The Canberra Times has a fascinating article about researchers from the Australian National University finding in Vietnam the 4,000 year old skeleton of a man who was a paraplegic, which they can tell because the vertebrae are fused.
The amazing thing is the problem must have been obvious even as a child, yet he lived to be about 25. That's an unbelievable record. Everything we know indicates life was pretty grim back then, so this is a real feel good story.
The article speculates the man might have had some special skill the community needed, but that doesn't explain how he survived childhood. It seems hard to believe struggling prehistoric communities were going to fight to keep everyone alive. Maybe he had very special parents, either by position or compassion? Or maybe, just as some religions today hold that children born at certain times are especially blessed or chosen, this child fluked a birth which guaranteed he'd be cared for?
The amazing thing is the problem must have been obvious even as a child, yet he lived to be about 25. That's an unbelievable record. Everything we know indicates life was pretty grim back then, so this is a real feel good story.The article speculates the man might have had some special skill the community needed, but that doesn't explain how he survived childhood. It seems hard to believe struggling prehistoric communities were going to fight to keep everyone alive. Maybe he had very special parents, either by position or compassion? Or maybe, just as some religions today hold that children born at certain times are especially blessed or chosen, this child fluked a birth which guaranteed he'd be cared for?