Practically 8,000-year-old skull found in Minnesota River

A partial skull from practically 8,000 years ago that was discovered by two kayakers in a river last summer season will likely be returned to Native American officials in Minnesota

ByThe Associated Press

21 May 2022, 19:10

• 3 min read

REDWOOD FALLS, Minn. -- A partial skull that was discovered final summer season by two kayakers in Minnesota will be returned to Native American officials after investigations determined it was about 8,000 years previous.

The kayakers found the skull in the drought-depleted Minnesota River about 110 miles (180 kilometers) west of Minneapolis, Renville County Sheriff Scott Hable stated.

Thinking it might be associated to a lacking person case or homicide, Hable turned the skull over to a health worker and eventually to the FBI, the place a forensic anthropologist used carbon dating to determine it was likely the skull of a young man who lived between 5500 and 6000 B.C., Hable mentioned.

"It was a whole shock to us that that bone was that old,” Hable informed Minnesota Public Radio.

The anthropologist decided the man had a despair in his cranium that was “perhaps suggestive of the reason for dying.”

After the sheriff posted in regards to the discovery on Wednesday, his workplace was criticized by several Native Individuals, who mentioned publishing images of ancestral stays was offensive to their tradition.

Hable stated his office eliminated the publish.

"We didn’t mean for it to be offensive whatsoever,” Hable stated.

Hable stated the stays will be turned over to Upper Sioux Neighborhood tribal officers.

Minnesota Indian Affairs Council Cultural Resources Specialist Dylan Goetsch stated in an announcement that neither the council nor the state archaeologist had been notified about the discovery, which is required by state laws that govern the care and repatriation of Native American remains.

Goetsch stated the Facebook post “showed a complete lack of cultural sensitivity” by failing to name the person a Native American and referring to the stays as “somewhat piece of history.”

Kathleen Blue, a professor of anthropology at Minnesota State College, said Wednesday that the skull was undoubtedly from an ancestor of one of many tribes still living in the space, The New York Times reported.

She mentioned the young man would have probably eaten a food plan of vegetation, deer, fish, turtles and freshwater mussels in a small area, reasonably than following mammals and bison on their migrations.

“There’s probably not that many individuals at that time wandering around Minnesota 8,000 years ago, because, like I stated, the glaciers have only retreated a number of 1000's years before that,” Blue mentioned. “That period, we don’t know a lot about it.”