Research reveals Ice Age ‘Prince’ mauled by bear

By Dean Murray

A prehistoric Italian teenager may have met a violent end at the claws and teeth of a bear, according to new research.

The adolescent, thought to have been 15–16 years old, was discovered in a cave in Liguria, Italy, in 1942.

An exceptionally rich funerary assemblage - which included a headdress made of hundreds of small pierced shells - led to him being known as the “Prince” of the Arene Candide Cave.

A multidisciplinary team from the universities of Cagliari, Florence, Genoa and Pisa, along with several international institutions, has re‑examined the remains buried some 28,000 years ago.

Their study, published in the Journal of Anthropological Sciences, focuses on the traumatic injuries known since the discovery of the burial – such as damage to the skull, face and shoulder, including the loss of the left half of the mandible and part of the clavicle.

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The research revisits the original interpretation proposed by the excavators, who had suggested an animal attack, and confirms that these lesions are compatible with bites from a large carnivore or blows inflicted by a powerful paw.

The team also identified crushing fractures of the cervical vertebrae, consistent with violent compression of the neck.

In addition to these previously known but never fully documented injuries, the study uncovered new evidence, including bite marks on the right fibula and a linear incision on the skull, potentially compatible with a claw strike – most likely a brown bear or a cave bear.

Furthermore, the researchers documented traces of an initial inflammatory response in the spongy bone tissue, allowing them to estimate that the young individual survived – likely unconscious and in agony – for approximately 48–72 hours after the attack.

"The pattern of trauma is strikingly similar to the injuries observed in modern victims of bear attacks," the authors state, emphasizing that survival for several days after such devastating injuries may have profoundly affected the hunter‑gatherer band to which the Young Prince belonged.

Researchers argue that the lavish burial rites that followed may have commemorated the exceptional nature of the death rather than the status of the individual.

"The richness of the Prince’s burial would reflect the exceptionality of the event itself, rather than the individual’s social rank," they conclude.