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

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

ByThe Related Press

21 May 2022, 19:10

• 3 min read

REDWOOD FALLS, Minn. -- A partial cranium that was discovered final summer time 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in Minnesota might be returned to Native American officers after investigations decided it was about 8,000 years outdated.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 in the drought-depleted Minnesota River about 110 miles (180 kilometers) west of Minneapolis, Renville County Sheriff Scott Hable mentioned.

Considering it might be related to a missing person case or murder, Hable turned the skull over to a health worker and finally to the FBI, where a forensic anthropologist used carbon relationship to determine it was likely the cranium of a young man who lived between 5500 and 6000 B.C., Hable mentioned.

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

The anthropologist decided the person had a melancholy in his skull that was “maybe suggestive of the reason for death.”

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

Hable mentioned his office eliminated the post.

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

Hable mentioned the remains will probably be turned over to Higher Sioux Group tribal officers.

Minnesota Indian Affairs Council Cultural Assets Specialist Dylan Goetsch mentioned 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 mentioned the Facebook put up “confirmed an entire lack of cultural sensitivity” by failing to call the individual a Native American and referring to the remains as “a bit of piece of historical past.”

Kathleen Blue, a professor of anthropology at Minnesota State University, stated Wednesday that the cranium was positively from an ancestor of one of many tribes still dwelling in the area, The New York Occasions reported.

She mentioned the younger man would have likely eaten a diet of crops, deer, fish, turtles and freshwater mussels in a small area, reasonably than following mammals and bison on their migrations.

“There’s probably not that many individuals at that time wandering around Minnesota 8,000 years ago, because, like I mentioned, the glaciers have only retreated just a few thousands years earlier than that,” Blue mentioned. “That period, we don’t know a lot about it.”