A young girl, rejected by an ancient community, was said to have been buried face down to prevent her spirit from rising from the grave at just 13 years of age.
That's the verdict of archaeologists who discovered the child's skeleton near a church in northern Italy.
They believe she was considered dangerous in the early part of the Middle Ages, perhaps due to her pale complexion, or because she had a blood disorder that caused her to faint regularly.
The remains were discovered by a team of archaeologists from the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology at the Vatican, at the complex of San Calocero in Albenga on the Ligurian Riviera,Italy, Discovery reported.
The burial ground was abandoned in 1593 and the girl’s remains are estimated to date from the early Middle Ages, but have not yet been radiocarbon dated.
Excavation director, Stefano Roascio, explained that so-called 'prone' burials - when people are buried face down - are usually a punishment intended to humiliate the deceased and stop them from rising from the grave.
This has led to the Italian media referring to the young girl as a witch - although these claims have not been verified.
The remains were discovered by a team of archaeologists from the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology at the Vatican, at the complex of San Calocero in Albenga (marked on the map) on the Ligurian Riviera, Italy
WHAT ARE PRONE BURIALS?
Prone burials are when an individual is buried face-down. Sometimes people were also buried alive looking downwards into the earth.
Archaeologists have excavated over 600 bodies buried in this way across the world, and Britain is the hotspot - with over 200 prone burials,Archaeology reported.
Caroline Arcini, of Sweden's National Heritage Board conducted a large study to find similarities between prone burials.
She found that the earliest known case of prone burial is 26,000 years ago in the Czech Republic, while the most recent is thought to be a First World War grave.
Collections of prone graves have been found in Europe - particularly during Roman and Viking periods, in Mexico and El Salvador and in Taiwan.
While there are instances where people buried in a prone position were treated normally, some experts think the burial was used as a humiliating punishment.
Anthropologist Elena Dellù said: ‘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 said: ‘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.’
The ultimate punishment was being buried alive face-down, but in this instance it seems the girl avoided this fate because of the position of her limbs.
They show no signs of struggling or a violent death.
Dr Dellù noticed that the skeleton has spongy bone tissue on the skull, likely from severe anaemia.
‘She could have suffered from an inherited blood disorder such as thalassemia or from haemorrhagic conditions.
'More simply, it could have been an diet lacking in iron’ she explained.
Thalassemia is a form of inherited blood disorder that originated in the Mediterranean region.
It's caused by the weakening of red blood cells and people with the disorder suffer from severe anaemia, bone deformities and heart problems.
They also tend to be short, similar to the girl whose skeleton was discovered.
It could be that the young girl, who was just 5ft tall, scared her community because of her pale colouring, possible haematomas - the collection of blood outside the blood vessels, usually in liquid form within the tissue - and fainting.
The find is particularly unusual because she was buried just in front of a church.
Dr Roascio said that a similar burial of a teenage was found in front of a church in Pava near Siena, Italy.
Prone burials are relatively unusual. The earliest known burial of this time was done 26,000 years ago and occurred as recently as the last century.
Caroline Arcini of Sweden's National Heritage Board believes that prone burials are a deep-seated conscious act that can be seen across different cultures and religions.
