Almost 8,000-year-old skull found 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 officials in Minnesota

ByThe Related Press

21 May 2022, 19:10

• 3 min learn

REDWOOD FALLS, Minn. -- A partial skull that was discovered last summer season 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 cranium in the drought-depleted Minnesota River about 110 miles (180 kilometers) west of Minneapolis, Renville County Sheriff Scott Hable said.

Thinking it is perhaps associated to a lacking person case or homicide, Hable turned the skull over to a medical examiner and ultimately to the FBI, the place a forensic anthropologist used carbon dating to determine it was possible the skull of a young man who lived between 5500 and 6000 B.C., Hable said.

"It was a complete shock to us that that bone was that outdated,” Hable advised Minnesota Public Radio.

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

After the sheriff posted in regards to the discovery on Wednesday, his workplace was criticized by several Native Americans, who said publishing photos of ancestral stays was offensive to their culture.

Hable mentioned his office eliminated the put up.

"We didn’t mean for it to be offensive in anyway,” Hable mentioned.

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

Minnesota Indian Affairs Council Cultural Sources Specialist Dylan Goetsch said in an announcement that neither the council nor the state archaeologist were notified concerning the discovery, which is required by state laws that govern the care and repatriation of Native American remains.

Goetsch said the Facebook put up “confirmed a complete lack of cultural sensitivity” by failing to call the individual a Native American and referring to the remains as “somewhat piece of history.”

Kathleen Blue, a professor of anthropology at Minnesota State College, stated Wednesday that the skull was definitely from an ancestor of one of the tribes still living in the area, The New York Occasions reported.

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

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