MUNICH, GERMANY—Frontiers Science News reports that a team of researchers led by Andreas Nerlich of the Academic Clinic Munich-Bogenhausen examined the mummified remains of a one-year-old child recovered from an unmarked wooden coffin in a crypt in Austria where the Counts of Starhemberg, their wives, and heirs were buried. Radiocarbon dating of the remains indicates that the child died sometime between A.D. 1550 and 1635. Nerlich thinks the child was likely buried after the crypt was renovated around 1600, and could be the remains of Reichard Wilhelm, the firstborn son of a count, who died in 1626. Although the child was overweight, a CT scan showed malformations on his ribs characteristic of malnutrition and severe rickets or scurvy. He did not have the bowing of the bones typical of rickets, but this could be because he may not have walked or crawled. The tests also revealed inflammation of the lungs characteristic of pneumonia. “The combination of obesity along with a severe vitamin deficiency can only be explained by generally ‘good’ nutritional status along with an almost complete lack of sunlight exposure,” Nerlich concluded. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Frontiers in Medicine. To read about the world's earliest known identical twins whose remains were uncovered in Austria, go to "A Twin Burial."
