When teeth tell a story: childhood, diet and daily life in ancient Sumer
Source: https://www.uniroma1.it/en/notizia/when-teeth-tell-story-childhood-diet-and-daily-life-ancient-sumer Parent: https://www.uniroma1.it/en/
An international team of researchers from Sapienza University has conducted a study that provides direct evidence of the diet in utero and offers new insights into daily nutrition and early childhood in a city in southern Mesopotamia during the 3rd millennium BC. The study has been published in the journal PNAS
What did the inhabitants of one of the world’s oldest cities eat? And how were children fed when the first urban centres began to expand? These questions are answered by a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), conducted by an international team of Sapienza researchers from the Departments of Environmental Biology and Earth Sciences and the Italian Institute of Oriental Studies, in collaboration with the Museum of Civilisation in Rome, the University of Melbourne and Géosciences Environnement Toulouse.
The study forms part of the projects funded by the Grandi Scavi Sapienza and offers a fresh perspective on the daily diet and nutrition during the early years of life of the inhabitants of Abu Tbeirah, a medium-sized city dating from the 3rd millennium BC located in southern Mesopotamia (Nasiriyah, Dhi-Qar, Iraq).
By analysing the human and animal teeth found at the site, researchers discovered that the population followed an omnivorous diet, consisting mainly of cereals with limited consumption of meat and little or no evidence of marine fish, despite the town’s proximity to the ancient coastline. Men and women appear to have had similar access to food resources, reflecting a largely non-elitist community with a relatively equitable distribution of food.
The lead author of the study, Matteo Giaccari from the Department of Earth Sciences, says: “These findings give us a much more intimate insight into daily life in early urban Mesopotamia and allow us to look beyond written sources – mostly administrative records that primarily reflect the lives and priorities of the elite – by reconstructing what ordinary people actually ate.”
In addition to adult diets, the study provides rare direct evidence of the diet in utero – that is, what the mother consumed during pregnancy – as well as breastfeeding and weaning practices, key aspects of early childhood that are typically almost invisible in archaeological contexts. In particular, the composition of tooth enamel reveals changes associated with early childhood nutrition, allowing researchers to trace the transition from breastfeeding to solid foods.
The findings suggest that children were breastfed for an extended period and gradually introduced to complementary foods such as cereals and animal milk – practices consistent with accounts found in ancient Mesopotamian texts, but rarely observable at the level of individual lives. From this research, it is possible to deduce not only what people ate, but also how communities raised their children.
“Being able to reconstruct the diet during early childhood offers us a unique insight into family life, care practices and health in one of the earliest complex societies,” said Licia Romano, an archaeologist at the University of Melbourne and co-director of the Abu Tbeirah excavations alongside Franco D’Agostino, Professor of Assyriology at Sapienza. “It tells us not only what people ate, but also how communities raised their children.”
Reconstructing ancient diets in southern Mesopotamia has long been extremely difficult. The region’s arid climate and saline soils destroy collagen, the organic material traditionally used for dietary isotope analysis. As a result, direct evidence of what people ate – particularly non-elite populations – has remained largely inaccessible.
To overcome this obstacle, the research team adopted an innovative approach: the analysis of zinc isotopes in tooth enamel. Combined with the analysis of carbon and oxygen isotopes and trace elements, this method enables researchers to reconstruct individual diets without relying on collagen.
“Teeth are extraordinary biological archives,” emphasises Mary Anne Tafuri, lecturer in Bioarchaeology at the Department of Environmental Biology at Sapienza University – “because they are highly resistant to post-mortem degradation, they can be analysed even in contexts where aridity and salinisation might compromise other tissues.”
“This approach enables us to answer questions that were previously impossible to address in regions such as Mesopotamia,” said Klervia Jaouen, a researcher at Géosciences Environnement Toulouse. “It opens up new possibilities for studying ancient diets, infant nutrition and lifestyles in arid environments around the world.”
References: Matteo Giaccari, Licia Romano, Silvia Soncin, Sofia Panella, Francesca Alhaique, Franco D’Agostino, Klervia Jaouen, Mary Anne Tafuri. (2026) When collagen fails: Zinc isotopes unlock Sumerian lifeways in southern Mesopotamia. PNAS 123 (11): e2526276123
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2526276123
Further Information
Matteo Giaccari – Department of Earth Sciences
Mary Anne Tafuri – Department of Environmental Biology
Links
Tuesday, 10 March 2026
Ziqqurat di Ur ph. Matteo Giaccari Ziqqurat di Ur ph. Matteo Giaccari