.)"
Well pastoralists do often do that, but they also sleep with the herd, and keep dogs. You're right, if this was a mixed settlement that would have been very likely. All back inside the settlement at night.
"I'd bet they also had some form of cheesemaking."
Seems quite possible in light of this: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11698
"I think we've had proper agriculture and permanent settlements a LOT longer than is held by conventional archeology."
Well, when conventional archaeology is done right, it's limited by evidence. The oldest $whatever known today is unlikely to be the oldest $whatever, there might be an older one discovered until tomorrow... but it's still the oldest evidence we have today.
Speculation is fun but you have to go dig to prove anything.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 26 2019, @06:01PM (1 child)
5000 years ago is well into the neolithic. In fact it's in the Bronze age.
Call us when you discover a real Cimmerian milk bottle, still flecked with the enemies blood.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday September 26 2019, @06:33PM
All of those were destroyed as part of the lamentations of their women.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Thursday September 26 2019, @06:03PM (1 child)
If it's available food, humans ate it when they could. Even if it's something modern humans think is kinda squicky, like locusts and other insects. So yes, they drank milk of whatever animals they had domesticated and had a good way of milking, e.g. horses, goats, and sheep.
Pre-agriculture, starving was a constant threat. Post-agriculture, starving was a constant threat approximately 8-9 months after the harvest season. Being able to get fresh strawberries in February in the northern hemisphere is really a very very modern invention. Your ancestors responded accordingly.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 26 2019, @06:13PM
They should teach stuff like this in school.
Why is it so difficult to break a heroine addiction?