Almost 8,000-year-old skull present in Minnesota River

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

ByThe Related Press

21 Could 2022, 19:10

• 3 min learn

REDWOOD FALLS, Minn. -- A partial cranium that was discovered final summer time by two kayakers in Minnesota shall be returned to Native American officials after investigations decided it was about 8,000 years old.

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

Thinking it may be related to a lacking person case or homicide, Hable turned the skull over to a medical examiner and finally to the FBI, where a forensic anthropologist used carbon courting to find out it was possible the cranium of a young man who lived between 5500 and 6000 B.C., Hable stated.

"It was an entire shock to us that that bone was that old,” Hable instructed Minnesota Public Radio.

The anthropologist determined the person had a despair in his cranium that was “maybe suggestive of the cause of dying.”

After the sheriff posted concerning the discovery on Wednesday, his office was criticized by a number of Native Americans, who said publishing photos of ancestral stays was offensive to their culture.

Hable stated his office eliminated the put up.

"We didn’t imply for it to be offensive in any respect,” Hable said.

Hable stated the remains will probably be turned over to Higher Sioux Neighborhood tribal officers.

Minnesota Indian Affairs Council Cultural Sources Specialist Dylan Goetsch said in a press release that neither the council nor the state archaeologist have 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 submit “showed an entire lack of cultural sensitivity” by failing to name the person a Native American and referring to the remains as “somewhat piece of historical past.”

Kathleen Blue, a professor of anthropology at Minnesota State University, said Wednesday that the cranium was positively from an ancestor of one of many tribes nonetheless dwelling in the area, The New York Occasions reported.

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

“There’s most likely 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 stated. “That interval, we don’t know a lot about it.”