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

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

ByThe Related Press

21 Might 2022, 19:10

• 3 min learn

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in Minnesota might be returned to Native American officials after investigations decided it was about 8,000 years outdated.

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

Thinking it could be associated to a missing person case or homicide, Hable turned the skull over to a medical expert and finally to the FBI, where a forensic anthropologist used carbon dating to find out it was seemingly the cranium of a younger 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 advised Minnesota Public Radio.

The anthropologist determined the person had a depression in his cranium that was “maybe suggestive of the cause of loss of life.”

After the sheriff posted about the discovery on Wednesday, his office was criticized by several Native People, who said publishing photos of ancestral remains was offensive to their culture.

Hable stated his office eliminated the publish.

"We didn’t imply for it to be offensive whatsoever,” Hable mentioned.

Hable mentioned the remains will probably be turned over to Upper Sioux Community tribal officials.

Minnesota Indian Affairs Council Cultural Sources Specialist Dylan Goetsch stated in a statement that neither the council nor the state archaeologist had been notified in regards to the discovery, which is required by state laws that govern the care and repatriation of Native American stays.

Goetsch stated the Facebook submit “confirmed an entire lack of cultural sensitivity” by failing to call the individual a Native American and referring to the stays as “somewhat piece of historical past.”

Kathleen Blue, a professor of anthropology at Minnesota State University, stated Wednesday that the skull was undoubtedly from an ancestor of one of many tribes nonetheless dwelling within the area, The New York Instances reported.

She said the young man would have possible eaten a weight-reduction plan of plants, 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 the moment wandering around Minnesota 8,000 years in the past, because, like I said, the glaciers have only retreated a number of hundreds years earlier than that,” Blue mentioned. “That interval, we don’t know a lot about it.”