Multi-tissue Analysis of Breastfeeding and Weaning in Iron Age (Seventh–Fourth c. B.C.) South Italy
Bibliographic record
Abstract
In this study, we investigate breastfeeding and weaning patterns using stable isotope analysis of multipletissues—deciduous and permanent dentin, ribs, and femora—from two Iron Age (seventh–fourth century B.C.) sites in southern Italy. In addition to exploring general patterns of infant and childhood feeding in these samples, our objectives are to determine if weaning occurred earlier among individuals who did not survive childhood, and to examine variability in stable isotope data between dentin and bone samples within the same individual.
 To address these objectives, δ 15N and δ 13C data were obtained from incremental dentin sections from 12 subadults (< 10 years) and eight adolescents/adults (16+ years). Results from the deciduous dentin samples show that weaning began after 5 months of age, and data from the permanent teeth of subadults indicate that weaning was complete by 2.0 ± 0.6 years. Meanwhile, isotope data from the permanent teeth of adolescents/adults suggest that weaning was complete by 3.1 ± 0.3 years. Dentin isotope profiles of 11 subadults were also compared against the respective rib and femora data. Results reveal that rib isotope values correspond to dentin values more closely during early childhood (< 5 years), while rib and femora isotope data show greater likeness after 5 years of age, indicating an isotopically consistent post-weaning diet.
 The results from this study demonstrate that weaning in these two Iron Age samples began in the first year of life and the overall weaning process lasted longer for those individuals who survived to adolescence/adulthood. If dentin is not available for stable isotope analysis, our study shows that ribs should be used as an alternative, since their faster turnover rate provides a closer approximation to dentin.
 
 Attraverso l’analisi degli isotopi stabili su tessuti ossei multipli (la dentina decidua e permanente, le coste e le ossa femorali), questo studio esamina i modelli di allattamento e svezzamento in due siti databilii all’eta’ del ferro, tra il VII e il IV secolo AD, e localizzati nell’Italia del Sud. Oltre ad analizzare i modelli generali relativi all’alimentazione infantile e dei bambini, lo studio mira sia a determinare un possibile svezzamento precoce tra gli individui non sopravvissuti l’infanzia, sia ad esaminare la variabilita’ dell’isotopo stabile nella dentina e nelle ossa dei soggetti appartenenti allo stesso individuo.
 Per conseguire questi obiettivi, i valori di δ 15N e δ 13C sono ottenuti da sezioni incrementali di dentina estratti da 12 campioni sub-adulti (< 10 anni), in aggiunta ad 8 adolescenti e adulti (16+ anni). I risultati della dentina appartenenti ai campioni di dentizione decidua indicano che lo svezzamento iniziava dopo il quinto mese di vita del bambino; i dati inerenti alla dentina appartente ai sub-adulti con dentizione permanente suggeriscono che lo svezzamento si completava intorno ai 2.0 ± 0.6 anni. Infine, i dati isotopici sui denti permanenti di adolescenti e adulti indicano che lo svezzamento si concludeva tra i 3.1 ± 0.3 anni.
 Sono stati anche paragonati i valori isotopici della dentina relativi a 11 individui in eta’ subadulta con i dati relativi alle coste e ai femori corrispondenti. I risultati rivelano che i valori dell’isotopo delle coste trovano una sostanziale corrispondenza rispetto ai valori isotopici della dentina durante la prima infanzia (considerata al di sotto del quinto anno di vita). Diversamente, i valori sia dell’isotopo costale sia di quello femorale mostrano maggiore somiglianza dopo il 5 anno di vita, suggerendo la presenza di una dieta post-allattamento.
 I risultati dello studio dimostrano che, in questi due campioni databili all’eta’ del ferro, lo svezzamento iniziava nel primo anno di vita e durava piu’ a lungo per quegli individui che sopravvivevano fino all’eta’ adolescenziale o fino all’eta’ adulta. Infine, il nostro studio dimostra che, nei casi in cui la dentina non fosse disponible per l’analisi dell’isotopo stabile, le coste possono essere usate come alternativa considerando la loro somiglianza nel tasso di turnover medio cellulare.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.022 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".