Neolithic baby bottles promoted population increase

[jim mcnamara]

TL;DR Summary

Neolithic animal shaped baby bottles were shown to have non-human milk residue. One reasonably likely outcome is that women who stopped nursing early and used the "bottles" to feed babies had shorter periods of post partum infertility. Nursing extends that time.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesal...storic-babies-drank-animal-milk-from-a-bottle
Neolithic animal shaped baby bottles were shown to have non-human milk residue. One reasonably likely outcome is that women who stopped nursing early and used the "bottles" to feed babies had shorter periods of postpartum infertility. Nursing extends that time. Shorter periods of infertility may have the effect of increasing population growth. It may also have introduced children to potentially harmful pathogens.

According to the article, shortened breastfeeding duration has the effect of shortening the onset of ovulation after birth.

This is a popular science kind of article. Letter to Nature for content seems to be behind a paywall:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1572-x.epdf

J. Dunne et al, Milk of ruminants in ceramic baby bottles from prehistoric child graves

 

[DaveC426913]

... women who stopped nursing early and used the "bottles" to feed babies had shorter periods of postpartum infertility. Nursing extends that time.

Unusual.

Watching nature shows on TV makes me an expert - and I often see the opposite in the animal kingdom: mothers trying to nurse as long as possible before weaning, so as to avoid the unwanted (and often aggressive) attentions of males looking to mate.

 

[jim mcnamara]

I think it was unintentional but there really is no way to know except that there was a population increase around the same time ~7000BBC to ~4000BCE. Coincidental? Collateral damage? Do not know.

 

[marcusl]

The corresponding article in The New York Times has a cute photo of a present-day infant drinking from one of the bottles.

 

[BillTre]

Here is a very short Science mag News article on this subject.

I often see the opposite in the animal kingdom: mothers trying to nurse as long as possible before weaning, so as to avoid the unwanted (and often aggressive) attentions of males looking to mate.

This could potentially be selected for if the lack of an additional pregnancy could result in a better nutritionally supplied offspring would grow up to be a more fit and more reproductively fruitful offspring.

On the other hand, this:

According to the article, shortened breastfeeding duration has the effect of shortening the onset of ovulation after birth.

could be adaptive due to producing more offspring.

 

[256bits]

Here is a very short Science mag News article on this subject.This could potentially be selected for if the lack of an additional pregnancy could result in a better nutritionally supplied offspring would grow up to be a more fit and more reproductively fruitful offspring.

On the other hand, this:

could be adaptive due to producing more offspring.

Quite right.
Having more "successful" offspring necessitates in the first place an adequate food supply.
Otherwise, one could conceive of infant mortality from malnourishment.

 

[Rive]

Having more "successful" offspring necessitates in the first place an adequate food supply.

In this case an additional prerequisite is to have adequate source of milk - my humble thought is that there might be some connection to the domestication of livestock / spreading of herding.

 

[marcusl]

Absolutely, that is discussed in the NYT article.

 

[jim mcnamara]

And lactase is mentioned in the original article, too.

IMO, attendant to that is the genetic change required to be able to consume lactose as an adult , called lactase persistence.

Meaning adults would not have delved into the hassle of providing milk products just for small children and all of the husbandry required - unless they benefited as well. Northern European populations likely had become much more lactose tolerant overall, compared to their founding populations, by the time of the article cited above.

Genetic and human ecological evidence for timing of lactase persistence:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3048992/ -- talks about niche construction and the fact that lactase persistence is a good example. In fact, probably the best one so far, for humans.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24861860 - Overview of LP evolution in Europe.

 

[BillTre]

Interesting thought, @jim mcnamara!

That mutation would have further enabled the domestication of agriculturally significant milk producing species.
Other drivers might include meat, fur/skin production.

 

[Klystron]

Interesting thought, @jim mcnamara!

That mutation would have further enabled the domestication of agriculturally significant milk producing species.
Other drivers might include meat, fur/skin production.

Consider adding fats to your list in addition to meats. Anthropology books often mention difficulty early people had receiving enough Vitamin C and fats in their diets prior to agriculture.

Researchers of cultures in neolithic Russia and the Pacific Northwest mention mastodons and mammoths hunted and butchered mainly to harvest trunks and foot pads, the latter a concentrated source of beneficial fats. IIRC large skeletal bones preserved as building materials showed no other butcher marks other than the pads; the meat apparently left for scavengers with the large bones collected after mild weathering to use the following seasons.

In a sense the bones take the place of logs and timber as construction materials where trees are scarce. Likewise, ruminant dung would be primary fuel material and could be added to your list of necessary products derived from prey animals. Despite mentioning what appears to be a wasteful practice -- harvesting many mammoths to supply a few foot pads possibly to avoid scurvy -- the same authors stress early people's frugality, normally using every bit of a carcass including hide, gut and ligaments.

 

[BWV]

But wouldn’t they have known that simply eating raw meat would provide the needed vitamin C? That is how indigenous arctic people survive