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

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

ByThe Associated Press

21 Might 2022, 19:10

• 3 min read

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in Minnesota will be returned to Native American officials after investigations determined it was about 8,000 years outdated.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

Pondering it is perhaps related to a missing individual case or murder, Hable turned the cranium over to a medical expert and ultimately to the FBI, the place a forensic anthropologist used carbon courting to find out it was possible the cranium of a young 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 determined the man had a melancholy in his skull that was “maybe suggestive of the reason for dying.”

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

Hable stated his workplace eliminated the put up.

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

Hable stated the remains can be turned over to Higher Sioux Group tribal officers.

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

Goetsch stated the Facebook post “showed a complete lack of cultural sensitivity” by failing to name the person a Native American and referring to the stays as “just 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 many tribes still living in the space, The New York Occasions reported.

She stated the young man would have likely eaten a food regimen of vegetation, deer, fish, turtles and freshwater mussels in a small region, rather than following mammals and bison on their migrations.

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