Ancient Spanish Tomb Reveals Widespread Respiratory Disease in Copper Age Children

Bones buried for nearly 5,000 years in a rock-carved cave in southeastern Spain are telling a grim story about childhood illness in prehistoric Europe. A new study published in the International Journal of Paleopathology found that the vast majority of children interred at the site showed skeletal signs of respiratory disease, possibly including tuberculosis.

The site, known as Camino del Molino, or CMOL, is Europe's largest known Copper Age mass burial. According to a report by Phys.org, the circular cave contains the remains of more than 1,300 individuals and was used repeatedly for over 700 years during the 3rd millennium BC. Researchers recovered 48 intact skeletons belonging to children and adolescents, an unusually large sample for a prehistoric site of this kind, where bones are often scattered, degraded, or missing entirely.

Of the 48 individuals studied, 92% had at least one bone change associated with disease. Around 67% of those showed signs of both porous bones, primarily in the skull and leg bones, and infection-related changes tied to respiratory illness.

"The pattern we see probably reflects a broader burden of recurrent or prolonged respiratory disease rather than a single pathogen," explained Dr. Sonia Díaz-Navarro, lead author from the University of Burgos.

The bone changes were not spread evenly across all age groups. The youngest children, between 1 and 4 years old, and early adolescents between 10 and 14 showed the highest rates of skeletal change. Researchers documented serpent-like grooves and pitting on the inside of skulls, along with changes to vertebrae, hip, and pelvic bones. Previous studies have linked this pattern to early-stage tuberculosis, when bacteria are still moving through the bloodstream.

Those two age windows, early childhood and early adolescence, align with periods when the human immune system is particularly vulnerable to lung infections, including tuberculosis. The study notes that children in those age ranges face elevated risk, and the bone evidence from CMOL appears consistent with that biological pattern.

The researchers considered an alternative explanation: that the skeletal lesions might simply reflect normal growth spurts rather than disease. They rejected that interpretation. The lesions appeared too frequently, and in combination with too many other signs of infection, across all age groups including teenagers, to be explained by growth alone.

One notable finding was that male and female children showed similar rates of bone change. That pattern points away from activity-based exposure differences and toward shared living conditions as the likely driver of disease spread. The settlement environment itself, rather than specific tasks performed by boys or girls, appears to have been the common factor.

The CMOL site has been excavated and analyzed over a period of years. The recovery of so many intact non-adult skeletons made this particular study possible. Most prehistoric communal graves do not preserve child remains well enough for this kind of systematic analysis, which makes the patterns found at CMOL especially significant for understanding health in ancient European communities.