A 4500-year-old skeleton dating to the Neolithic was found in in Weimar, Germany last year. Now, the analysis of the skeleton revealed some details about he 16-year-old girl, including that she died from tuberculosis.
The details of the analysis reveal that the individual lived a tough life 4500 years ago. Experts analysing the bones of the skeleton revealed that the girl had given birth six months before dying in the middle of a famine when she was about 16 years old. She had a serious vitamin C deficiency, possibly having found little food to eat in the month prior to her death.
Significant discolourations and changes in the bones of her shoulder blade and the skull were possibly caused by vitamin C deficiency. Moreover her pelvic bones show a severe trauma, suffered during childbirth, at least six months before her death, as the injuries already healed. The condition of her teeth indicate that she was between 16 and 18 years old when she died. She was about 160 cm tall and also is said to have suffered from an infection to her gums. According to the researchers, she possibly died of a lung inflammation, possibly brought on by tuberculosis and was laid to rest in an unadorned tomb.
(after Daily Mail Online & CEN)