Nearly 8,000-year-old cranium found in Minnesota River

A partial cranium from nearly 8,000 years in the past that was found by two kayakers in a river last summer will probably 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 last summer by two kayakers in Minnesota will be returned to Native American officials after investigations determined it was about 8,000 years old.

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

Pondering it could be associated to a missing individual case or murder, Hable turned the skull over to a medical expert and eventually to the FBI, the place a forensic anthropologist used carbon dating to determine it was seemingly the cranium of a younger man who lived between 5500 and 6000 B.C., Hable said.

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

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

After the sheriff posted concerning the discovery on Wednesday, his workplace was criticized by several Native People, who mentioned publishing images of ancestral stays was offensive to their culture.

Hable stated his workplace eliminated the post.

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

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

Minnesota Indian Affairs Council Cultural Resources Specialist Dylan Goetsch mentioned 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 stays.

Goetsch said the Facebook publish “showed an entire lack of cultural sensitivity” by failing to name the individual a Native American and referring to the stays as “somewhat piece of history.”

Kathleen Blue, a professor of anthropology at Minnesota State University, mentioned Wednesday that the cranium was positively from an ancestor of one of the tribes still living within the space, The New York Instances reported.

She said the younger man would have likely eaten a food plan of crops, deer, fish, turtles and freshwater mussels in a small region, fairly than following mammals and bison on their migrations.

“There’s most likely not that many people at the moment wandering around Minnesota 8,000 years ago, because, like I mentioned, the glaciers have solely retreated a number of 1000's years before that,” Blue said. “That period, we don’t know a lot about it.”