You could be forgiven for confusing these ancient baby feeders for a water jug or an oil lamp, but they are examples of very old baby feeders. The terra-cotta one dates back to Greece around 450 B.C. and is currently on display at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Mothers in Greece at the time would use the jug to feed the infant a wine & honey mix.
Even as far back as 2,000 B.C. there is evidence to suggest that, at times where breast milk was unavailable, parents would try to supplement or substitute it.
A discovery made in Phoenikas, Cyprus of an early feeding cup made from earthenware is held at the British Museum.
Many other discoveries have been made at archaeological ‘digs’, especially where there are likely to be infant graves.
Some early feeder vessels resemble oil lamps or small wine jugs.
Mostly the bottles would be made from pottery at that time, most probably until the Egyptians began to make glass around 200 to 300 B.C.
Glass apparently fell out of favour after some time, with Pewter becoming a favoured material, and only began to reappear in baby bottles around the mid 1800’s.