"Magdalenian Girl" or "Magdalenian Woman" () is the common name for a

human skeleton The human skeleton is the internal framework of the human body. It is composed of around 270 bones at birth – this total decreases to around 206 bones by adulthood after some bones get fused together. The bone mass in the skeleton makes up a ...

, dated to the boundary between the Upper Paleolithic and the early

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymous ...

, ca. 15,000 to 13,000 years old, in the

Magdalenian The Magdalenian cultures (also Madelenian; French: ''Magdalénien'') are later cultures of the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic in western Europe. They date from around 17,000 to 12,000 years ago. It is named after the type site of La Madele ...

period. The remains were discovered in 1911 in the

Dordogne Dordogne ( , or ; ; oc, Dordonha ) is a large rural department in Southwestern France, with its prefecture in Périgueux. Located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region roughly half-way between the Loire Valley and the Pyrenees, it is named af ...

region of southwestern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in a limestone cave known as the Cap Blanc rock shelter. The find was made when a workman drove a pickaxe into the cliff face in the rock shelter, shattering the skull. It is the most complete Upper Paleolithic skeleton in Northern Europe. When Magdalenian Girl was acquired in 1926 for the

Field Museum The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

by Henry Field, then curator of Physical Anthropology, it was hailed as one of the most significant acquisitions the museum ever made. On the first day the precious specimen was exhibited, tens of thousands of visitors flocked to the museum to see it.

Skeletal analysis

Sex

There was some speculation as to her sex but it was ultimately decided by the size and shape of her

pelvic bones The hip bone (os coxae, innominate bone, pelvic bone or coxal bone) is a large flat bone, constricted in the center and expanded above and below. In some vertebrates (including humans before puberty) it is composed of three parts: the ilium, ischi ...

, which is a major indicator of sex in skeletons.

Age

There is still some debate about the age of Magdalenian Girl. For years, the individual was thought to be a young girl, because her wisdom teeth had not yet advanced, but new analysis indicates that her wisdom teeth were impacted, and that she was actually 25 to 35 years old when she died. This is the oldest recorded case of impacted wisdom teeth. Other evidence that indicated her age were fully fused epiphyses and degenerative wear on her vertebrae. According to Dr. Robert D. Martin, primatologist and Field Museum provost, along with Dr. William Pestle,

Collection Manager, Drs. Michael Colvard and Richard Jurevic of the College of Dentistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Magdalenian Girl is most likely significantly older than 18–21 years.

Teeth

There has been much debate over Magdalenian Girl's age due to her impacted wisdom teeth. According to Science Daily, impaction during the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...

was unknown because of the coarse diet of the period. This diet would have required more chewing and higher

bite force Bite force quotient (BFQ) is a numerical value commonly used to represent the bite force of an animal, while also taking factors like the animal's size into account. The BFQ is calculated as the regression of the quotient of an animal's bite f ...

s which could result in more growth of the

jawbone In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...

and thereby creating more room for wisdom teeth to erupt. According to

Robert D. Martin Robert D. Martin (born 1942) is a British-born biological anthropologist who is currently an Emeritus Curator at The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois. He is also an adjunct professor at University of Chicago, Northwestern Un ...

, "Finding impacted wisdom teeth 15,000 years ago indicates that the human diet might have already changed, some would say 'deteriorated,' earlier than previously thought." Dr. Martin, along with Dr. William Pestle, Field Museum Collection Manager, Drs. Michael Colvard and Richard Jurevic of the College of Dentistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago studied the impacted wisdom teeth and came to the conclusion that Magdalenian Girl was a woman by employing new tools and technology.

Digital reconstruction

In 2012, anthropologists began scanning a replica skull of Magdalenian Girl to create a high resolution digital model. In order to do this, they used a high quality x-ray scanning machine to produce a

CT scan A computed tomography scan (CT scan; formerly called computed axial tomography scan or CAT scan) is a medical imaging technique used to obtain detailed internal images of the body. The personnel that perform CT scans are called radiographers ...

, which recorded images of the skull from multiple angles. The digital reconstruction took place at Alloyweld Inspection Company. Unfortunately, when these remains were originally found, the archaeologists had accidentally shattered the skull with a pickaxe and had to piece it back together. Before the scanning process, the skull was in at least six pieces and was inexpertly put back together. This makes it difficult for anthropologists to understand what Magdalenian Girl looked like and to answer important questions about the remains. The new digital images will allow anthropologists to know if the skull has deteriorated in recent decades. The new images can also be used to digitally reconstruct the skull in order to prevent further damage. If a good enough scan is constructed, then facial reconstruction experts will be able to give a more accurate depiction of the individual. According to the ''Daily Herald'', the best description for Magdalenian girl to date is that she was 5'4'' and died around 24 years old. In 2013, a French sculptor named Elisabeth Daynes completed a facial reconstruction of Magdalenian Girl by using a printed version of the CT scan of the skull. The reconstruction includes strong cheekbones, decorative hair beads, and a Mona Lisa-like smile, in which the teeth are not visible.

References

{{Reflist, 2 1911 archaeological discoveries Archaeological discoveries in France Upper Paleolithic Homo sapiens fossils Mesolithic Homo sapiens fossils Prehistoric sites in France Magdalenian