An Ice Age Infant
By analyzing the DNA ofa baby found in southern Italy, scientists have a striking picture of the youngboy. The poorly developed child lived during the Ice Age about 17,000 yearsago. He likely had curly dark hair, brown skin, and blue eyes.
In 1998, his remainswere discovered in the Grotta delle Mura cave in Monopoli, Puglia. The baby’sbones were carefully covered with rock slabs. With no grave goods, the simpleburial was the only grave in the cave.
The largely intactskeleton revealed the child was about 2.5 feet tall when he died. Recent dentalexamination revealed he was between 8 and 18 months old. Radiocarbon datingstated the remains were 16,910 to 17,320 years old, meaning he lived a fewcenturies after the Last Glacial Maximum, when glaciers covered a quarter ofthe planet’s land, some 20,000 years ago.
Ancient skeletons foundin warm climates are often too degraded for any significant genetic analysis.But the cave was so cool, the boy’s remains were well preserved. Researcherswere able to recover about 75% of the boy’s genome, which is remarkable.
His skin was darkerthan most modern Europeans’, but his pale blue eyes match those of otherwestern European hunter-gatherers. The infant appears to be related to theVillabruna cluster, a group of post Ice Age people who lived up to 14,000 yearsago. This suggests the Villabruna line began in southern Europe well before theend of the Ice Age.
Researchers alsodetermined his cause of death. He had an inherited condition that causes theheart muscle to thicken. This results in fatal congestive heart failure.
Nine accentuated linesmarking the baby’s teeth indicate “physiological stress events” that occurredbefore and after birth. Isotopes in the teeth suggest that his mother stayed inone area during pregnancy and may have been malnourished. His birth was likelydifficult, according to a fracture in the baby’s collarbone.
