The woman of Ostuni

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I have had the pleasure to visit the small, but beautiful, prehistoric museum in Ostuni (Museo Civilta’ Preclassiche della Murgia Meridionale, Apulia, Italy), where it is exposed the original skeleton of a young woman and her fetus, known as the Woman of Ostuni, that is dated to 28,000 years ago. The skeleton represents the oldest example of Paleolithic pregnant human female, who may have died due to problems during the pregnancy. Analysis of the fetal remains was published on Scientific Reports this year (link) and revealed an age-of-death at 31-33 gestational weeks.

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Luca Fiorenza

Luca is Head of the Palaeodiet Research Lab and he received his Bachelor/Master degree in Natural Sciences in 2003 at La Sapienza University in Rome (Italy), and completed his PhD in Biological Sciences between the Goethe University and the Senckenberg Research Institute (Frankfurt, Germany) at the end of 2009. During his doctoral degree he was part of an outstanding multidisciplinary network called EVAN (European Virtual Anthropology Network), where he mastered cutting-edge techniques for the study of anatomical variability, including medical imaging, 3D digitisation, display, modelling and programming. Luca’s research interests mostly focus on functional morphology of the masticatory apparatus in human and non-human primates, and on the importance of the role of diet in human evolution.

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