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

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

ByThe Associated Press

21 Might 2022, 19:10

• 3 min read

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in Minnesota might be returned to Native American officials after investigations determined it was about 8,000 years outdated.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

Considering it is likely to be associated to a lacking individual case or homicide, Hable turned the skull over to a health worker and eventually to the FBI, where a forensic anthropologist used carbon courting to find out it was possible the cranium of a younger man who lived between 5500 and 6000 B.C., Hable mentioned.

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

The anthropologist decided the man had a despair in his skull that was “maybe suggestive of the cause of dying.”

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

Hable stated his office removed the put up.

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

Hable stated the remains will be turned over to Higher Sioux Community tribal officials.

Minnesota Indian Affairs Council Cultural Sources Specialist Dylan Goetsch stated in an announcement 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 Fb submit “showed a complete lack of cultural sensitivity” by failing to call the person a Native American and referring to the remains as “a little piece of history.”

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

She stated the young man would have seemingly eaten a diet of plants, deer, fish, turtles and freshwater mussels in a small region, fairly than following mammals and bison on their migrations.

“There’s in all probability not that many people at the moment wandering round Minnesota 8,000 years ago, as a result of, like I said, the glaciers have only retreated a couple of thousands years before that,” Blue mentioned. “That period, we don’t know much about it.”