The 17,000-Year-Old Remains of a Child Were a Mystery for 25 Years. Then, Scientists Studied His Teeth.

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• In 1998, 17,000-year-old skeletal remains of a 1 year old child were uncovered in southern Italy.

• The well-preserved remains underwent skeletal and DNA analysis in order to determine the child’s appearance, sex, and cause of death.

• A new study reveals that the child likely died from a heart condition caused by genetic mutations.

Skeletal remains of a 17,000-year-old baby were uncovered in southern Italy in 1998. Now, thanks to thorough analysis of the remarkably well-preserved remains, archaeologists have been able to determine what the child looked like, and what ultimately ended his short life.

As detailed in an article in Nature Communications, and summarized by LiveScience, the child’s body was found beneath two rock slabs within Grotta delle Mura Cave in Monopoli, Italy, and in a remarkable state of preservation uncommon for the region’s warmer climate. It was preserved so well, in fact, that the corpse’s teeth were intact enough to show “as many as nine accentuated lines, or markers of physiological hardships.”

“The detailed analysis of the infant’s teeth allowed us to infer the health and stress experienced by the child during infancy and/or his mother during pregnancy—something we rarely have the opportunity to explore with such precision,” the study’s co-lead authors told LiveScience.

The isotopes observed in the child’s tooth enamel also indicated approximately where he had been born. “The strontium isotope analysis further revealed that the mother remained in the local area during the last period of her pregnancy,” the authors noted.

Skeletal analysis suggested that the child died when he was roughly 1 year and 4 months old, while DNA analysis painted a strong portrait of his appearance and cause of death. They determined that the child “likely had blue eyes, dark skin and curly dark-brown to almost black hair,” as well as some likely fatal genetic mutations.

“The DNA analysis also revealed that the baby harbored mutations in two genes — TNNT2 and MYBPC3—involved in the production of heart muscle proteins,” LiveScience summarized, “These mutations often lead to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a largely genetic condition that makes the walls of the left ventricle thicken and stiffen over time, meaning the heart can’t receive or pump out enough blood with each heartbeat.”

In the absence of any evidence of fatal injury, it’s reasonable to conclude that it was indeed this congenital heart disease that ultimately claimed the life of this child millennia ago. But despite his short life, his remarkably preserved remains have allowed him to further the understanding of a society that he predated by millenia.

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