17,000-Year-Old Remains Reveal Ancient Baby Likely Had Blue Eyes And Heart Disease

Scientists have discovered new details about an Ice Age baby who lived in southern Italy about 17,000 years ago. The remains, which were discovered by archaeologist Mauro Calattini in the Grotta delle Mura cave in Monopoli in 1998, indicate that the child probably died from congenital heart disease.

DNA analysis determined that the baby, who was male, likely had blue eyes, dark skin, and curly dark brown to nearly black hair. The small remains also manifested symptoms of poor development and inbreeding. No grave goods were found within the child's grave, which was discovered beneath two rock slabs. This burial remains the only one uncovered within the cave.

A paper, published on 20 September in Nature Communications, gives insight into this ancient child's life and appearance, yielding valuable clues about the early human population of southern Europe.

"Genetic analysis highlighted a close relationship between the child's parents, suggesting that they were probably first cousins," explains University of Florence molecular anthropologist Alessandra Modi, "a phenomenon rarely found in the Paleolithic, but more common during the Neolithic."

"Our work is a crucial piece in the understanding of the early stages of life in the Upper Palaeolithic," says Stefano Benazzi, Professor of Physical Anthropology at the University of Bologna. "This pioneering study, which combines different techniques of analysis of skeletal remains, has provided an unprecedented insight into the growth and living conditions of a child who lived in a key period for the settlement of the Italian peninsula, also allowing us to gather information about the mother and the hunter-gatherer groups of the time. Our research represents a significant advance, demonstrating the importance of interdisciplinarity to deepen our knowledge of prehistoric populations."

Anthropological analyses conducted by the University of Siena have provided the basis for understanding the child's physical development. "The combination of these different methodologies has allowed us to reconstruct with unprecedented precision the life and death of this child," says Stefano Ricci of the University of Siena.