Burial sites can reveal a lot about an individual’s identity and story. For instance, archaeologists excavated the site of Arma Veirana in Liguria and examined the opening of a trench found close to the Eastern cave wall. At this opening, a team of researchers at the University of Montreal discovered a burial of a female infant. DNA and tooth analyses indicate that she was most likely 50 days old when she was buried during the Early Mesolithic period (about 10,000 BCE) just after the last Ice Age. (Gravel-Miguel et al. 2022)

The leader of the team, Gravel-Miguel, remarked, “I was excavating in the adjacent square and remember looking over and thinking ‘that’s a weird bone.’ It quickly became clear that not only we were looking at a human cranium, but that it was also of a very young individual. It was an emotional day.” (Arizona State University, 2021)

These archaeologists not only unearthed the bones of the infant but ancient human ornaments as well. Typically, such ornaments are considered a means to express identity, including hierarchical status and gender, but they could also be utilized to protect one from evil spirits. The female infant was buried with numerous perforated shells and pendants, allowing researchers to uncover how early humans used these beads. Through various kinds of analyses, they concluded that the beads were in fact a part of the baby’s sling. (Gravel-Miguel et al. 2022)

An artistic representation of Neve’s burial, displaying the infant’s sling with the perforated beads attached.

Although there are no remains of the sling itself today, the surrounding shells in the burial site are perforated in such a way that suggests someone threaded the shells together and then sewed them on a type of textile or animal hide. Another result of the analyses is that the shells were heavily worn down, and therefore, they were likely worn by other community members before being attached to the sling (Heinrich, 2022). The purpose of the sling was likely in order to keep the infant near her parents while simultaneously allowing them to move around (Gravel-Miguel et al. 2022).

The anatomical parts of the shells that were sewn on the sling. The blue outline on the dorsal side describes the general area of most of the perforations.

Furthermore, the research team proposed that the infant’s community might have adorned her sling with beads primarily to defend her against evil. As her death indicated that those beads had failed their purpose of protecting her, however, the community thought it ideal to bury the sling instead of reusing it. (Heinrich, 2022)

Since the 2017 excavation, archaeologists named the buried infant “Neve”, and dental analysis of her teeth implies she is the “oldest female child buried in Europe” (Cassella, 2022). New research and future studies emphasize the means of childcare during prehistory and the possible use (and reuse) of beads for protecting community members and strengthening social connections within the tribes (Heinrich, 2022).

Reference Links:
Gravel-Miguel, C., Cristiani, E., Hodgkins, J. et al. The Ornaments of the Arma Veirana Early Mesolithic Infant Burial. J Archaeol Method Theory (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-022-09573-7

Heinrich, J. (2022, September 26). Bringing up baby, 10,000 years ago. udemnouvelles. Retrieved September 30, 2022, from https://nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2022/09/26/bringing-up-baby-10-000-years-ago/

Cassella, C. (2022, September 29). Ancient Burial of a Young Girl Shows How We Carried Our Babies 10,000 Years Ago. ScienceAlert. Retrieved September 30, 2022, from https://www.sciencealert.com/ancient-burial-of-a-young-girl-shows-how-we-carried-our-babies-10000-years-ago

Arizona State University. (2021, December 14). Earliest adorned female infant burial in Europe significant in understanding evolution of personhood. Phys.org. Retrieved October 2, 2022, from https://phys.org/news/2021-12-earliest-adorned-female-infant-burial.html

Additional Content:
Hodgkins, J., Orr, C.M., Gravel-Miguel, C. et al. An infant burial from Arma Veirana in northwestern Italy provides insights into funerary practices and female personhood in early Mesolithic Europe. Sci Rep 11, 23735 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-02804-z

Martinón-Torres, M., d’Errico, F., Santos, E. et al. Earliest known human burial in Africa. Nature 593, 95–100 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03457-8