About 7,000 years ago, ceramic baby bottles were used to feed babies milk derived from animals.
Archeologists have found these particular clay vessels during excavations of European villages, some of which are decorated with geometric or animal shapes.
Cups found in the Bavarian region of Germany, dating from 1200 B.C.E. and 450 B.C.E, have residues of milk fatty acids.
Milk from cows or goats would only have been available to humans with animal domestication and the move from hunting and gathering to settled societies.
The improved nutrition also led to the increase in human populations and the development of towns and cities. Farming allowed the production of surplus food which could be stored.
Hunting and gathering generally requires access to large areas of land.
The invention of agriculture facilitated a fivefold increase in population. (2.)
Data collected on 17 different hunter-gatherer societies, including Paleolithic and modern-day hunter-gatherers, shows that the mortality rate was high in all of them, with an average 49% of all children dying. (1.)
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| Prehistoric baby bottles shows infants were fed cow’s milk 5,000 years ago |