Genetic Analysis on Shaman-Infant Double Burial From 9,000 Years Ago Shows That Woman May Have Been the Baby's 4th Great Grandmother

Genetic analysis on the woman-infant double burial sheds light on the possible relationship shared by the two.

Shaman-Infant Double Burial From 9,000 Years Ago

Back in 1934, workers from Germany found a double burial of a woman in a seated position with an infant situated between her lefts. Items including mussel shells, flint blades, wild boar tusks, and deer bones were found during this initial discovery.

The grave goods' overabundance that surrounded the duo led archaeologists to conclude that the woman may have been a shaman who died roughly 9,000 years ago in the Mesolithic period.

However, who the woman exactly was and how she was related to the baby remained a long-standing mystery.

Who Were These Two Individuals?

Genetic analysis now offers a new clue pertaining to the possible links between the two. Based on this analysis, the woman was not the infant's mother. Rather, she was a fifth- or fourth-degree relative of the boy. She may have also been buried decades before the baby. Such findings were included in an article included as a chapter in the Propylaeum conference proceedings.

Wolfgang Haak, a group leader from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology's Department of Archaeogenetics and a co-author of the article, explains that they sequenced the woman's entire genome. Haak adds that the woman, who was from Bad Dürrenberg, had a genetic profile that is common for hunter-gatherers in Western Europe. This hunter-gatherer population took up most of western and central Europe during the early Holocene and the end of the Upper Paleolithic period.

The genetic analysis revealed that the woman, who was roughly 30 to 40 years old at the time she died, had a slender build and had a height of around five feet and one inch. Haak also explains that her hair and skin color were darker compared to Europeans today. She also may have had lighter and bluish eyes. Such features were common among hunter-gatherers in Western Europe.

The researchers also discovered that the woman lacked muscles in her trunk and that her skull had a blood vessel that was abnormally developed. Archaeology professor Jörg Orschiedt from the Free University Berlin, who is also a co-author of the article, explains that the bone exhibited minimal or no muscle attachments. This was unlike other remains of Mesolithic humans. Nevertheless, the woman was not close to being physically restricted or disabled in any manner.

Orschiedt also explains that researchers noticed that a rare anatomical anomaly was found at her skull's base. This could lead to pinching at the vertebral artery when the head is at a particular position. While this does not result in unconsciousness, it could lead to neurological phenomena that are mild.

As for the baby, genetic analysis showed that the two were related to each other and were distant by several generations. This meant that the two did not share a mother-son relationship. Haak adds that it is possible that the woman was the baby's great-great-great-grandmother in a generational line.

The baby boy may have been added to the ancestral burial decades after the woman was buried. However, it is also possible that the two overlapped throughout their lifetime, implying that the woman could have been a distant maternal relative of the baby.

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