Childhood and Youth in Bavaria during the Early Middle Ages: What Teeth Reveal about Diet and Migration

New studies show that children in early medieval Bavaria were sometimes breastfed much longer than is common today. In addition, many early Bavarians buried in the Alpine foreland around 500 CE apparently originated from entirely different regions. A research team led by SNSB anthropologists PD Dr. Michaela Harbeck and Dr. Maren Velte analyzed human teeth from various archaeological sites in Bavaria for their study. Their findings were published in the scientific journals PLOS ONE and Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences.

Teeth are formed during childhood and undergo little change over the course of a lifetime. They therefore function as an “archive of childhood.” A research team led by anthropologist PD Dr. Michaela Harbeck, curator at the State Collection of Anthropology Munich (SNSB-SAM), together with project researcher Dr. Maren Velte, used isotope analyses of the teeth of adults from the Early Middle Ages to gain information about their earliest phases of life.

Strontium isotope analyses, for example, provide clues about a person’s geographical origin, while carbon and nitrogen analyses allow researchers to draw conclusions about diet. So-called serial isotope analysis reveals the progression of nutrition from birth up to around the age of 20. The anthropologists were even able to trace the transition from breast milk to solid food during infancy and early childhood. For their study, the researchers analyzed teeth from individuals buried in Bavaria during the Early Middle Ages, primarily around 500 CE, at several cemeteries.

Complex Patterns of Migration

The origins of modern Europe go back to a period known as the Migration Period. During this era, between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the Western Roman Empire came to an end, accompanied by profound cultural and political transformations. Many cities, villages, and settlements have their roots in this time.

In southern Bavaria, the Duchy of Bavaria emerged in the sixth century from the former Roman province of Raetia Secunda. The role migration played in this process remains a topic of debate to this day.

Stable strontium isotope analyses of more than 150 early medieval individuals show that toward the end of the fifth century, an above-average number of people from other regions migrated into what is now southern Bavaria — both men and women. Although the exact places of origin could not be determined for many individuals, it was possible to demonstrate that they came from a wide range of different regions.

Some dietary patterns unusual for Bavaria also point to the foreign origin of certain buried individuals. In particular, several women who, genetically, originated from southeastern Europe and also exhibited distinctive cranial shapes, had relied heavily on millet as a staple food during childhood and adolescence. Millet was only rarely cultivated in Bavaria at the time, but was common in Eastern Europe and even Asia. This strongly suggests that these women grew up in cultural environments outside Bavaria.

For some women, researchers were even able to identify the timing of their dietary changes and thus likely also the period of their migration into Bavaria. Many of the women from southeastern Europe, for example, did not arrive in the region as adolescents or young adults — as might be expected in the context of marriage migration during that period — but were well over 20 years old when they settled in Bavaria.

Weaning and Complementary Feeding

For some individuals, diet could be reconstructed in detail from birth up to around the age of ten, including the transition from breast milk to solid food.

The analyses show that women in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages breastfed their children for much longer than is common today. In most of the early Bavarians examined, weaning was not completed until the third year of life. Women of foreign origin in particular seem to have been breastfed even longer during childhood. Such extended breastfeeding periods are also known from nomadic populations.

“Weaning Stress”

In general, the weaning process — the gradual introduction of foods that progressively replace breast milk — poses a health risk for infants. During this phase, children are more exposed to pathogens and malnutrition.

Defects in tooth enamel, which are considered so-called stress markers, reveal the age at which children experienced such physiological burdens. Apparently, infants growing up after the period of social upheaval in Bavaria experienced particularly severe “weaning stress.” In the seventh century, a particularly high number of these stress-related dental changes can be observed.

Researchers suspect that this may be linked to fundamental changes in childhood nutrition, particularly in complementary feeding practices. Future studies may provide more precise answers.

Publications

Velte M, Czermak A, Grigat A, Haas-Gebhard B, Gairhos A, Toncala A, et al. (2023). Between Raetia Secunda and the duchy of Bavaria: Exploring patterns of human movement and diet. PLoS ONE 18(4): e0283243.

Velte M, Czermak A, Grigat A, Neidich D, Trautmann B, Lösch S, Päffgen B, Harbeck M. (2023). Tracing early life histories from Roman times to the Medieval era: weaning practices and physiological stress. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 15, 190.

Contact

PD Dr. Michaela Harbeck
SNSB – State Collection of Anthropology Munich
Phone: +49 89 5488 438 13
Email: harbeck@snsb.de