Older teens experienced puberty similar to modern teens: study
Recent research has shown that teenagers who lived between 10,000 and 30,000 years ago, during the Ice Age, hit puberty at about the same age as modern teenagers. An international team of archaeologists, led by Mary Lewis, a bioarchaeologist from the University of Reading, studied the skeletal remains of 13 adolescents from archaeological sites in Italy, Russia and the Czech Republic. The study, published Sept. 12 in The Journal of Human Evolution, used “maturation markers” on the bones to assess different stages of puberty.
Understanding the Puberty Process in Ice Age Adolescents
Babies are born with about twice as many bones as adults, which fuse together as they grow older. This process is essential for understanding the stages of puberty, such as the growth spurt of adolescence, the onset of menstruation, and the final fusion of bones that signals sexual maturity.
The researchers were able to determine that the Ice Age teenagers experienced their growth spurt between the ages of 13 and 16, similar to modern hunter-gatherer groups. Physical maturity for these ancient individuals occurred between the ages of 16 and 21, slightly later than modern Western societies, where adolescents typically reach adulthood between the ages of 16 and 18.
Insights from Ice Age Puberty and Modern Comparisons
Mary Lewis found it surprising that Ice Age teenagers hit puberty around 13.5 years old, which is consistent with modern estimates, suggesting a possible “genetic blueprint” for human sexual maturation. There were differences, however, particularly in the onset of menstruation.
The study revealed that Ice Age females probably didn’t begin menstruating until age 16 or 17. That’s later than the current average age of 11.9 in the U.S., but comparable to modern hunter-gatherer groups.
A window into old adolescence
April Nowell, a paleolithic archaeologist at the University of Victoria, notes that this research provides a long-term perspective on puberty, showing that modern adolescents are following a pattern that has remained largely unchanged for thousands of years.
