Babes, bones, and isotopes: A stable isotope investigation on nonadults from Aventicum, Roman Switzerland (first–third century CE)

Abstract

The study of infant feeding practices in archaeological populations can aid in the understanding of cultural attitudes towards dietary choices and how specific circumstances experienced by mothers and their offspring influence childhood health and survivorship. Breastfeeding and weaning patterns have received increased interest in Roman bioarchaeology, especially through the application of stable isotopic investigation of nitrogen (δ 15 N) and carbon (δ 13 C) values. This study presents the stable isotopic results of the first Roman bone sample analyzed from Switzerland (30 non-adults and 9 females), allowing us an unprecedented insight into health and diet at the site of Aventicum/Avenches, the capital city of the territory of Helvetii in Roman times (1 st-3 rd c. AD). The fact that the majority of the non-adult samples subject to stable isotope analysis were perinates, highlights the complex relationship between their δ 15 N and δ 13 C values and those of adult females, as different factors, including variation of fetal and maternal stable isotope values, the possible effects of intrauterine growth, as well as maternal/fetal disease and/or nutritional stress (e.g. nutritional deficiencies such as scurvy, parasitic infections, such as malaria), could have influenced the observed elevated δ 15 N values.

Children of the grave: Investigating non-adult feeding practices in medieval and early modern Estonia through stable isotope analysis

“…According to their estimated age, it appears unlikely that they lived long enough to be breastfed, and, even in the case of age underestimation due to physiological stress, that MK-74 had enough time to develop a breastfeeding signal. We can hypothesize that these babies were reflecting in-utero values of their pregnant mothers, who may have had lower δ 15 Ν values than the rural female means [ 10 ]. Both perinates also displayed endocranial lesions and abnormal cranial porosity consistent with possible infectious or metabolic disease.…”

“…Since the estimated age seems to indicate death after birth, a reasonable explanation for their δ 15 Ν values could be that they were either not breastfed or did not live enough to develop a breastfeeding signal. Alternatively, they could have been nursed shortly by a mother (or wet-nurse) with very low δ 15 Ν values [ 10 , 13 , 36 ]. It can also be speculated that if the mother was unavailable or died shortly after delivery, the babies could have been fed with foods other than breastmilk (ruminant dairy, porridges, paps), which failed to meet their nutritional needs.…”

“…The duration of breastfeeding and the subsequent initiation of the weaning process (i.e. the introduction of supplementary foods, alongside with breastmilk) is therefore the result of a set of complex interactions, often affecting the ability of the individuals to cope with nutritional and physiological stress [7][8][9][10]. The introduction of complementary foods represents a critical transition in life, since it is crucial for optimal physiological development but may also represent a vector for pathogens invading the immature immune system of the developing child [7,8].…”

“…by taking bulk bone samples from children of different ages and comparing them with the adult values. In this way, changes in diet are inferred from sample trends, and differences between sites and socio-economic contexts are interpreted [10,16]. Incremental studies of bone and dental samples provide higherresolution dietary reconstructions [14,17], and also reveal essential aspects of physiological stress and disease [18][19][20][21].…”

Breastfeeding and weaning in Late Holocene hunter‐gatherers of the lower Paraná wetland, South America

“…If we exclude this individual, there is a minor decrease of 0.2‰ compared to adult females. Other reports found similar 13 Cco‐depleted and small fractionation values between children and women (Bourbou et al, 2013; Bourbou et al, 2019; Coltrain & Janetski, 2013; Killian Galván & Seldes, 2017; Tessone et al, 2015; among others). However, studies based on controlled diets showed an increase of about 1‰ in breastfed children (see Section 1.1).…”