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

A partial cranium from nearly 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 Might 2022, 19:10

• 3 min learn

REDWOOD FALLS, Minn. -- A partial cranium that was found final summer by two kayakers in Minnesota might be returned to Native American officers after investigations decided it was about 8,000 years outdated.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 related to a lacking individual case or murder, Hable turned the cranium over to a health worker and finally to the FBI, where a forensic anthropologist used carbon dating to find out it was possible the cranium of a younger man who lived between 5500 and 6000 B.C., Hable said.

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

The anthropologist decided the man had a depression in his skull that was “perhaps suggestive of the cause of demise.”

After the sheriff posted concerning the discovery on Wednesday, his office was criticized by a number of Native Individuals, who mentioned publishing photographs of ancestral remains was offensive to their tradition.

Hable said his office removed the submit.

"We didn’t mean for it to be offensive whatsoever,” Hable stated.

Hable said the stays might be turned over to Upper Sioux Group tribal officials.

Minnesota Indian Affairs Council Cultural Assets Specialist Dylan Goetsch said in a press release that neither the council nor the state archaeologist have been notified in regards to the discovery, which is required by state legal guidelines that govern the care and repatriation of Native American remains.

Goetsch said the Fb submit “confirmed a whole lack of cultural sensitivity” by failing to call the person a Native American and referring to the stays as “a little piece of history.”

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

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

“There’s most likely not that many people at that time wandering around Minnesota 8,000 years ago, as a result of, like I mentioned, the glaciers have solely retreated a few 1000's years before that,” Blue stated. “That period, we don’t know much about it.”