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

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

ByThe Related Press

21 Could 2022, 19:10

• 3 min read

REDWOOD FALLS, Minn. -- A partial skull that was discovered final summer by two kayakers in Minnesota might be returned to Native American officials after investigations determined it was about 8,000 years outdated.

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

Thinking it might be related to a missing person case or homicide, Hable turned the cranium over to a health worker and ultimately to the FBI, the place a forensic anthropologist used carbon courting to find out it was doubtless the skull 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"It was an entire shock to us that that bone was that outdated,” Hable instructed Minnesota Public Radio.

The anthropologist determined the man had a depression in his cranium that was “maybe suggestive of the reason for death.”

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

Hable mentioned his office eliminated the post.

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

Hable stated the stays can be turned over to Higher Sioux Group tribal officials.

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 mentioned the Fb put up “confirmed an entire lack of cultural sensitivity” by failing to name the person a Native American and referring to the stays as “somewhat piece of historical past.”

Kathleen Blue, a professor of anthropology at Minnesota State College, said Wednesday that the skull was definitely from an ancestor of one of the tribes nonetheless residing within the space, The New York Times reported.

She mentioned the young man would have likely eaten a weight-reduction plan of vegetation, deer, fish, turtles and freshwater mussels in a small area, rather than following mammals and bison on their migrations.

“There’s most likely not that many people at the moment wandering round Minnesota 8,000 years in the past, because, like I stated, the glaciers have only retreated a few hundreds years before that,” Blue mentioned. “That period, we don’t know a lot about it.”