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10,000-year-old tomb contains body of infant

Archaeologists have just found the grave of a 10,000-year-old female infant. This is a first in Europe.

Understanding how prehistoric humans deal with their dead is a very important question in order to better understand how they thought, acted or simply thought. While the question of death has only been studied for a few years in the world of archeology, discoveries are linked on this subject.

But one of them attracts the eyes of scientists more than the others. Indeed, researchers got their hands a few weeks ago on a grave unlike any other. The latter, 10,000 years old, was found in the heart of Liguria in Italy, not far from Genoa. At the heart of this cave, the tomb of a little girl, who died just after her birth, when she was only a few days old.

A burial to say the least strange, when we know that infant mortality was at the time of the legion and that the disappearance of a child had never been commemorated in this way. What was so special about this child that he deserved so many honors for his funeral?

A very unusual practice

Scientists remind us that the attribution of personality to young children is something that happened quite late in human history. During prehistoric times, civilizations considered children to be in a hybrid state today qualified as “limited humanity”. This made their death less important than that of an adult, who is active in the development and survival of the tribe.

It is therefore all the more astonishing that this child had the right to such a tribute. “Neve” as she was baptized by scientists would have lived only a small fifty days. It would have known the beginning of the Holocene era which began 10,000 years ago. Around her in her tomb, archaeologists found seashells as well as stones with holes, forming a necklace.

This burial is a great first in Europe, it is all the more important because it concerns a female child, a rare discovery which should be able to occupy the minds of researchers for many years to come.

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