Rare 30,000-year-old skeletons reveal puberty patterns from Paleolithic times

After analyzing 13 skeletons from Russia, Czechia, and Italy, a new study provides “the first direct evidence for puberty” in Upper Paleolithic adolescents.

Archaeologists have discovered, based on a study of ancient skeletons, that teenagers from the Ice Age experienced puberty at a similar age to modern humans. The research provides new insights into the puberty stages of adolescents who lived in Europe between 10,000 and 30,000 years ago.

The study authors write that the “bioarcheological analysis” has “important implications for the study of the emergence of adolescence within human life histories, as well as for understanding the developmental plasticity of sexual maturation across past and present human populations.”

Interestingly enough, “adolescence has recently emerged as a distinct area of inquiry within the field of bioarchaeology,” which refers to studying human remains and even flora and fauna in an archaeological context.

Studying adolescents, specifically, reveals the health and well-being of the populations they are part of more broadly, in addition to giving archaeologists detailed insights about their individual experiences.

As reported by Live Science , this research debunks the theory that humans are entering puberty earlier and earlier. In fact, humans basically stayed the same. Thus, in examining ancient adolescents, science can tap into a particular angle of our evolution as humans and what that transition from childhood to adulthood has to teach us about their cultural values even.

What was it like being a teen in the Upper Paleolithic Era?

Researchers took samples from the European Upper Paleolithic as these humans were Homo sapiens, as we modern-day humans are, even if we might have some Neanderthal in our genes, as recent evidence suggests.

Furthermore, they drew from this pool because a current consensus exists around adolescence, having risen as a “distinct life-history stage” in the Middle-Late Pleistocene; researchers were able to study this moment, also, as the practice of formally burying bodies allowed for preserved skeletons .

Analyzing children and young adults between the ages of 10-20, overall, children entered puberty around 13.5 years old. As per Live Science, between the ages of 13-16, individuals went through a growth spurt and reached maturity around the time that modern-day humans do, 16-21.

However, as variety is the spice of life if not reality, these samples demonstrated the same range. The study explains that some seemed to have passed through developmental stages at a similar rate to contemporary humans. Still, others lagged due to environmental or pathological reasons that researchers can’t penetrate. A couple had died around 16 years old.

Nonetheless, the growth spurt of these ancient humans indicates that they lived in a healthier environment than medieval teens.

Ostobiographies: A permanent cultural and biological record

Study authors write that physical appearance as they transitioned from childhood to adulthood might have affected how they were treated in life and death. These early communities experienced high infant mortality rates, with many dying before their first birthday and then before fifteen.

These skeletal samples , then, being on the older end of that range, tell archaeologists that these deaths would have significantly impacted their groups.

Another elucidation: menstruation cycles, Live Science notes, occurred much later than in the modern US populations, around 16 to 17 years old as opposed to 11-12.

As the study concludes, these puberty assessments allow for the creation of intimate “osteobiographies” that can be mapped onto the archeological record. Preserving the past for the future, almost making a permanent connection through time. More and more as close to a living portrait can emerge as to what it was like to be a teen biologically and culturally in the Upper Paleolithic.

The study was published in The Journal of Human Evolution .