Ancient skeleton with ‘extremely rare form of dwarfism’ dating back 5,000 years unearthed in China
AN EXTREMELY rare ancient skeleton has been found in China.
The remains are of a human who would have suffered from a very uncommon form of dwarfism around 5,000 years ago.
The skeleton was unearthed at a burial site near the Yellow River in east-central China.
It was found alongside the remains of other people who lived between 3300 and 2900 BC.
All of the skeletons were found with their hands on top of their bodies apart from the skeleton with dwarfism.
Instead, the hands were tucked behind its back.
Archaeologists first noticed that the remains appeared shorter and weaker than the rest.
After further investigation they were able to diagnose the young adult with skeletal dysplasia.
This medical term covers a range of conditions that affect bone development but most people know it as dwarfism.
The condition is rare in modern humans but shows up even less in the archaeological record.
In fact, less than 40 ancient cases have been discovered.
Co-author of the research Siân Halcrow, an archaeologist at the University of Otago in New Zealand, told : "I think it is important for us to recognise that disability and difference can be found in the past, but these did not necessarily have negative connotations socially or culturally.
"The ancient historical texts show that they may, in fact, have been revered in some situations."
The skeleton's teeth enabled the archaeologists to determine that it was the remains of a young adult.
They also discovered that the skeleton had short limbs and a small head and trunk.
In more common forms of dwarfism the limbs grow disproportionately smaller than the head and torso.
This led the authors to diagnose the Neolithic skeleton with a condition called "proportionate dwarfism".
Proportionate dwarfism is rare in both the archaeological record and amongst living humans.
Experts think the skeleton's short stature could have been due to an underactive thyroid or pituitary gland in their early life.
This would have affected the ancient human's hormone levels and stunted bone growth, organ function and potentially cognitive development.
The archaeologists aren't sure how the individual would have been treated when they were alive.
It's likely they needed the support of others to survive but the difference in the way the remains were laid out alongside other skeletons indicate there's a chance they were treated like an outsider.
This research has been published in the .
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Here's some of the most haunting archaeological discoveries ever made...
- Shackled skeletons: A mass grave in an ancient Greek cemetery was found to contain 80 skeletons all with their wrists clamped in iron shackles; archaeologists think they were victims of a mass execution but why this happened remains a mystery
- Mass child sacrifice: The remains of nearly 270 children sacrificed to the gods 500 years ago were recently found in a gruesome ancient mass grave in Peru
- Family massacre: Archaeologists recently discovered that a 5,000 year old mass grave site was the result of a tragic family massacre; the burial site in Poland contains the bodies of men, women and children who all had their skulls smashed to pieces
- Bog bodies: In 1950, experts found a bog body with a "face so fresh they could only suppose they had stumbled on a recent murder." The corpse, referred to as the Tollund man, is probably the most well-preserved body from pre-historic times in the whole world
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