SAN CALOCERO, ITALY—The remains of a severely malnourished young girl have been found in a pit covered with heavy stone slabs by a team led by Philippe Pergola of the Pontifical Institute of Archaeology. The burial suggests that the girl, between the ages of 15 and 17 when she died sometime between the ninth and fifteenth centuries, was perceived to be dangerous. She had been burned, taken by her elbows, and thrown into the pit so that her chin almost touched her breastbone. “We can’t say whether she was alive or not when she was burnt. Fire attacked her body when soft tissues were still present, so it could have occurred before death or soon after,” anthropologist Elena Dellù told Discovery News. The skeleton were unearthed near the spot where the remains of another malnourished individual, dubbed a “witch girl,” was found two years ago. It is unlikely that the two were related, but if radiocarbon dating shows that they are from the same time period, scientists will try to compare their DNA. To read about a similar discovery, go to "Witches of Cornwall."
