Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MOTHERS (MOdelling THe Evolution of the mother-infant RelationshipS)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-03-01 bis 2025-08-31
The way pregnant women, mothers and infants are nourished and cared for has been, and still is, a key determinant of any human society, especially during times of crisis and societal upheaval. The mother-offspring relationship through infancy is deeply rooted during pregnancy and the early months of a child’s life. Indeed, mother, (breast)milk and child form a triad that determines the future adult life of any human and it is part of a co-adapting system deeply influencing infant development and maternal health. Ecological constraints, social adversities, cultural determinants and adaptive responses have played an active role in the mode and time of the evolution through time of this nexus.
The past years have seen growing attention on the importance of the mother-infant bond from a medical and social perspective, and only recently has stronger attention been paid to the historical and evolutionary reconstructions of this nexus and how it changed through time, space and cultures. From a broader long-term perspective, changes in women’s status during maternity, childcare and even alloparenting are pivotal for our understanding of the evolution of our species. The mother-infant interactions - in terms of nursing behaviour, infant and maternal health and care strategies - were woven into the major biocultural transitions of human evolution.
MOTHERS aims to reveal how the biocultural transitions influenced the mode and time of pregnancy and nursing of human infants in a well-known archaeological framework, from the Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gathering to Neolithic farming and domestication, until urbanization. This challenging task will be tackled through innovative analyses of deciduous and permanent human dental remains, which record at very high time resolution, ontogenetic trajectories, dietary changes and major health events. The research will be focused on key archaeological sites from Italy and Croatia, which represent ideal contexts for the research activities, given the presence of strategic archaeological sites, ecological variability and relative continuity in time in overall comparable climatic contexts.
MOTHERS will shed new light on women’s role in society, differential access to food resources, social stratification, and the way the mother-offspring relationship was integrated into the socioeconomic choices of these past human populations.
MOTHERS has the primary objectives:
1) Analysis of the variability of trace element and isotopic models in dental enamel and root dentine (when present) based on contemporary infants with well-known dietary and anamnestic history to broaden the interpretative framework of dietary histories, pathobiographies and growth trajectories during prenatal life and infancy. 2) Retracing the recent history of Homo sapiens from the mother-and-child perspective to disentangle the changes through time, from Upper Palaeolithic to Early Medieval time, of the mother-infant nexus in terms of nursing behaviour, infant and maternal health and care strategies. 3) Exploring the presence of non-human milk use in past human populations, the rise of herbivore domestication, and the role of alloparental care.
MOTHERS is expected to achieve the following outcomes:
1) Further assessment of the trace element and isotopic variability in modern dental enamel to interpret dietary variations in early life at high temporal resolution. 2) Reveal the diet and age-at-weaning (onset and end) for children across the hunter-gathering to farming transition and their correlation with sex and growth rates. 3) Reveal the diet and age-at-weaning (onset and end) for children across the transitions to early and full urbanization and their correlation with sex and growth rates. 4) Deepen the knowledge on dental enamel mineralization patterns in the deciduous dentition. 5) Deepen the knowledge of biorhythms and growth rates in past and present children. 6) Detect the rise of herbivore domestication and the early use of non-human milk in nursing infants. 7) Develop and validate a multi-factorial methodology that can be used to better understand diet, health and the mother-child relationship. 8) Contribution to present-day public health policy regarding diet and growth in contemporary children.
The past years have seen growing attention on the importance of the mother-infant bond from a medical and social perspective, and only recently has stronger attention been paid to the historical and evolutionary reconstructions of this nexus and how it changed through time, space and cultures. From a broader long-term perspective, changes in women’s status during maternity, childcare and even alloparenting are pivotal for our understanding of the evolution of our species. The mother-infant interactions - in terms of nursing behaviour, infant and maternal health and care strategies - were woven into the major biocultural transitions of human evolution.
MOTHERS aims to reveal how the biocultural transitions influenced the mode and time of pregnancy and nursing of human infants in a well-known archaeological framework, from the Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gathering to Neolithic farming and domestication, until urbanization. This challenging task will be tackled through innovative analyses of deciduous and permanent human dental remains, which record at very high time resolution, ontogenetic trajectories, dietary changes and major health events. The research will be focused on key archaeological sites from Italy and Croatia, which represent ideal contexts for the research activities, given the presence of strategic archaeological sites, ecological variability and relative continuity in time in overall comparable climatic contexts.
MOTHERS will shed new light on women’s role in society, differential access to food resources, social stratification, and the way the mother-offspring relationship was integrated into the socioeconomic choices of these past human populations.
MOTHERS has the primary objectives:
1) Analysis of the variability of trace element and isotopic models in dental enamel and root dentine (when present) based on contemporary infants with well-known dietary and anamnestic history to broaden the interpretative framework of dietary histories, pathobiographies and growth trajectories during prenatal life and infancy. 2) Retracing the recent history of Homo sapiens from the mother-and-child perspective to disentangle the changes through time, from Upper Palaeolithic to Early Medieval time, of the mother-infant nexus in terms of nursing behaviour, infant and maternal health and care strategies. 3) Exploring the presence of non-human milk use in past human populations, the rise of herbivore domestication, and the role of alloparental care.
MOTHERS is expected to achieve the following outcomes:
1) Further assessment of the trace element and isotopic variability in modern dental enamel to interpret dietary variations in early life at high temporal resolution. 2) Reveal the diet and age-at-weaning (onset and end) for children across the hunter-gathering to farming transition and their correlation with sex and growth rates. 3) Reveal the diet and age-at-weaning (onset and end) for children across the transitions to early and full urbanization and their correlation with sex and growth rates. 4) Deepen the knowledge on dental enamel mineralization patterns in the deciduous dentition. 5) Deepen the knowledge of biorhythms and growth rates in past and present children. 6) Detect the rise of herbivore domestication and the early use of non-human milk in nursing infants. 7) Develop and validate a multi-factorial methodology that can be used to better understand diet, health and the mother-child relationship. 8) Contribution to present-day public health policy regarding diet and growth in contemporary children.
Novel methodologies
The activities of the team have been focused on developing a new protocol to sample ancient teeth (NOWA) to minimise the destructive approach of tooth sampling for histology, biomolecular and biogeochemical analyses, ensuring the preservation and morphology of most of the tooth (Task 2.6). NOWA protocol has been presented in August 2024 to the 30th EAA Conference in Rome and published (Esposito et al, 2024. NOthing goes to WAste (NOWA): A protocol to optimise sampling of ancient teeth. J. Archaeol. Sci. 171:106087).
RA3 and the team worked on Task 2.4 (diagenesis) to start developing a methodological approach on the control of diagenesis in archaeological and fossil mineralized tissues. Results have been presented at the Goldschmidt international conference, and a paper is currently under preparation.
RA2 and the team worked on the methodological development to accomplish Task 1.2.3 about dentine analysis and comparison with trace element analysis. A manuscript on the methodological output is currently under preparation.
Inter-disciplinary developments
The PI and the team worked on biogeochemical data analysis management (Task 2.7). Results have been presented to an international conference and accepted for publication as peer-reviewed conference proceedings (Higgins et al, Timewise registration of Histomorphometric and Biogeochemical Data in Human Dental Mineralized Tissues through LOESS Regression).
A further interdisciplinary development has been carried out on virtual histology (Task 2.2) with the application of synchrotron-based micrCT, on the novel use of lab-based microtomography for dental virtual histology studies and on the use of deep-learning tools for 3D analyses. Three papers have been accepted to be published as peer-reviewed conference proceedings.
Knowledge transfer
The PI has invested time and effort in developing knowledge and technology transfer in collaboration with colleagues from the HI Department. This collaboration primarily focused on the application on methodologies developed and routinely used by the project’s team in dentistry.
The activities of the team have been focused on developing a new protocol to sample ancient teeth (NOWA) to minimise the destructive approach of tooth sampling for histology, biomolecular and biogeochemical analyses, ensuring the preservation and morphology of most of the tooth (Task 2.6). NOWA protocol has been presented in August 2024 to the 30th EAA Conference in Rome and published (Esposito et al, 2024. NOthing goes to WAste (NOWA): A protocol to optimise sampling of ancient teeth. J. Archaeol. Sci. 171:106087).
RA3 and the team worked on Task 2.4 (diagenesis) to start developing a methodological approach on the control of diagenesis in archaeological and fossil mineralized tissues. Results have been presented at the Goldschmidt international conference, and a paper is currently under preparation.
RA2 and the team worked on the methodological development to accomplish Task 1.2.3 about dentine analysis and comparison with trace element analysis. A manuscript on the methodological output is currently under preparation.
Inter-disciplinary developments
The PI and the team worked on biogeochemical data analysis management (Task 2.7). Results have been presented to an international conference and accepted for publication as peer-reviewed conference proceedings (Higgins et al, Timewise registration of Histomorphometric and Biogeochemical Data in Human Dental Mineralized Tissues through LOESS Regression).
A further interdisciplinary development has been carried out on virtual histology (Task 2.2) with the application of synchrotron-based micrCT, on the novel use of lab-based microtomography for dental virtual histology studies and on the use of deep-learning tools for 3D analyses. Three papers have been accepted to be published as peer-reviewed conference proceedings.
Knowledge transfer
The PI has invested time and effort in developing knowledge and technology transfer in collaboration with colleagues from the HI Department. This collaboration primarily focused on the application on methodologies developed and routinely used by the project’s team in dentistry.
The first 24 months of the project have been dedicated to the advancements in the methodologies, to enlarge the already existing network and to let the scientific community know about the project’s activities. The publications reached a wide audience, and this is evident by the media interest, particularly with the unexpected contact by the CBC company to be part of a scientific, generalist public, documentary.
The papers published so far, and those to date under review or to be submitted soon, highlighted the credibility acquired by the PI and her research group in exploring the mother-infant relationship. It brought to the possibility to work in the close future on important fossil human collections after being engaged directly by the curators of the collections.
The PI and the research team are currently working on the breakthrough topics foreseen in the project, like the exploration of diet and health of contemporary vegetarian mother-offspring pairs, the chemical signal of the end of weaning, and the non-human milk use in nursing infants in past human populations.
The papers published so far, and those to date under review or to be submitted soon, highlighted the credibility acquired by the PI and her research group in exploring the mother-infant relationship. It brought to the possibility to work in the close future on important fossil human collections after being engaged directly by the curators of the collections.
The PI and the research team are currently working on the breakthrough topics foreseen in the project, like the exploration of diet and health of contemporary vegetarian mother-offspring pairs, the chemical signal of the end of weaning, and the non-human milk use in nursing infants in past human populations.