In order to shed new light on Renaissance childhood, researchers under the direction of Dr. Andreas Nerlich of the Academic Clinic Munich-bogenhausen conducted a “virtual autopsy” on a mummified child from the 17th century.
The youngster was discovered in an aristocratic family vault in Aᴜsᴛʀɪᴀ, where the environment permitted natural mummification, preserving soft tissue that contained vital details about his life and demise.
To try to figure out who the child was and what his brief life was like, the team performed a virtual autopsy, radiocarbon testing, looked through family records, and examined significant material clues from the burial.
The virtual autopsy was performed using CT scanning. The child was roughly a year old when he ᴘᴀssᴇᴅ ᴀᴡᴀʏ, according to Nerlich and his team who measured bone lengths, examined tooth emergence, and observed the formation of long bones. The child’s soft tissue revealed that he was a boy and larger than average for his age, indicating that his parents had the means to feed him well. However, the bones revealed a different tale.
A pattern known as a racʜɪᴛic rosary, which is typically seen in severe rickets or scurvy, had developed on the child’s ribs.
Since children with rickets are more susceptible to pneumonia and the virtual autopsy revealed that he had lung inflammation indicative of pneumonia, this nutritional deficiency may even have contributed to his early demise.
Son of an Influential Count
Nerlich and his team had identified a likely cause of ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ, but the identity of the child remained a mystery. His deformed skull suggested that the child might not have fit comfortably in his plain wooden coffin. Expert analysis of his clothing, however, revealed that he had been buried in a lengthy, hooded coat made of pricey silk.
He was also laid to rest in a crypt that had been set aside solely for the powerful Counts of Starhemberg, who interred there both their wives and the title-holders who were typically their first-born sons. This indicated that the child was probably the first-born son of the Count of Starhemberg.
When asked about the unusual burial, Nerlich stated that “we Have No Data On The Fate Of Other Infants Of The Family.” After the construction of the family crypt, the infant was likely the count’s first-born son, therefore extra care may have been taken, according to our data.
