As an archaeologist and a parent I always enjoy looking for evidence of children in the past, particularly in Roman Britain, my area of study for almost 30 years. One object has always intrigued me, the Roman “baby bottles”. These pottery vessels measure between 5–10cm in height and have a distinctive small spout. They are often called tettine (plural tettinae) and are commonly thought to have been used for feeding infants and young children.
Although the first examples in Britain coincide with the Roman invasion of 43 CE, these vessels had been around for a few thousand years prior to that in parts of Central Europe and the Mediterranean. We know from medical writings that have survived from the Roman period that parents commonly used wet-nurses to take over feeding their babies, so then why use a vessel? Perhaps the child was struggling to breastfeed, in which case animal milk from cows, sheep, goats and even donkeys would have been available. Roman images of babies suckling directly from animals are symbolic rather than true depictions—and we have no representations in art from Roman times of bottle feeding. However, experiments with combinations of milk and water have proved these vessels are certainly useable in this way.
The Greek physician, Soranus of Ephesus (98–138 CE) even goes so far as to suggest that during weaning children should be given a mix of water with wine using a vessel, which has a “teat” or “artificial nipple”; are these the same vessels? Were these tettinae used in a similar way to modern “sippy” cups, to provide additional liquids or even medicines to babies, toddlers and small children? The substances originally held in these vessels often leave traces absorbed into the clay fabric wall. Archaeologists, using chemical analysis, have been able to identify some of these traces, and have shown that they often contained not just milk but also meat residues, perhaps strengthening the argument that they were used in weaning—but no traces of wine have (yet) been found in the examples from Britain. The search for definitive answers continues, but the thought that these little vessels were used as “baby bottles” offers a tangible connection with parents in the past.
Kayt Hawkins is a Senior Archaeologist and Romano-British ceramics specialist at Archaeology South-East, UCL, a member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Kayt is also a part-time PhD candidate at the University of Leicester.
Her new book 50 Finds From Childhood (Amberley, 2024) (published on 15 July 2024) explores fifty objects on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database that relate to children from the prehistoric to modern period.
