A team of archaeologists has succeeded in reconstructing the development and genetics of an infant who lived during the Copper Age (4,000 to 2,500 B.C.). The remains, found during an excavation in Faenza, in the province of Ravenna, were heavily degraded but it was possible to unearth important details. Coordinated by the University of Bologna, the team involved scholars from nine institutions, including La Sapienza in Rome, the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, the Italian Ministry of Culture, Goethe Universität Frankfurt, and Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. State-of-the-art methods used include dental histology and the study of ancient DNA. High-resolution histological analysis of dental enamel provided timely data on the individual's early developmental years. The researchers were able to get an accurate estimate of age (about 17 months) and sex (male) from genomic analysis. The study, “Reconstructing Life History and Ancestry from poorly preserved skeletal remains: A Bioanthropological study of a Copper Age Infant from Faenza”, was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.