The fetus of a woman in pregnancy of the Paleolithic (of about 28 thousand years ago) whose remains were found on October 21, 1994 in the Grotta di Sanctuary of Santa Maria di Agnano in Ostuni, in the province of Brindisi, was of male. The discovery of 1994 was made by the university professor and scientific director of the Ostuni Museum, Donato Coppola. Scientifically he was assigned to the woman who was about 20 years old when he died (he was considered the ‘oldest mother in the world’) the name of ‘Ostuni 1’. Coppola himself has announced the results of further research on the DNA of the fetus carried out in collaboration with the Institute of Anthropology of the Sapienza of Rome and other international centers.
“This discovery – explains to Ansa Coppola – has a world value regarding DNA. It seems that it is among the best DNAs preserved in the world of Paleolithic individuals”. The remains of the woman and the fetus are kept in a display case in the Ostuni Museum.
“The exceptional discovery of its kind is the outcome of a research that has never ended in order to ‘Ostuni i’, the woman of 28 thousand years ago, her fetus and the context in which she lived.
It was not a question – underlines the president of the Museum of Ostuni Giuseppe Abbracciavento – only to fill a void of knowledge in order to the woman, but above all to start with this discovery a new research path, a new trajectory aimed at sequencing DNA, given that the scientific community is agreed in believing that it is one of the most relevant and most important in the world “.” There is what to be proud of this discovery and the fact that the community of Ostuni. The museum institution holds an assets so important that it strives to preserve, enhance and make usable, to project the ‘woman of Ostuni’ – concludes – towards new scenarios of knowledge “.
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Source: Ansa
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