SCIENTISTS have found shocking details about a boy who lived 17,000 years ago after unearthing his ancient skeletal remains in Italy.
A skeletal analysis done by experts found the child was just 16 months old when he died from heart disease during the ice age.
Researchers’ analysis of the infant’s teeth provided information about the boy’s short life[/caption]
In 1998, archaeologists accidentally found the child’s grave while excavating the Grotta delle Mura cave in Monopoli, Italy.
The skeleton, believed to be from at least 17,000 years ago when it was an ice age, was “very well preserved” – and was found in intact condition.
It was covered by two giant rocks inside a cave.
DNA analysis of the remains showed evidence the boy had blue eyes, dark skin and curly dark-brown hair, a study published in the Nature Communications journal reports.
The remains indicate the boy’s mother was severely malnourished during her pregnancy and was involved in inbreeding practices while living in a close-knit group.
Alessandra Modi, an anthropologist at the University of Florence, who co-authored the study, dubbed the discovery a “remarkable achievement”.
He told NewScientist: “This enabled us to make robust conclusions about the infant’s ancestry, physical characteristics and even certain health aspects.”
The boy’s skin was found to be darker than most modern Europeans but not as dark as a tropically acclimated person.
This led researchers to believe that the infant was an ancestor of the Villabruna – a group of people who lived 14,000 years ago post the ice age period.
Since the skeleton was found in excellent condition, scientists were also able to do a detailed analysis of the boy’s teeth.
They found that he had experienced “physiological stress events” that occurred before and after birth.
It also suggests that the mother was severely malnourished during her pregnancy.
Owen Alexander Higgins, an archaeologist at the University of Bologna, told Live Science: “The strontium isotope analysis further revealed that the mother remained in the local area during the last period of her pregnancy … which in turn may have also affected her fetus.
Anthropologist Vanessa Villalba-Mouco said of the discovery: “We are increasingly learning more about Ice Age populations, and this study adds a valuable piece to the puzzle.”
Meanwhile, an ancient set of teeth from the Viking era has revealed signs of a brutal “initiation ritual” that marked their social identities.
Damnnig new evidence found after studying 1000-year-old remains of a man shows the Vikings filled horizontal grooves into the teeth that apparently helped them to identify as merchant men.
Archaeologists Matthias Toplak of the Viking Museum Haithabu and Lukas Kerk of the University of Münster in Germany found the bizarre tooth filings in the remains of 130 males from the Baltic isle of Gotland.
Masterfully filled horizontal grooves have been found inside the skulls of men from Sweden and Denmark in a practice that experts think may have persisted for years.
Research suggests that these teeth fillings were found in places known to support trading – and that all individuals with filed teeth appear to be adult men.
They have been analyzing the modifications closely, looking for a possible explanation for the bizarre methods.
Scientists previously thought tattoos were the only form of body modification used in the Viking age, but now suggest that Vikings purposely deformed their skulls as well.
Instances of an intentional reshaping and elongation of the skull associated with the Viking Age have been found in three Gotland women.
