Remains of a 17,000-year-old child who was the result of incest discovered in Italy: details of ancient life revealed
A unique archaeological discovery in Italy - a 17,000-year-old baby skeleton - has allowed scientists to reveal extraordinary details of the life of ancient people. The results of the study, published in Nature Communications, are based on the analysis of perfectly preserved remains found in the Grotta delle Mura cave in 1998.
According to radiocarbon dating, the age of the find ranges from 16,910 to 17,320 years. Genetic analysis showed that the child, who lived from 7.5 months to 1.5 years, had blue eyes, dark curly hair, and dark skin - typical features of the inhabitants of Central and Southwestern Europe at that time. This is reported by Nature Communications.
The researchers found that the baby, who was 82 cm tall, suffered from a hereditary disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which could have caused premature death. An interesting fact is that the child's parents were close relatives, most likely cousins, which, according to Dr. Alessandra Modi from the University of Florence, was a rare occurrence for the Paleolithic era.
Analysis of the teeth revealed nine episodes of physiological stress during the child's development. Isotopic studies indicate limited mobility and malnutrition of the mother during the last months of pregnancy. The fracture of the baby's clavicle indicates possible complications during childbirth.
Professor Stefano Benazzi from the University of Bologna emphasizes the importance of this study for understanding the life of hunter-gatherers of that period. And Professor David Caramelli of the University of Florence notes that this discovery helped reconstruct the oldest genome in Italy and reveal significant migration processes from the Balkans after the last ice age.
As a reminder, archaeologists have found an ancient Roman square in Spain.
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