A childhood skeleton, found almost three decades ago in a rocky refuge in Portugal, aroused great interest among scientists for its hybrid characteristics between Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal. Now, thanks to new dating techniques, scholars have managed to establish more precision the era in which this enigmatic child lived.
The skeleton was discovered in 1998 on the site of Lagar Velhoin central Portugal. It is a surprisingly well preserved burial: the remains were almost complete and had a reddish color, probably due to a funeral ritual. Scientists speculate that the body had been wrapped in an animal skin painted before the burial, a sign of a special ritual treatment.
A unique burial: the mystery of the Lagar Velho child
From the beginning, scholars noticed peculiar details in the child’s bone structure. Some traits, such as body proportions and the jaw, remembered those of the Neanderthals, while others were typically human. This combination led to the theory that the child belonged to a population resulting from the cross between Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal. A bold hypothesis for the time, which today has been confirmed by progress in genetics: in fact, we know that modern human beings still bring traces of Neanderthalian DNA.
Dear exactly the era in which Lagar Velho lived has proved to be an arduous task. The presence of environmental roots and contaminations prevented scientists from using the traditional dating to the radiocarbon directly on the bones. In the past, to obtain a temporal indication, they had been analyzed Carbone and animal bones found next to the skeleton, suggesting an interval between 27,700 and 29,700 years ago.
Today, thanks to the technological progress, it was possible to obtain a more precise dating directly from the remains of the child. Scientists, using a new technique based on the analysis of a protein present in human bones, have confirmed that the child lived between 27,780 and 28,550 years ago.
Bethan Lincottauthor of the study and researcher at the University of Miami, expressed the emotional meaning of the discovery:
Being able to do precisely this child was like returning a fragment of his history. It is a huge privilege.
Lagar Velho’s burial is not only an archaeological discovery, but an important testimony of the human past. Lincott stressed how, during the analyzes, he could not help but ask himself who loved that child, what he would make him laugh and what his world was in the few years in which he lived.
Paul Pettittarchaeologist of the University of Durham, highlighted how this research shows the progress of dating techniques, which allow scholars to reconstruct our history with greater precision. João Zilhãoco -author of the study and researcher of the University of Lisbon, finally underlined the importance of research on our origins:
Studying where we come from is important, just as we keep the portraits of parents and grandparents. It is a way to remember who we are.
