As any parent can attest, holding infants in your arms for an extended period of time is taxing and occasionally impractical. In the last 10,000 years, when parents were continually foraging and hunting, it must have been more so. Due to the lack of concrete proof, it was uncertain how our prehistoric predecessors accomplished this. Scientists may have discovered proof for this long-standing mystery now.
A group of researchers from the Université de Montréal employed analytical techniques to look at a 40–50 day old female infant discovered in 2017 in the Arma Verirana cave site in Liguria, Italy. She was buried with a sizable bead collection and was given the moniker Neve, which means Snow.
The approach of constructing a 3D model of an object or area using numerous overlapping images was utilized in this work. It is known as high-definition 3D photogrammetry. In order to analyze perforated shell beads discovered with Neve, they merged this modeling technique with microscopic observations and microCT scan analysis.
Four large perforated bivalve pendants and more than 70 other perforated marine shells that were specific to this prehistoric location were among the beads discovered. It must have taken hours to produce these beads because they were really well worn and heavily used, which couldn’t have been related to Neve’s brief life. As a result, it must have been worn by a member of Neve’s community and passed down to her; it may have served as keepsakes or as protection from evil.
The study’s principal investigator, Claudine Gravel-Miguel, commented in a statement, “Given the labor needed to manufacture and reuse beads throughout time, it is interesting that the community decided to part with these beads in the burial of such a young child.” “According to our research, Neve’s carrier, which was interred with her, was probably embellished with those beads and pendants.”
These beads’ locations served as crucial information as well. Many previous excavation techniques did not record the locations of any ornaments. Archaeologists are now making sure that the jewelry position data is recorded at recently discovered burials.
It was determined that the beads were attached to a piece of fabric, leather, or fur that was used to wrap the infant for burial when she was laid to rest. This material might have been a sling, a blanket, or an undergarment. The study group believes that a baby carrier was more likely the intended use for this material.
Neve’s leg position was one factor. Some of the shells were hidden by these, which were tucked up over the abdomen. This suggests that these beads were used as clothing, rather than solely as funerary adornment. Additionally, several beads that appeared to be the contour of a sling were discovered bent up the infant’s upper arm.
According to ethnographic findings on the decoration and use of infant carriers in some hunter-gatherer communities, Neve’s family and society may have utilized these beads as a kind of defense. Given the shortness of Neve’s life, the death might have meant that the beads had failed and that it would have been best to bury them with the carrier, or it might have served as a permanent link between Neve and her tribe.
In the words of Julien Riel-Salvatore, another author of the research, “This paper adds truly original knowledge on the archaeology of childcare.” To reach the “human” component that motivates the type of research we perform, it crosses the boundaries between archaeology’s science and art.
