One of parenting's most quotidian acts -- feeding an infant -- has now been documented more than three thousand years ago, thanks to a remarkable discovery in Bavaria. Small spouted ceramic vessels found in the graves of young children yielded residues of animal milk lipids. A 2019 study published in Nature1, conducted by Julie Dunne and colleagues at the University of Bristol, establishes that these vessels -- genuine prehistoric baby bottles -- were used to administer bovine, ovine or caprine milk to infants ranging in age from a few weeks to approximately two years. The discovery illuminates breastfeeding, weaning and infant nutrition practices in European Bronze AgeBronze AgeA protohistoric period following the Neolithic, defined by bronze metallurgy (a copper-tin alloy) and the rise of the first cities and states; in Egypt it corresponds to the age of the first pyramids.→ and early Iron AgeIron AgeThe last period of protohistory (from c. 1200 BC in Europe and the Near East), marked by iron metallurgy and the first kingdoms.→ societies.

Enigmatic vessels in children's graves

The vessels in question -- known in German as Saugkannchen, "little sucker jugs" -- have been known in European archaeological collections since the 19th century. These small 5-to-10-centimetre vases, often zoomorphic or equipped with a narrow spout, were frequently recovered in funerary contexts associated with young children. Their shape had long suggested a function in infant feeding, but no chemical analysis had until now confirmed this hypothesis directly and rigorously.

Prehistoric baby bottle Saugkannchen from Bronze Age Bavaria
One of the Saugkannchen recovered from a Bavarian child's grave dating to the Bronze Age (approximately 1200-800 BCE). The narrow spout form of these ceramic vessels, found exclusively in children's burials, long suggested a baby bottle function that chemical analysis has now confirmed. (Credit: Richards/Universitat Regensburg)

Julie Dunne's team selected three specimens from three distinct Bavarian funerary sites: Vottingen (Bronze Age, approximately 1200-800 BCE), Dietfurt an der Altmuhl (Bronze Age, same period) and Straubing-Alburg (early Iron Age, approximately 800-450 BCE). These sites belong to the Urnfield (Urnenfelderkultur) and Hallstatt archaeological cultures, characterised by elaborate funerary practices and well-organised farming and pastoral communities.

The vessels had been carefully collected during earlier excavations and preserved in Bavarian museum collections. The absence of major organic contamination and good preservation of lipids within the porous ceramic matrix allowed high-precision chemical analysis of residues contained in the vessel walls and inner surfaces.

Animal milk confirmed by chromatography

Residue analysis was conducted using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). This technique, widely used for ancient lipid analysis in prehistoric ceramics, identifies fatty acids specific to different animal sources and distinguishes them from plant fats or modern contamination.

Chemical analysis of milk residues in prehistoric Bavarian baby bottles
Fatty acid chromatographic profile from residues extracted from one of the Bavarian Saugkannchen. The composition -- dominated by palmitic, stearic and oleic acids with traces of C17:0 -- is characteristic of ruminant milk and incompatible with a plant or porcine origin. (Credit: Dunne et al., Nature, 2019)

Results confirmed the presence of ruminant-origin milk lipids (cattle and/or caprines) in all analysed specimens. The relative proportion of fatty acids -- particularly the presence of heptadecanoic acid (C17:0), characteristic of ruminants, and the absence of the lipid profile specific to porcine or avian fats -- is diagnostic. Traces of polyunsaturated fatty acids, sensitive to oxidation, were also detected, suggesting the milk was used fresh rather than in fermented form (cheese, butter).

The results are consistent with the use of animal milk to feed infants, either as a substitute for breast milk (if the mother had died or was unable to nurse) or as a complement during progressive weaning. The very specific form of these vessels -- a narrow spout allowing slow, controlled flow -- is particularly well-adapted to feeding an infant without aspiration risk.

Breastfeeding, weaning and infant mortality in the Bronze Age

The discovery raises fascinating questions about breastfeeding and infant nutrition practices in Bronze Age societies. Isotopic data (nitrogen-15) indicate that exclusive breastfeeding typically lasted between 6 and 24 months in prehistoric European populations, followed by progressive weaning with the introduction of solid and/or liquid complementary foods. The use of animal milk may have intervened early (from the first weeks of life) in cases where breastfeeding was impossible, or later as a complement during weaning.

Infant mortality was extremely high in Bronze Age societies. Gastro-intestinal infections, particularly dangerous in infants whose intestinal flora is still immature, could be promoted by consumption of unboiled or contaminated animal milk. It is striking that Bavarian Saugkannchen are found precisely in the graves of children who died in very early infancy. Is this a sign that animal milk feeding was associated with higher mortality, or simply that these vessels accompanied infants into the afterlife regardless of the cause of death?

The answer remains open. But the prevalence of these vessels in children's graves -- and not in adult tombs -- suggests they were genuinely linked to a specific phase of infant life: early childhood, between birth and complete weaning. Their presence in the grave likely reflects both their role in daily care and a symbolism of protection and nourishment in the afterlife.

The rise of dairying in the NeolithicNeolithicThe "New Stone Age": a period marked by farming, herding, settlement and pottery, from around 10,000 BC.→ and Bronze Age

The consumption of animal milk by European adults and children is linked to the genetic evolution of lactase. Most mammals lose the ability to digest lactose after weaning. A genetic mutation occurring in Europe during the Neolithic (the LCT*13910T allele) conferred on certain populations the persistence of lactase into adulthood -- "lactose tolerance" -- which spread widely through positive selection in pastoral populations. But from the earliest phases of the European Neolithic, animal milk was also consumed in fermented form (cheese, yoghurt), whose lactose content is reduced even for lactose-intolerant individuals.

By the Bronze Age, dairying was well established in central Europe. Lipid residue analyses in ceramics from this period attest to widespread use of milk and dairy products. The Bavarian Saugkannchen discovery fits this picture: animal milk, an abundant resource in the pastoral and agropastoral societies of Bronze Age Bavaria, was not only consumed by adults but deliberately administered to infants as a substitute or complementary food.

This practice, analogous to what would be observed in many rural European societies into the 20th century, testifies to empirical knowledge of the nutritional properties of animal milk and pragmatic adaptation to biological constraints (maternal death, insufficient breast milk, early weaning). The Bavarian baby bottles are thus the oldest material witnesses of a practice as universal as artificial infant feeding.