5,000-year-old DNAs Reveal Six Cases Of Down And Edwards Syndrome

Researchers from the University of Adelaide have found six cases of Down syndrome in the human populations of the bygone era. Down syndrome is a condition in which a person has an extra chromosome or an extra piece of a chromosome. The researchers have come across this astonishing discovery after the analysis of DNA from almost 10,000 people. These people were from ancient and pre-modern societies.

The results of this study have been published in a journal titled Nature Communications. The results have indicated that the individuals were young when they died and they were buried with care within homes. They were also buried within special buildings reserved for rituals. This shows how the communities in the past showed the utmost care and concern for the people suffering from Down syndrome. Researchers are now looking forward to identifying how their ancestors cared for each other in these cases.

These six people were from different locations in Europe, i.e.- the first was found in a church graveyard in Helsinki, Finland. The other two were found on the Greek island of Aegina and Bronze Age Bulgarian tell site. The remaining three persons were discovered in two Iron Age sites in Spain. The names of these two Iron Age sites in Spain were Alto de la Cruz and Las Eretas. These sites date to approximately 2,500 to 5,000 years ago. According to the estimates of their age at death, these babies likely did not survive birth.

Not only the cases of this medical problem, the researchers have also come across the skeleton of an infant suffering from the Edwards Syndrome. Edwards Syndrome is a rare but serious condition that affects the lifespan of a baby. Due to this condition, the infant, whose skeleton has been discovered, likely only survived to 40 40-week gestation period. The baby was also given a special burial.

Roberto Risch, an archaeologist and co-author of this research interacted with The Conversation portal regarding this remarkable discovery. Roberto said,” We don’t know why this happened.” According to Roberto, “But it appears as if these people were purposefully choosing these infants for special burials.”