Nearly 8,000-year-old cranium found in Minnesota River

A partial cranium from practically 8,000 years in the past that was discovered by two kayakers in a river last summer season can be returned to Native American officers in Minnesota

ByThe Associated Press

21 May 2022, 19:10

• 3 min read

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Minnesota will probably be returned to Native American officers after investigations decided it was about 8,000 years outdated.

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.

Pondering it could be related to a missing individual case or homicide, Hable turned the cranium over to a medical expert and eventually to the FBI, where a forensic anthropologist used carbon dating to determine it was likely the cranium of a young man who lived between 5500 and 6000 B.C., Hable said.

"It was a complete shock to us that that bone was that old,” Hable advised Minnesota Public Radio.

The anthropologist determined the man had a depression in his skull that was “perhaps suggestive of the reason for dying.”

After the sheriff posted about the discovery on Wednesday, his office was criticized by several Native Individuals, who said publishing photographs of ancestral stays was offensive to their tradition.

Hable mentioned his workplace eliminated the publish.

"We didn’t imply for it to be offensive in any way,” Hable mentioned.

Hable mentioned the remains will likely be turned over to Higher Sioux Community tribal officials.

Minnesota Indian Affairs Council Cultural Sources Specialist Dylan Goetsch said in a statement that neither the council nor the state archaeologist were notified concerning the discovery, which is required by state legal guidelines that govern the care and repatriation of Native American stays.

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 remains as “a little bit piece of historical past.”

Kathleen Blue, a professor of anthropology at Minnesota State College, stated Wednesday that the cranium was definitely from an ancestor of one of many tribes still living in the area, The New York Times reported.

She stated the younger man would have possible eaten a weight loss plan of crops, deer, fish, turtles and freshwater mussels in a small area, slightly 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, as a result of, like I stated, the glaciers have only retreated a number of 1000's years before that,” Blue mentioned. “That interval, we don’t know much about it.”