Researchers have studied the ancient skeleton of a baby boy found in southern Italy, revealing a glimpse into life in the Ice Age, 17,000 years ago. The infant, which lived during the Ice Age, likely had brown skin, curly dark hair, and blue eyes.
His remains were first discovered in 1998 in the Grotta delle Mura cave, located in Monopoli, Puglia, Italy. A recent report published in Nature Communications shared these findings.
Archaeologist Mauro Calattini, who worked on the study, found the baby’s bones carefully covered with stones. There were no items buried with the child, and it was the only grave in the cave.
The “infant of Grotta delle Mura” is 16,910 to 17,320 years old
The skeleton was mostly intact, enabling researchers to estimate the child’s height at a little over two-and-a-half feet. A closer look at the teeth revealed the baby was likely between 7.5 and 18 months old at the time of death.
Radiocarbon dating results show the remains are approximately 16,910 to 17,320 years old. This suggests the “infant of Grotta delle Mura” lived just a few centuries after the peak of the Last Glacial Maximum, a period around 20,000 years ago when glaciers covered about a quarter of the Earth’s surface.
Alessandra Modi, an anthropologist from the University of Florence and one of the study’s co-lead authors, told NewScientist’s Christa Lesté-Lasserre that ancient skeletons found in warmer climates are often too deteriorated for in-depth genetic study.
However, because the child’s body was sheltered in a cool cave, it was well-preserved, escaping the harsh heat typical of the Puglia region. This preservation allowed researchers to recover about 75 percent of the child’s genome, an impressive accomplishment considering the age of the remains, according to Modi.
“This enabled us to make robust conclusions about the infant’s ancestry, physical characteristics and even certain health aspects,” Modi told NewScientist.
Dark skin and blue eyes
According to Modi, the boy likely had darker skin than most modern Europeans, though not as dark as someone adapted to tropical climates. His light blue eyes are similar to those of other ancient hunter-gatherers from Western Europe.
The child also seems to be an early ancestor of the Villabruna cluster, a group of people who lived in post-Ice Age Europe up to 14,000 years ago. This connection suggests that the Villabruna lineage may have originated in southern Europe well before the Ice Age came to an end, as indicated by the study.
The boy’s genetic analysis provided insights into his cause of death. He suffered from familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a hereditary condition that causes the heart muscle to thicken, potentially leading to fatal heart failure.
In addition to determining his age, researchers closely examined the child’s teeth, which provided them with rare clues as to the health and stress the boy—or even his mother during pregnancy—may have endured.
