history of intellectual disability
10/12/2010
BENJAMIN: AN ANCIENT HISTORY OF RESPECT AND INCLUSION OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY
In Sierra de Atapuerca, located in the Burgos region of north-central Spain, there is one of the largest prehistoric reserves in Europe. Here, groups of anthropologists have worked for years trying to reconstruct the lives of our ancestors from bones and bone fragments.
In 2009, they recovered parts of a skull belonging to a boy (or of a girl) called Benjamin who lived about 530,000 years ago. The skull, which is characterized by a high forehead, a crushed left side, and convexity on the right side, marks the asymmetry of the face.
Today, we can say that Benjamin suffered from craniosynostosis lambdoidea, an alteration of the skeletal development of the skull that is characterized by premature fusion (during pregnancy) of the subunit of the bone, limiting the growth of the neurocranium and the proper development of the brain. The effects of this disease can be serious and can lead to severe delays throughout psycho-physical development and mental functioning.
Today, the various types of craniosynostosis affect approximately 6 out of 200,000 children and are cured by an operation in the first year; however, at the time of Benjamin in which there were only a few thousand humans around the world, he must have been quite a unique boy.
The most interesting aspect is that the Atapuerca findings also show that this child, despite his difference and severe learning and motor difficulties, was been able to live his life with others. He was not abandoned. Some group members took care of him and helped him to function, to find a role of satisfaction, and to overcome many difficult periods of transition, up to what was then early adulthood.
Marco O. Bertelli
