Posted on 02/14/2004 10:12:50 AM PST by blam
Kennewick man ruling - politics or science?
10:30 14 February 04
Native Americans called him "The Ancient One", while anthropologists speculated he could reveal who first settled the Americas.
Then, for over seven years, the skeleton of Kennewick Man became the subject of a court battle between the two parties, crystallising the debate over who should lay claim to ancient human remains and artefacts.
Last week, a federal appeals court finally granted scientists the right to study the 9200-year-old bones, against the wishes of a group of native American tribes, including the Nez Perce tribe of Idaho and those of the Yakama Indian Nation, who wished to rebury them.
But the ruling may actually be a triumph of politics over science, since Kennewick Man could be of limited value to anthropologists. The archaeological site where it was found has been destroyed, taking with it vital contextual information. And, while the skeleton has gathered dust, other potentially more important skeletons have been unearthed.
But the researchers say it is the principle of access to such remains that counts. "If we'd caved in on this one, it would have closed the door to research on other early skeletons," says anthropologist Rob Bonnichsen of Texas A&M University at College Station, a plaintiff in the case.
Unusual features
The skeleton hit the headlines in 1996 when it was discovered along the north bank of the Columbia river in Kennewick, Washington. Carbon dating revealed the remains were between 8340 and 9200 years old, the oldest found in the Pacific north-west - then thought to be the first part of the Americas to be colonised.
Anthropologists were also excited because the skeleton was 90 per cent complete and had unusual features differing from those of Europeans or modern native Americans.
However, tribal officials demanded that the bones be reburied, claiming they had a right to inter their alleged forebear under the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. At the time, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), who managed the federal land where the bones were found, decided in their favour.
Eight scientists, including Bonnichsen, sued the federal government in October 1996 to block the reburial, and the case has been in the courts ever since.
Shortly after the discovery, a select group of government scientists were allowed to study the remains. They concluded that Kennewick Man's ancestors came from Japan, Polynesia or south-east Asia. Co-plaintiff Loring Brace of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, says, "I'd like to get my calipers on it," as he, like many others, is eager to compare it with other skeletons from the same period.
Concrete blocks
In the years since Kennewick Man came to light, however, several additional skeletons more than 8000 years old have been found, which also seem distinct from later populations. Most believe they came to the Americas from south-east, and then north-east, Asia at the end of the ice age, between 11,000 and 14,000 years ago.
It is not clear what Kennewick Man will add to this picture. "Until the research is done, you don't know," says Bonnichsen.
Although the skeleton remains intact, the site where it was found did not. In April 1998 the USACE dumped concrete blocks onto the site, supposedly to protect it from erosion, then planted trees. That is likely to have obliterated any archaeological evidence as well as any organic material that could be carbon dated to confirm Kennewick Man's age.
The bones were found after erosion washed away the river bank, so it is unclear whether they had been buried. A brief examination of the bank showed no evidence of any graves or artefacts, says geoarchaeologist Gary Huckleberry of Washington State University in Pullman. "The only material we found was historic trash."
But tribal opposition blocked him from digging to discover and analyse the stratigraphy the order and position of the layers of remains which is a vital element in understanding the skeleton itself.
Last week's decision upheld the ruling by the Ninth Circuit court in Oregon that the tribes had not clearly shown they are related to Kennewick Man, as required by the repatriation law. Either the federal government or the tribes could still appeal, but it is subject to approval by the Supreme Court which is far from guaranteed. No such appeal had been filed as New Scientist went to press.
Jeff Hecht
Sounds like Clinton's finger prints are all over this.
Archaeological evidence places early Stone Age human habitation in the southern Gobi between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago. By the first millennium B.C., bronze-working peoples lived in Mongolia.
With the appearance of iron weapons by the third century B.C., the inhabitants of Mongolia had begun to form tribal alliances and to threaten China. The origins of more modern inhabitants are found among the forest hunters and nomadic tribes of Inner Asia.
They inhabited a great arc of land extending generally from the Korean Peninsula in the east, across the northern tier of China to the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic and to the Pamir Mountains and Lake Balkash in the west.
During most of recorded history, this has been an area of constant ferment from which emerged numerous migrations and invasions to the southeast (into China), to the southwest (into Transoxiana--modern Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, Iran, and India), and to the west (across Scythia toward Europe).
By the eighth century B.C., the inhabitants of much of this region evidently were nomadic Indo-European speakers, either Scythians or their kin.
Also scattered throughout the area were many other tribes that were primarily Mongol in their ethnologic characteristics.
He must be the guy who knew to put the balloons into the jet stream before anyone in the west even knew about a jet stream, huh?
I think there still some of the folks living way down on the tip of South America. Humboldt spoke of them in his travels. Two different people living there when he went through. One tribe short and stocky and one tribe tall and lanky.
Amazing, what a small world. Did he happen to tell you how they knew about the jet stream and, more than that, where they were 'streaming' at any given time.? As I recall, the timers were primitive and simple albeit, very effective.
I wonder what he bases his comment about the Mongols on. The Japanese and Chinese are very sensative about maintaining that their cultures developed without any outside, especially western, influence. I've read that the Japanese have ancient drawings/paintings of Samurai that clearly show their western like features but, these are always locked away....even researchers are prohibited from viewing.
I would be the least suprised if/when the the tomb of the first emperor (Chi'in) of (all) China is opened and a tall red-headed guy is discovered. BTW, it was reported yesterday that a graveyard from the Han dynasty was discovered during work on the Three Gorges Dam.
Yup, one of the explosive gizmos on one of the balloons was found by a picknicking family and killed most of them.
Hogan huh? I think the Australian Aboriginies have been looking for you.
So who did the stone tablets that Joseph Smith discovered in America?
Joseph Smith?
I'm reminded of Burrows Cave and something that happened there. Dr Barry Fell was asked to look at a picture of an artifact found in Burrows Cave...he immediately proclaimed it a fake. Everyone was suprised that he could make such a quick, almost off-hand, disposition.
When pressed for more details he explained that the artifact was copied from a mistake he had made in one of his books that wasn't caught before publication. The owners of Burrows Cave won't let the scientists near it.
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