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Teenagers in ancient societies experienced a world vastly different from what we know today. From the early days of prehistory to the rise of New World colonies, many young people lived extraordinary lives. They faced illness, injustice, and used art and mischief to express themselves.
Perhaps the most poignant tales come from the teenagers who never reached adulthood. Their lives and untimely deaths offer insights into their daily struggles, their pastimes, their roles in society, and the broader social challenges they faced.
10. The Teenage Girl From Cerro Juanaquena
While surveying a potential site for a new solar power plant, archaeologists uncovered an ancient campsite. Located near Mexico’s Santa Maria River, this 10,500-year-old site served as a tool-making hub for multiple generations. Excavations in 2014 uncovered over 18,000 related artifacts, including stone flakes, cores, hammers, stone points, work areas, and 12 stone ovens.
In light of the camp’s industrial purpose, the discovery of a young girl buried among the rocks was unexpected. The burial, which took place around 3,200 years ago, contained only the skeleton. The girl, aged 12–15, showed no signs of illness or bone injuries. While the exact cause of her death remains unknown, her remains offer an invaluable glimpse into the earliest corn farming communities of the Greater Southwest.
The burial dates back to around 1360 BC, a time that aligns with the nearby hilltop community of Cerro Juanaquena. This group is credited with introducing agriculture to the desert, including the earliest cultivation of maize in the Chihuahua region.
No human remains have been discovered at the settlement itself, which makes the teenager’s burial even more significant. Ongoing research on her remains may help uncover the forgotten history of these pioneering farmers.
9. The Vindolanda Footprint
A child's footprint or handprint pressed into concrete is a familiar sight today. Many children even etch their names and dates into freshly poured slabs. While modern cement is often affordable and easy to manipulate, archaeologists believe one teenager took their mark-making to a more expensive medium, likely earning the ire of the adults around them.
Between AD 160–180, a young person left their foot impression on a clay tile, preserving the shape of their toes and sole for future generations. The artifact was discovered at the Roman fort of Vindolanda, though researchers aren’t certain whether the teenager intentionally left their mark or if they simply stepped on the tile before it had fully set.
The excavations, which concluded in 2015, didn’t uncover any further imprints like this one. This suggests that the young person either made the mark by accident or received such a stern reprimand that they never attempted it again.
8. The Starving Boy
In 2011, cave explorers outside Ballyvaughan village in Ireland discovered a skull. It wasn’t a recent find, prompting archaeologists to take the lead in investigating the site, rather than the police. The pieces they uncovered told a heartbreaking story.
Initially, the size of the skeleton led everyone to believe it belonged to a boy around eight years old. However, dental analysis revealed that he was actually a severely stunted 14- to 16-year-old. Upon further examination, experts discovered that his life had been marked by hardship.
Throughout most of his life, the teenager endured extreme starvation and likely illness, which hindered his skeleton's growth, preventing it from developing properly. He died sometime between 1520 and 1670, during a period plagued by decades of war, disease, famine, and widespread death.
Having already faced an agonizing life, the boy also suffered a lonely death. There’s no evidence suggesting he was murdered, nor that he was deliberately buried in the niche where his body was found in a curled position. His reasons for being in that location remain unknown, but it’s likely that he fell through an opening in the cave roof, crawled into the crevice, and perished there.
7. Italy’s Witch Girls
In medieval Italy, a sick young girl was buried in a highly unusual manner. The lack of respect for the deceased was so striking that archaeologists began to suspect she might have been a victim of a witch hunt. Her body was burned and carelessly discarded before the grave was sealed with heavy stone blocks, almost as though to prevent her from rising from the dead.
Throughout her brief life, which lasted between 15 and 17 years, she never grew taller than 145 centimeters (4'9″). She also endured crippling iron-deficiency anemia, weak enamel due to childhood malnutrition, and possibly scurvy.
Her unnatural pallor and frequent fainting spells may have led a superstitious community to view her as a witch. It’s unclear whether she was burned alive, but analysis revealed that soft tissues were present at the time, suggesting she was burned shortly before or after her death.
This is not the first instance of a ‘witch burial’ being discovered at San Calocero. On a previous occasion, a 13-year-old girl suffering from scurvy was found buried face down, likely in an attempt to prevent her from escaping her grave.
6. They Threw Matches
In ancient Greece, winning was everything, but getting paid was a nice bonus. A recently deciphered Greek document revealed an agreement to fix a wrestling match, involving two teenage boys named Nicantinous and Demetrius.
The contract, dating back to the year 267, specifies that Nicantinous must win the match, a victory his father was willing to pay Demetrius for. The prize at stake was to be crowned the winner of an elite wrestling tournament in Egypt.
Demetrius agreed, but he made one condition: the bribe would still be paid if the referee discovered that the match had been fixed. On the flip side, Demetrius would owe a payment if he somehow managed to win the match.
Although match-fixing was reportedly common in ancient sports, this is the first direct evidence to be uncovered. It's somewhat unusual to formalize an illegal act with a written contract, though. Neither party could exactly bring the other to court if the agreement was violated.
5. Given To The Gods
Further evidence of a Greek legend, specifically involving child sacrifice, was uncovered at Mount Lykaion. This site, once devoted to the god Zeus, became the focus of significant attention in 2007. Among its most notable features was a massive altar. Excavations revealed not only vessels and figurines but also coins and an overwhelming amount of burned goat and sheep remains.
There is little doubt that this was a sacrificial altar. Things took an unexpected turn when archaeologists uncovered the 3,000-year-old remains of a teenage boy. Ancient texts suggest that this boy was part of the sacrificial ritual. Many sources confirm that human sacrifices were indeed made at this very altar on Mount Lykaion.
The boy’s skull was missing its upper section, but the rest of his body represents the first human remains to be found within the sanctuary. It is highly probable that this young individual was killed in a ritual to honor Zeus. Had he died from natural causes, his remains would most likely have been found in a burial site, not at an altar where animal sacrifice remains were also discovered.
4. Graffiti Artists
During the Pleistocene Epoch, teenage graffiti artists were already at work. Much like today, most of these creators were teenage males. Archaeologists have examined thousands of cave paintings dating back between 10,000 and 35,000 years, carefully measuring the size of the hands behind the artwork. These measurements were then compared to 1,000 handprints from volunteers of different genders and ages.
This research allowed experts to deduce the physical characteristics of each ancient artist. It turns out that the majority of contributions came from a mix of adults, women, and girls. However, the bulk of the artwork was made by male adolescents. Their creations were quite different from the grand animal depictions or spiritual imagery that leave modern viewers in awe.
Much like today’s teens who sketch graphic battle scenes or draw cars, these Pleistocene-era youth painted rough hunting scenes focused on bloodshed and violent imagery. They also depicted powerful creatures such as cave bears and lions. Not surprisingly, a large portion of their art also featured genitalia and their idealized female nudes.
3. The Cannibal Colony
The early history of Jamestown, Virginia’s first permanent English colony, is darkened by five historical accounts that tell of the settlers resorting to cannibalism during the harsh winter of 1609.
Though many were skeptical, a chilling revelation in 2012 confirmed the grim tale. Deep in a cellar that had served as a dumping ground for the colony’s refuse, a shinbone and skull were uncovered. These remains belonged to a 14-year-old girl, who was given the name “Jane” by the researchers.
Forensic analysis confirmed the worst fears. Jane had been slaughtered posthumously. She bore signs of being hacked at with a cleaver, with multiple wounds to her head that targeted the facial muscles, tongue, brain, and throat, evidence of a hesitant and gruesome attempt to consume her flesh.
Dental and skeletal analysis revealed that Jane originated from the southern coast of England, with a diet typical of Europeans. This means she arrived in Jamestown at the worst possible time—in 1609, during a brutal winter and violent conflicts with indigenous tribes that resulted in the death of 80 percent of the colony’s population. While the exact number of people consumed by their desperate neighbors remains a mystery, Jane is the only confirmed case of cannibalism in a European settlement.
2. Naia
Naia refers to the young mother who tragically fell to her death in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The 30-meter (100 ft) fall broke her pelvis, and it wasn’t until 2007, nearly 13,000 years later, that divers uncovered her remains in a now-submerged cave.
A detailed analysis of her skeleton provided valuable insights into both her life and the origins of Native Americans. Her DNA revealed that one particular Asian group of emigrants were the ancestors of both modern Native Americans and the first settlers of the Americas.
Naia, a teen between 15 and 17 years old, endured a life of hardship. Her arms showed underdevelopment, likely because tasks like grinding and carrying loads—which usually strengthen the arms—were not part of her regular routine.
Instead, Naia possessed powerful legs, indicating that she had walked long distances. Her body bore the marks of a life marked by malnutrition, with signs like tooth decay, stunted growth, and a frail, thin frame. Her upper arm bone was as thin as a man’s little finger.
Naia also suffered from osteoporosis, probably due to her early pregnancy. Healed labor scars on her pelvis suggest that she gave birth long before her untimely death.
1. Roman Camp Refuge
In 2011, archaeologists uncovered the grave of a young woman from Kent, England, whose skull had been violently crushed. While skull injuries are not uncommon in ancient times, the circumstances surrounding her death make this case particularly heartbreaking.
Estimated to be between 16 and 20 years old, she was likely a local Briton captured by Roman soldiers during their second invasion of Britain. While exploring a Roman military camp, archaeologists uncovered ancient refuse ditches.
Among the items discovered in the ditches were horse tack and ceramics, dating back to around AD 50. These discarded objects had been buried after the Romans had conquered Kent and moved on to confront the next tribe.
Among the discarded military items lay the body of the girl. While the specifics of her story remain unclear, it seems that she was kept at the camp for as long as the soldiers remained there. Once they were ready to leave, they disposed of both their broken equipment and her body.
The young woman, in good health before her death, likely perished while kneeling, her skull crushed by a merciless sword strike. She was then hastily tossed into a shallow trench, face down where she had fallen. This discovery upends the long-held belief that the indigenous Britons thrived under Roman rule.
