Boobs to Bottles (Dunne, 2019)

This paper by Dunne et al, 2019 settles and demonstrates the purpose of clay, pipe-like vessels used in mainland Europe from the Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age.

The verdict?  Using lipid analyses and other data...baby bottles.

Science baby! Fig 2. From the paper (H. Seidl da Fonseca)

Typically for the first six months of a baby's life they'll be titted and then around the age where they are able to sit up and grasp things they can be weaned to a bottle.  Recently, I saw one of these in a French Bell Beaker mound and then several (similar?) from Late Neolithic Perdigoes in Portugal.

Dunne's pipes all have lipid residue, so when they have ash, what does that mean?  Could these also be used as fire starters or smoking pipes?  I suppose reside analysis can answer for each.

Some groups used a cow's horn for bottling

Abstract

The study of childhood diet, including breastfeeding and weaning, has important implications for our understanding of infant mortality and fertility in past societies¹. Stable isotope analyses of nitrogen from bone collagen and dentine samples of infants have provided information on the timing of weaning²; however, little is known about which foods were consumed by infants in prehistory. The earliest known clay vessels that were possibly used for feeding infants appear in Neolithic Europe, and become more common throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages. However, these vessels—which include a spout through which liquid could be poured—have also been suggested to be feeding vessels for the sick or infirm^3,4. Here we report evidence for the foods that were contained in such vessels, based on analyses of the lipid ‘fingerprints’ and the compound-specific δ¹³C and Δ¹³C values of the major fatty acids of residues from three small, spouted vessels that were found in Bronze and Iron Age graves of infants in Bavaria. The results suggest that the vessels were used to feed infants with milk products derived from ruminants. This evidence of the foodstuffs that were used to either feed or wean prehistoric infants confirms the importance of milk from domesticated animals for these early communities, and provides information on the infant-feeding behaviours that were practised by prehistoric human groups.

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Beaker Era Crannogs?

Via Nature Magazine,

"This artificial island was built by farmers more than five millennia ago"

Ever heard of a Crannog?  What is that?

The Scottish Crannog Centre

Crannogs are man-made islands found throughout the northern British Isles.  Many of these islets were connected to land by a long pier.  The first were built in the Neolithic and the last of them were built in the Iron Age.

What were they?  Some of them might be lake dwellings for powerful families while others could have been lakeshore temples.  It's thought they may have been important in laying claim to a body of water by actually living on the water.

The Scottish Crannog Center

Bavarian Radio - Glockenbecher

Glockenbecher: Archaologie und Genetik der Jungsteinzeit

[Play]

Bayern Radio interviews a number of the researchers involved in the genetics and interpretation of the Beaker phenomenon, including Phillip Stockhammer, Harald Meller and a few others.

Calpeia of Gilbraltar (Early Neolithic)

Several outlets are reporting on a new exhibit at the Gibraltar National Museum.  "Calpeia" dates to the earliest Early Neolithic in Southern Spain.  From The Sun:  Face of Neolithic woman, 40, recreated in stunning detail from 7,500-year-old skull found on Gibraltar.

DNA analysis was conducted and found that in addition to dark hair and eyes, most 90% of her ancestry can be derived from Neolithic Anatolia. 

Her ancestry is important because it demonstrates a genetic connection to the Near East, especially where later styles of pottery can appear very similar to the Al Almagra styles of Southern Iberia at this time.

The most interesting and satisfying aspect of this investigation is the revelation that Neolithic ancestry slightly preceded detectable farming and herding in Southern Iberia.  I've argued recently that the mitochondrial haplogroups at the boundary between the Iberian Mesolithic and Neolithic reveal the rugged pioneers that led the wave of their expanding nation. 

Well, here's the proof:

Her hunter ancestry (~10%) may indicate that her maritime ancestors followed the North Mediterranean route.  Maybe detailed analysis can help identify how recent those marriages happened and if it was hunter ancestry specific to Iberia, Italy or somewhere else.

See also
Gibraltar Chronical
Daily Mail

Who lived at Oberbipp? Swiss DNA surprise?

There is some subtle broadcasting that we a genetic surprise is in store from a dolmen in Switzerland.

Out recently was this, "Who lived on the Swiss Plateau around 3300 BCE?  Analyses of commingled Human Skeletal Remains from the Dolmen of Oberbipp"

Here we have a Late Neolithic dolmen containing some 44 individuals in what appears to be a gender differentiated scheme.  Some appear to have been buried supine with flexing of the legs evident in a few people.  Sounds interesting.

Inga Siebke and Sandra Losch have already hinted they detect genetic steppe influence in the Swiss plateau earlier than that in Germany, but they haven't published those findings just yet.  They have lectured on the findings but I don't think anything is publicly available.

Also out, another paper on the radiocarbon dating.

*Just to clarify.  Siebke and Losch have an additional two or three dozen individuals from other sites in Switzerland.  So I'm only speculating that within the timeline in which individuals were buried in this dolmen there was a point when individuals with mixed ancestry appears.  We see this in other Megalithic sites such as Iberia and Britain.  The question is: how early, and how early at this site?