Weaning at Anglo-Saxon raunds: Implications for changing breastfeeding practice in britain over two millennia

Isotopic reconstruction of short to absent breastfeeding in a 19th century rural Dutch community

Artificial feeding of young infants is considered a modern phenomenon. However, historical sources note its practice in some past European populations. This research explores factors that contributed to a short to absent period of breastfeeding in pre-modern Netherlands. Stable nitrogen and carbon isotope analysis is undertaken on 277 19^th century individuals from Beemster, a, rural, mainly Protestant, dairy farming community. An intra-individual sampling approach for ≤6 year-olds compares newer metaphyseal to older diaphyseal long bone collagen to classify feeding status at death. Archivally identified individuals permit analyses of sex and year-of-death. Few infants have isotopic evidence for breastfeeding and, if present, it was likely of short duration or a minor source of dietary protein. From only a few weeks to months of age infants were fed cow’s milk and paps with sugar. There is broad dietary homogeneity with no sex or temporal isotopic differences, but young infants (1–11 months) have the most ẟ¹⁵N and ẟ¹³C variation highlighting the effect of multiple dietary and physiological processes. Beemster had many factors associated with high rates of breastfeeding in other Dutch communities, yet, most mothers did not breastfeed, or not for long, showing that regional variation in infant feeding is influenced by community values and traditions. On top of child rearing and domestic chores, female dairy farmers were in charge of milking cattle and dairy production, an important income source, suggesting high workload was also a factor in short or absent breastfeeding periods, aided by the constant supply of fresh milk that could be fed to an infant by an older sibling.

The "weanling's dilemma" revisited: Evolving bodies of evidence and the problem of infant paleodietary interpretation

Breastfeeding is known to be a powerful mediator of maternal and childhood health, with impacts throughout the life course. Paleodietary studies of the past 30 years have accordingly taken an enduring interest in the health and diet of young children as a potential indicator of population fertility, subsistence, and mortality patterns. While progress has been made in recent decades toward acknowledging the agency of children, many paleodietary reconstructions have failed to incorporate developments in cognate disciplines revealing synergistic dynamics between maternal and offspring biology. Paleodietary interpretation has relied heavily on the "weanling's dilemma," in which infants are thought to face a bleak choice between loss of immunity or malnutrition. Using a review of immunological and epidemiological evidence for the dynamic and supportive role that breastfeeding plays throughout the complementary feeding period, this article offers context and nuance for understanding past feeding transitions. We suggest that future interpretative frameworks for infant paleodietary and bioarchaeological research should include a broad knowledge base that keeps pace with relevant developments outside of those disciplines.

Assessment of nutritional stress in famine burials using stable isotope analysis

OBJECTIVES

We compared δ¹⁵ N and δ¹³ C values from bone and dentine collagen profiles of individuals interred in famine-related and attritional burials to evaluate whether individuals in medieval London who experienced nutritional stress exhibit enriched nitrogen in bone and tooth tissue. Dentine profiles were evaluated to identify patterns that may be indicative of famine during childhood and were compared with the age of enamel hypoplasia (EH) formation to assess whether isotopic patterns of undernutrition coincide with the timing of physiological stress.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

δ¹⁵ N and δ¹³ C isotope ratios of bone collagen were obtained from individuals (n = 128) interred in attritional and famine burials from a medieval London cemetery (c. 1120-1539). Temporal sequences of δ¹⁵ N and δ¹³ C isotope profiles for incrementally forming dentine collagen were obtained from a subset of these individuals (n = 21).

RESULTS

Results indicate that individuals from attritional graves exhibit significantly higher δ¹⁵ N values but no significant differences were found between burial types for the sexes. Analyses of dentine profiles reveal that a lower proportion of famine burials exhibit stable dentine profiles and that several exhibit a pattern of opposing covariance between δ¹⁵ N and δ¹³ C. EH were also observed to have formed during or after the opposing covariance pattern for some individuals.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this study may reflect differences in diet between burial types rather than nutritional stress. Though nutritional stress could not be definitively identified using bone and dentine collagen, the results from dentine analysis support previous observations of biochemical patterns associated with nutritional stress during childhood.

Comparing apples and oranges: Why infant bone collagen may not reflect dietary intake in the same way as dentine collagen

OBJECTIVES

Recent developments in incremental dentine analysis allowing increased temporal resolution for tissues formed during the first 1,000 days of life have cast doubt on the veracity of weaning studies using bone collagen carbon (δ13 C) and nitrogen (δ15 N) isotope ratio data from infants. Here, we compare published bone data from the well-preserved Anglo-Saxon site of Raunds Furnells, England, with co-forming dentine from the same individuals, and investigate the relationship of these with juvenile stature. The high-resolution isotope data recorded in dentine allow us to investigate the relationship of diet with juvenile stature during this critical period of life.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We compare incremental dentine collagen δ13 C and δ15 N data to published bone collagen data for 18 juveniles and 5 female adults from Anglo Saxon Raunds Furnells alongside new data for juvenile skeletal and dental age. An improvement in the method by sampling the first 0.5 mm of the sub-cuspal or sub-incisal dentine allows the isotopic measurement of dentine formed in utero.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

δ13 C profiles for both dentine and bone are similar and more robust than δ15 N for estimating the age at which weaning foods are introduced. Our results suggest δ15 N values from dentine can be used to evaluate the maternal/in utero diet and physiology during pregnancy, and that infant dentine profiles may reflect diet PLUS an element of physiological stress. In particular, bone collagen fails to record the same range of δ15 N as co-forming dentine, especially where growth is stunted, suggesting that infant bone collagen is unreliable for weaning studies.

The role of infant life histories in the construction of identities in death: An incremental isotope study of dietary and physiological status among children afforded differential burial

OBJECTIVES

Isotope ratio analyses of dentine collagen were used to characterize short-term changes in physiological status (both dietary status and biological stress) across the life course of children afforded special funerary treatment.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Temporal sequences of δ¹⁵ N and δ¹³ C isotope profiles for incrementally forming dentine collagen were obtained from deciduous teeth of 86 children from four early-medieval English cemeteries. Thirty-one were interred in child-specific burial clusters, and the remainder alongside adults in other areas of the cemetery. Isotope profiles were categorized into four distinct patterns of dietary and health status between the final prenatal months and death.

RESULTS

Isotope profiles from individuals from the burial clusters were significantly less likely to reflect weaning curves, suggesting distinctive breastfeeding and weaning experiences. This relationship was not simply a factor of differential age at death between cohorts. There was no association of burial location neither with stage of weaning at death, nor with isotopic evidence of physiological stress at the end of life.

DISCUSSION

This study is the first to identify a relationship between the extent of breastfeeding and the provision of child-specific funerary rites. Limited breastfeeding may indicate the mother had died during or soon after birth, or that either mother or child was unable to feed due to illness. Children who were not breastfed will have experienced a significantly higher risk of malnutrition, undernutrition and infection. These sickly and perhaps motherless children received care to nourish them during early life, and were similarly provided with special treatment in death.

Infant feeding practices and childhood diet at Apollonia Pontica: Isotopic and dental evidence

OBJECTIVE

This study analyzes deciduous dental pathology and stable isotopes to investigate the relationship between diet, feeding practices, and oral health in a subadult skeletal sample from the Greek colonial site of Apollonia Pontica, Bulgaria (mid-5th to mid-3rd Centuries BC).

METHODS

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis was conducted on 74 bone collagen samples, and the deciduous dentitions of 85 individuals aged 8.5 months to 11 years were examined for evidence of caries, calculus, antemortem tooth loss, abscesses, and occlusal tooth wear.

RESULTS

δ(13) C and δ(15) N values of the collagen samples indicate that weaning began between the ages of 6 months and 1 year, and was complete for most individuals by the age of 3. The isotopic data are consistent with a mixed diet of primarily terrestrial C3 resources. The dental pathology data indicate that complementary foods provided to young children had an impact on their oral health early on. Four outliers exhibited elevated δ(15) N values compared with the adult female range and lower levels of tooth wear than other members of their age groups. Possible explanations include prolonged breastfeeding, the consumption of diets elevated in (15) N, and physiological/nutritional stress.

CONCLUSIONS

The deciduous dental data correlate well with the isotopic data and are consistent with later textual sources regarding the timing and duration of weaning, and the composition of complementary foods. The results of this research demonstrate the value of combining isotopic and dental evidence to investigate the dietary practices of infants and young children and the impact of these practices on oral health.