The Arma Veirana cave is located in the Ligurian mountains of northwestern Italy. Credit: Dominique Meyer.
A group of hunter-gatherers buried an infant girl in an Italian cave after the last Ice Age. They laid her to rest with a rich selection of their cherished beads and pendants, and an eagle-owl talon, signaling their grief, and showing that even the youngest females were recognized as full persons in their society. The analysis and excavations of the discovery are published in Nature Scientific Reports, which gives a glimpse into the early days of the Mesolithic period, from which few recorded burials are known. The ornaments include over 60 pierced shell beads and four shell pendants, which was analyzed by Claudine Gravel-Miguel, a researcher with the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University.
The mortuary practices give a glimpse into the past. Child funerary treatment can provide important insights into who was considered a person and who was not. The treatment of this infant female, who the team nicknamed "Neve," shows that even the youngest females were considered full persons in their society.
Jamie Hodgkins is a PhD graduate and paleoanthropologist at the University of Colorado Denver and he says that the evolution and development of how early humans buried their dead has enormous cultural significance.
The excavation was done.
The cave of Arma Veirana is a popular spot for local families to visit. The site was discovered by looters and they exposed the tools that drew researchers to the area.
The remains were discovered during the last week of the field season in the year of the survey. The University of Genoa, University of Bologna, and the Institute of Human Origins are among the Italian universities involved in the project.
The first two excavation seasons exposed layers of ancient tools associated with Neandertals in Europe. They found the bones of animals such as the cut-marked bones of wild boars and the charred fat from the carcasses. They found stone tools that were more recent and that had been eroded from deeper inside the cave. The team opened new sections inside the cave in order to better understand the cave's history. The team discovered pierced shell beads as they explored the new section.
A small piece of the infant's cranial vault was found by one of the excavators a few days after they found the first bead.
Gravel-Miguel remembers looking over at the weird bone while he was excavating in the adjacent square. It became clear that we were looking at a young person's cranium, and not a human one. It was an emotional day.
The illustration shows the placement of beads and shells. Credit: Claudine Gravel-Miguel.
Researchers used dental tools and a small paint brush to carefully expose the whole skeleton, which was adorned with articulated lines of pierced shell beads.
"The excavation techniques are state-of-the-art and leave no doubt to the associations of the materials with the skeleton," said Curtis Marean, who was not involved in the study. The School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University has an associate director named Marean.
Changes in human history.
The team uncovered critical details about the ancient burial in a series of analyses. The baby was found to be a female belonging to a group of European women known as the U5b2b haplogroup, thanks to ancient DNA and amelogenin.
"There's a decent record of human burials before around 14,000 years ago," said Hodgkins. The latest Upper Paleolithic period and earliest part of the Mesolithic are not well known. Infant burials are rare, so Neve adds important information to help fill the gap.
Caley Orr, an anatomist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, is a coauthor of the book "The Mesolithic." The last period in Europe when hunting and gathering was the primary way of making a living was after the end of the Ice Age. It's important for understanding human prehistory.
The virtual histology of the infant's teeth showed that she died between 40 and 50 days after birth and that she experienced stress that temporarily halted the growth of her teeth. The analysis of the baby's teeth showed that the mother had been feeding the baby on a land-based diet.
The child is part of the community.
The ornaments adorning the infant were analyzed by Gravel-Miguel, who showed that many of the ornaments were passed down to the child from the group. The details of this research are the focus of a separate article currently under review.
The funerary treatment of two infants at Upward Sun River, Alaska, suggests that the recognition of infant females as full persons has deep origins in a common ancestral culture that was shared by peoples who migrated into Europe. It could have arisen in parallel in the populations of the planet.
Jamie Hodgkins and his team have information on an infant burial from northwestern Italy. There is a DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-02804-z.
Scientific reports are in the journal.
The most adorned female infant burial in Europe is significant in understanding evolution of personhood.
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