Bones of ‘Witch Girl’ from Middle Ages unearthed in Italy

THE skeleton of a teenage girl who died in the Middle Ages has been uncovered by archaeologists, revealing the terrifying reality of her burial.

Explanation ... excavation director Stefano Roascio said prone burials were designed to humiliate. Picture: Facebook/Stefano Roascio

THE bones of a teenage girl buried face down, meant as punishment for being a witch in the Middle Ages, have been unearthed in Italy.

A team from the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology at the Vatican found the 13-year-old girl’s skeleton in front of a church at San Calocero in Albenga, northern Italy.

They said the girl’s prone burial, dating from the late antiquity or the early Middle Ages, shows she was rejected by her community and seen as a danger even in death.

Italian media have dubbed her “Witch Girl”.

“These rare burials are explained as an act of punishment. What the dead had done was not accepted by the community,” excavation director Stefano Roascio told Discovery.

Archaeologists unearth skeleton of girl thought to be a witch: http://t.co/oiC2XvA2Qe pic.twitter.com/FhXbmsUAO7

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Anthropologists said deviant burials aimed to humiliate the dead and stop them from rising from the grave.

“The prone burial was linked to the belief that the soul left the body through the mouth. Burying the dead face down was a way to prevent the impure soul threatening the living,” anthropologist Elena Dellù told Discovery.

Dellù said the girl was not buried alive as she showed no signs of a violent death.

“She could have suffered from an inherited blood disorder such as thalassaemia or from haemorrhagic conditions. More simply, it could have been an iron lacking diet,” Dellù said.