As far back as 10,000 years ago, humans were carrying their young in slings, a new look at an extremely rare infant burial in Europe suggests.
In prehistoric times, baby carriers were popular, but archaeological evidence of such cloth is rarely preserved in the fossil record. The findings add weight to the idea that baby carriers were widely used in prehistoric times.
In 2017, researchers discovered the infant, dubbed Neve, buried in an ancient cave in Italy’s Arma Veirana. Since then, the child’s teeth reveal that she is the oldest female child interred in Europe.
When Neve’s community laid her to rest with so many beads, it suggested she was highly esteemed and popular.
The analysis of the grave’s contents and the child’s position suggests adults carried Neve during her short life, wrapped in a shell-adorned sling.
Neve is today’s survivor of the wrap, but the shells around the Neve are still perforated in such a way that suggests someone sewed the shells together and finished them with textile, fur, or hide.
The Neve beads took hours to craft, according to a previous 2017 study. Burying the ornaments would not have been an impulse decision.
It is possible that the materials formed a sling, or they might have been a blanket or undergarment.
According to the researchers behind this analysis, lead by Arizona State University anthropologist Claudine Gravel-Miguel, baby carrier is the most likely option.
The Gravel-Miguel team believe that these ornamentations were not intended as funeral ornaments, but rather as padding around the abdomen.
“They may also have been a decorated garment or baby sling that was worn by the child during his or her life.”
These shell beads appear to be wrapped around the child’s upper arm bone, possibly tracing the outline of a long-lost wraparound.
The careful scanning of the shells shows them to be well-used, and suggests that this child lived for longer than 40 to 50 days.
“According to the study results, the beads were worn by community members during a period of time before they were created into a sling, possibly to keep the baby close to the parents while letting them move, as seen in some modern forager groups.
Although Neve is covered with more than 70 perforated shells, including four perforated bivalve pendants, other burial sites on the Italian peninsula rarely contain more than 40 perforated shells, and yet Neve is buried with more than 70 along with four perforated bivalve pendants, seemingly unique to this site.
Researchers have been able to use the presence of seashells to pinpoint child posture patterns, thanks to the plentifulness of Neve.
Researchers believe that other recent prehistoric infant burial sites also yielded identifiable ornaments that resemble attached items, like blankets or carriers. These ornaments are generally too large to have been worn by the children themselves, researchers believe.
Human ancientwear decorations are believed to function as social status indicators, but they may also be a form of spiritual protection.
A contemporary Indigenous community in the Amazon, for instance, utilises decorations and ornaments as symbols of parental care towards their children.
The authors write that the baby was likely buried in this sling to avoid reusing the beads that had failed to protect her or simply to create a lasting connection between the deceased infant and her community.
Older forager populations still possess similar decorations on baby carriers and slings to this day.
“In those societies, infants and children are always well adorned. In order to protect and decorate their bodies, the majority of ‘second-hand’ beads are used, said the authors of a new study. That is, beads that have been donated by the parents, grandparents, and other relatives as a gesture of care for the child.”
“This paper is groundbreaking in terms of child archaeology research,” says University of Montreal archaeologist Julien Riel-Salvatore.
“Our research is driven by the human element that characterizes archaeology. “
