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Earliest case of Down Syndrome discovered

medieval down syndrome

Researchers in France have discovered the remains of a child from the 5th or 6th century AD that had Down Syndrome. It is the earliest case to have been found so far.

medieval down syndrome

The research has been presented in the latest issue of the International Journal of Paleopathology. It notes that this body, along with 93 others, were discovered during archaeological work carried in 1989 at a necropolis located at the Church of Saint-Jean-des-Vignes, Saône-et-Loire, in North-Eastern France. The researchers from the Université de Bordeaux conducted radiographic and CT scans to help create a 3D reconstruction of the person’s skull.

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The researchers concluded that:

The Saint-Jean-des-Vignes skull displays several characteristics that are different from those of healthy children: a large cephalic index, a flat occipital bone, less obtuse values of vault curvature angles, dental agenesis, periodontitis, thinness of cranial vault, ametopic suture and lambdoid wormian bones. The skull base is short and more obtuse, and the foramen magnum angle is significant. Less diagnostic but important when taken in combination with the above features are the absence of the frontal sinuses, a small face, low and thin mandibular ramus, and dental defects.

Using dental records, the researchers were able to establish the child was between 5 and 7 years when it died, and that it was buried like the other people in the necropolis – the body was placed in the typical the east-west orientation, with the head to the west, and placed in simple wooden coffin. The detail about the burial of “the Saint-Jean-des-Vignes child enables us to infer that this Down syndrome child was not treated differently at eath than others in the community. We interpret this as meaning that the child was maybe not stigmatized during life, the first time a Down syndrome individual has been so viewed in the context of the ancient community.”

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The previously oldest known case of Down Syndrome is thought to have been a 9-year-old child from England who died in 8th or 9th century AD.

Click here to read the article Ancient Down Syndrome: An osteological case from Saint-Jean-des-Vignes, northeastern France, from the 5-6th century AD from Academia.edu

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