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

A partial cranium from almost 8,000 years ago that was discovered by two kayakers in a river final summer season might be returned to Native American officers 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 will be returned to Native American officers after investigations determined it was about 8,000 years old.

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

Thinking it is likely to be related to a missing person case or homicide, Hable turned the cranium over to a medical expert and finally to the FBI, the place a forensic anthropologist used carbon dating to determine it was possible the skull 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 previous,” Hable instructed Minnesota Public Radio.

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

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

Hable said his workplace eliminated the publish.

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

Hable mentioned the remains might be turned over to Higher Sioux Community 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 concerning the discovery, which is required by state laws that govern the care and repatriation of Native American remains.

Goetsch stated the Facebook submit “confirmed a complete lack of cultural sensitivity” by failing to call the individual a Native American and referring to the stays as “a little bit piece of historical past.”

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

She mentioned the young man would have seemingly eaten a eating regimen of crops, deer, fish, turtles and freshwater mussels in a small region, relatively than following mammals and bison on their migrations.

“There’s probably not that many individuals at the moment wandering round Minnesota 8,000 years ago, as a result of, like I said, the glaciers have only retreated a few hundreds years earlier than that,” Blue mentioned. “That period, we don’t know much about it.”