The book in question is the impressive result of a detailed study of the care of children in ancient times. In 617 pages (to which appendixes are added: textual sources, tables, bibliography, indexes) the author traces the broad and complex studies of motherhood and breastmilk production and consumption using the methods of thanato-archaeology and brings to light the results deriving from archaeological and biochemical research on specific ceramic vessels, which were used to a large extent for artificial nourishment. These tools were also found in Gallo-Roman funerary environments and are properly called vases à bec tubulaire—vases with tubular spouts, the biberons of the book’s title.
The aim of the research is to deconstruct the modern vision of milk in antiquity and reconsider the use of this type of vase as a baby bottle or breast pump, outcomes already known from the specific literature on the topic: in fact it is a complex object which, in addition to being filled with milk, is a link among food, therapeutic and funerary practices (p. 27). In this respect, what are the conditions under which this object is used on a daily basis? And what are the reasons for its presence in tombs, mostly children’s, but sometimes also intended for adults?
This research has the consequence of repositioning studies on the history of the family, motherhood and the body, and reconsidering the relationship between children and mothers in light of new data from material history and from a transversal perspective across the various disciplines.
An exceptional point of observation is undoubtedly the study of the diseases afflicting children in ancient times, both through archaeological sources and medical treatises. Treatises advised against feeding children with animal milk, considered responsible for various pathologies, a fact that would put a lot of distance between the ancient nutritional practice and the modern one, which makes use of pasteurization. It is also redefined the function of the vase which, because of our modern use, we would say was for milk, as a baby bottle. It turns out, thanks to biochemical analyses, we can determine that the tubular spout vessel is sometimes filled with milk mixed with other substances such as a therapeutic food designed to cure and protect against certain diseases, which therefore simulates a milky liquid that is not pure milk. This would explain the presence of similar vases near the funerary remains of adults, who were probably sick and had to use this tool to take food.
Interesting in this regard is the rare representation of the tubular spout vase in the iconographic propaganda of a member of the Prenestine aristocracy in the Augustan age, which supposedly had one of these vases depicted on a frieze next to a sheep suckling its lamb[1]. A probable interpretation could concern the myth of the foundation of the city of Praeneste by Caeculus, a hero who was not breastfed, unlike Romulus and Remus who were suckled by a she-wolf and Telephus who was suckled by a doe.
The book opens with a study of Greek and Roman medical treatises. The central theme in the first part is milk, its representations and functions and its inseparable relationship with the child (chapters 1-6). The development of the fetus in mammals occurs simultaneously with the formation of its nourishment—namely, milk. According to ancient thought, through a process of cooking between blood and semen, the liquid substance would “curdle” to form the fetus itself. This process was considered analogous to the solidification of cheese, a metaphor employed in ancient sources (Aristotle, De Generatione Animalium, 729a).
The medical treatises including the Corpus Hippocraticum, the Aristotelian theories (GA cit., De Partibus Animalium, Historia Animalium), the works of Soranos of Ephesus (Περὶ γυναμείων παϑῶν – Diseases of women), of Galen of Pergamum (De spermate, Anatomicae administrationes), of Schools of Cnidus and Cos, of Pliny (Naturalis Historia), of Dioscorides (De materia medica) are studied and analyzed both with respect to the generation of the fetus and its uterine nourishment, and with regard to the therapeutic use of milk and its derivatives. A classification is obtained based on the origin of the milk (human, cow’s, goat’s, etc.) and the disease for which this remedy is recommended. Furthermore, these sources—together with the archaeological evidence examined in the section of the essay concerning funerary contexts—contribute to a picture in which women and children appear to have suffered from specific diseases due to their comparatively limited access to protein-rich foods. As a result, they would have been regarded as physiologically marginal individuals. The medical treatises include the details relating to the process of nourishing children from birth to weaning, both through breastfeeding from the mother’s breast and through figures such as wet nurses.
Chapters 4 and 5, which I found particularly compelling, are devoted to caregivers—mothers, nurses, and midwives—whose roles are explored through the lens of anthropological analysis, with attention to the complexity of terminology and socio-cultural significance in both Greek and Roman contexts. Especially noteworthy is the discussion on the legal contracts that regulated the exchange of goods and services, such as breastfeeding and child care, between families and wet nurses (1st century BC–4th century AD).
The section dedicated to the representation of human breastfeeding is also interesting, in which mainly iconographic sources are analyzed in which both women and kourotrophoi (goddesses of care and breastfeeding) are depicted. The sources from which the representation of the act of artificial feeding emerges, therefore with the help of specific objects, are then analyzed in the following chapter. Here the theme of the representation of inter-specific and artificial breastfeeding of founding heroes is also addressed: an illuminating example is the presence of a tubular spout vase on a fountain of Preneste, next to the depiction of a ewe suckling a lamb, which would probably refer to the myth of Caeculus, who was artificially fed, unlike other heroes, who were suckled by animals. The author thus demonstrates the idea that “l’allaitement n’est pas soulement un cordon alimentaire, mais un vecteur social, idéologique, spirituel. Il est considéré comme un parameter central des systems sociaux-politiques des différentes” (p. 30).[2]
The theme of feeding performed with the help of a specific object allows us to move on to the second part of the essay in which the testimonies of the so-called baby bottles are analysed. The essay focuses primarily on the complex history of Greek and Roman terminology and on the interpretations that subsequent literature gave of these objects up to the 20th century.
The author then moves on to the analysis of the vases with tubular spouts found in the Greek-Mediterranean area and, from chapter 9, to the objects found in the Gallo-Roman context: they are numerous and a geographical, chronological mapping is obtained relating to the form, function, material, type of decoration and presence of inscriptions. The characteristics of the context of the findings are also studied: artisanal, domestic, cultic, port, funerary. The latter is discussed in detail in a separate chapter: in fact, classifications of burials based on the age of the deceased, sex and mortality factors are taken into account, especially in relation to children’s graves.
From this analysis, the author was able to determine that the most common age of deceased children next to whom these vessels are placed is between 6 months and 3 years, hence that of weaning and the progressive transition from liquid to solid nourishment. Furthermore, the positions in which these vases were found vary in relation to the body of the deceased (near the mouth, head, feet, etc.) and the presence of other objects, the same or different, thus forming an assemblage of artefacts: a detailed description of these aspects has also been proposed. In addition to this, the biochemical analysis of the materials of these vessels allowed us to identify traces of their contents. In descending order of appearance there are: fat, wine, fruit juices; vegetable waxes and oils; milk; squalene (a natural substance found in plants and animals that helps protect and preserve food and other materials); pitch; ash (it is not known whether from cremation or from the cooking of plant material). The probable hypothesis of their use as containers for cosmetic care of the body and skin arises. The systematic way in which the tubular spout vases are found in tombs or next to the deceased offers the opportunity to ask ourselves what the connection was between these objects and the funerary sphere: perhaps a continuity between the therapeutic practices and care also in the funerary dimension.
This research will assist those who wish to delve deeper into the complex and in many respects still little-explored world of childhood, care and the people involved in these spheres. The care of the body—whether of an infant, an ill person, or a generally vulnerable person—is examined through a multidisciplinary and multifocal approach. This approach encompasses archaeology, the study of medical literary sources, biochemical findings, and material history. It also draws upon iconographic evidence and cultural representations to provide a comprehensive analysis.
Notes
[1] The Grimani Relief: sheep nursing her lambs, marble, late Augustan age, first half of the 1st century BC, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv. no. 604.
[2] «Breastfeeding is not merely a nutritional lifeline, but a social, ideological, and spiritual vector. It is regarded as a central parameter within the socio-political systems of different cultures».