MONTREAL, CANADA—According to a statement released by the University of Montreal, a team of researchers led by Claudine Gravel-Miguel of Arizona State University and Julien Riel-Salvatore of the University of Montreal has found possible evidence for the use of a baby sling some 10,000 years ago. They created a 3-D photogrammetry model of the burial of a 40- to 50-day-old baby unearthed in the cave site of Arma Veirana, which is located in Liguria, Italy, and analyzed the more than 70 small perforated marine shells and four big perforated bivalve pendants recovered from it. The study suggests that the beads, many of which showed heavy signs of use, had been sewn onto a piece of leather or cloth that was wrapped around the baby, who is now known as Neve. The wear on the beads indicates that they may have been worn by someone else before they were handed down to Neve, Gravel-Miguel said. “Given the effort needed to create and use beads over time, it is interesting that the community decided to part with these beads in the burial of such a young individual,” she said. Observations of modern hunter-gatherers, however, suggest that the carrier’s decorations may have been intended to protect a baby from harm or evil. When Neve died, it may have been decided to bury the carrier with her rather than reuse it, added Riel-Salvatore. Read the original scholarly article about this research in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. For more on this burial, go to "Around the World: Italy."
