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

A partial skull from almost 8,000 years ago that was discovered by two kayakers in a river final summer time shall be returned to Native American officials in Minnesota

ByThe Associated Press

21 Could 2022, 19:10

• 3 min learn

REDWOOD FALLS, Minn. -- A partial cranium that was discovered last summer season by two kayakers in Minnesota will likely be returned to Native American officials after investigations determined it was about 8,000 years old.

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

Pondering it is perhaps related to a missing person case or murder, Hable turned the cranium over to a health worker and ultimately to the FBI, the place a forensic anthropologist used carbon relationship 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"It was an entire shock to us that that bone was that outdated,” Hable informed Minnesota Public Radio.

The anthropologist decided the person had a depression in his skull that was “maybe suggestive of the reason for death.”

After the sheriff posted concerning the discovery on Wednesday, his workplace was criticized by a number of Native Individuals, who stated publishing images of ancestral stays was offensive to their tradition.

Hable mentioned his office removed the post.

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

Hable stated the stays might be turned over to Upper Sioux Neighborhood tribal officers.

Minnesota Indian Affairs Council Cultural Assets Specialist Dylan Goetsch stated in an announcement that neither the council nor the state archaeologist have been notified concerning the discovery, which is required by state legal guidelines 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 name the individual a Native American and referring to the remains as “somewhat piece of historical past.”

Kathleen Blue, a professor of anthropology at Minnesota State College, said Wednesday that the cranium was undoubtedly from an ancestor of one of the tribes still residing within the area, The New York Times reported.

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

“There’s in all probability not that many people at the moment wandering around Minnesota 8,000 years in the past, because, like I stated, the glaciers have only retreated a couple of 1000's years before that,” Blue said. “That period, we don’t know a lot about it.”