Archaeologists dig out child skeleton displaying signs of physical abuse

May 28, 2013 20:31 GMT  ·  By

Archaeologists working in Egypt have recently unearthed the body of a child whose skeleton displays clear signs of physical abuse.

The child's remains are believed to be roughly 2,000 years old, which is why the researchers who found them say that this might be the earliest evidence of child abuse ever recorded by science.

Sources say that, after carefully analyzing the child's bones, it was discovered that he had suffered blows to arms, his pelvis, his ribs, his collarbone, his back during his lifetime.

A more careful investigation revealed that the child had broken these bones in his body not because of some freak accident, but because he had been beaten.

The fractures were in different stages of healing when the child passed away, suggesting that the abuse was by no means a one-time event.

The toddler, dubbed Burial 519 by the archaeologists, was just 2-3 years old when it died. It was buried in a Romano-Christian-period cemetery located in present-day Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt.