Exploring the relationship between weaning and infant mortality: an isotope case study from Aşıklı Höyük and Çayönü Tepesi

American Journal of Physical Anthropology
J A PearsonM Ozbek

Abstract

We measured stable nitrogen isotope ratios in bone collagen of 60 individuals from the early Neolithic (9th-8th millennium Cal. BC) sites of Çayönü Tepesi and Aşıklı Höyük. Our aim was to identify the duration of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF), compare this with juvenile mortality at each site, and assess whether there was a relationship between them. The isotope analysis suggests that weaning commenced at about 1 year at Aşıklı Höyük and around 2 years at Çayönü Tepesi. The mortality data show equal numbers of infant deaths up to 24 months; however, after 24 months, the mortality rate increases at Çayönü Tepesi, and a Student's t-test confirms a significant difference in infant mortality between the sites. Weaning foods prepared in the early Neolithic from agricultural crops would have had low-iron content, poor nutritional value, and would have been prepared in nonsterilized containers. Therefore, later weaned infants in early Neolithic farming settlements, although capable of some immunological response, were probably undernourished putting them at a disadvantage when encountering bacteria in their weaning food. Our results suggest that infant feeding regimes that introduced infants to weaning foods in the first year of life ...Continue Reading

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Citations

Oct 12, 2012·PloS One·Manuel Domínguez-RodrigoCarmen Arriaza
Jan 26, 2016·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Sabrina C Agarwal
Oct 26, 2011·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Erika K NitschRobert E M Hedges
Nov 20, 2014·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Takumi Tsutaya, Minoru Yoneda
Mar 17, 2015·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Julia BeaumontMandy Jay
Sep 27, 2014·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Sylva KaupováJaroslav Brůžek
Jun 17, 2014·Annals of Human Biology·Louise T Humphrey
Nov 1, 2016·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Alicia Ventresca MillerDmitry Razhev
Jun 6, 2014·American Journal of Physical Anthropology·Rowena C HendersonLouise Loe
Jan 7, 2020·International Journal of Paleopathology·I DoriV S Sparacello

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