Pieces falling into place (Kennewick Man)

Tri-City Herald ^ | February 24th, 2006 | By Anna King, Herald staff writer

[Spunky]

SEATTLE -- Kennewick Man was buried by other humans.

That finding, which scientists have pondered for nearly 10 years, was finally confirmed Thursday at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Scientists here.

The scientists also have concluded the ancient skull appears different than those of Indian tribes who lived in the area.

Scientists long had wondered whether Kennewick Man, whose 9,000-year-old skeleton was found 10 years ago in Columbia Park alongside the Columbia River, was naturally covered with silt or if others had laid him to rest.

The answer is he was laid out on his back, arms at his sides and palms down, said Doug Owsley, a forensic scientist for the Smithsonian and lead scientist on the Kennewick Man study.

The river was to his left and his feet downstream. His head was raised about 5 degrees so he was looking east toward his feet and the rising sun. His legs were straight and his feet slightly tipped outward, Owsley said.

He used an industrial CT scanner to study the skeleton in minute sections, and to examine a spear or dart point with a pointed end and stem that was imbedded in Kennewick Man's hip.

The point entered Kennewick man from the front, angled downward at 77 degrees, Owsley said. Earlier analysis had suggested it might have struck him from the back.

The point in Kennewick Man is "not a classic Cascade point," Owsley said. Cascade points tend to have two pointed ends and sometimes are serrated. He said scientists are continuing to study the point.

And Owsley said the spear point did not cause Kennewick Man's death. "It was a well-healed fracture," he said.

Earlier Thursday, Owsley told the Associated Press that there was "no clear indication in the skeleton of cause of death." Kennewick Man had undergone "a lot of injuries, this guy was tough as nails," he said.

In a private interview with the Herald before his speech, Owsley described how he and a team of experts came to their conclusions after hundreds of hours of studying the bones. They detailed the colors, fractures, sediment and mineral deposits of each bone fragment -- a complex 350-piece jigsaw puzzle.

"This requires more expertise than one person could muster," Owsley said. "We are doing a level of analysis that most people would not think possible, but it's because of this interdisciplinary team."

Many of Kennewick Man's bones eventually were broken by the weight of the earth above him, Owsley said, and other bones broke apart when the riverbank washed out. And some fractures occurred during his lifetime and had healed.

Kennewick Man is particularly significant because it is one of the most complete ancient skeletons ever found. And its skull appears to be unlike those of Indian tribes living in the area, Owsley said.

"We know very little about this time period. Who the people were that were the earliest people that came to America," Owsley told the AP.

But questions remain about where Kennewick Man may have come from, where the stone point in his hip originated, what he might have eaten and what his daily life was like.

About 20 scientists from around the country are in Seattle this week studying the bones to find answers to those questions. Algae specialists, bone fracture specialists and skull experts will continue to work to decipher the skeleton's riddles.

Owsley said they were able to determine many details about the burial from the scientists' first study last July.

The studies have been conducted in Seattle because Kennewick Man's remains are housed at the University of Washington's Burke Museum.

The bones surfaced during flooding in 1996. Most of them were uncovered during a two-week span in June when waves undercut the riverbank and the grave.

Two teenagers found the skull of Kennewick Man just a month later as they were sneaking into Columbia Park for Water Follies, the annual hydroplane races.

The rapid uncovering and discovery of the bones is why the remains are in such good condition, Owsley said.

"We should thank him for the opportunity to tell his story," Owsley said. "He's been very kind to us in terms of having observations that we can absolutely interpret."

The bones' discovery triggered a nine-year legal clash between scientists, the federal government and Native American tribes, who have claimed Kennewick Man as their ancestor.

A half-dozen representatives of the Yakama Nation came to watch the presentation. They were dismayed by what they said was the disrespectful way the bones were handled.

"Scientists have no respect for anything. I had to shut my eyes. It is not a comfortable feeling," said Larena Sohappy, culture committee chairwoman for the Yakama Nation.

[dennisw]

Yes, it was stupid for the gov to destroy the site especially when a lot more was still left to be found.

If I recall correctly this was done because the Indian tribes demanded it. The Army Core of Engineers destroyed the Kennewick Man burial site with bulldozers.

[moog]

I think so too and actually for people on all sides of it. People are getting much too sensitive nowadays and get seemingly offended by anything and I'm not just talking about the purveyors of political correctness.

[Spunky]

"Especially since the Columbia River runs toward the West!"

Not where Kennewick Man was found.

The Columbia River comes down from Canada and when it gets to the Tri-Cities, Pasco, Kennewick, Richland it turns East then loops back to the West. So where he was laid to rest the river is flowing East.

[moog]

If I recall correctly this was done because the Indian tribes demanded it. The Army Core of Engineers destroyed the Kennewick Man burial site with bulldozers.

That's EXACTLY what happened. STUPID, especially when it hadn't been proven that Kennewick Man wasn't their ancestor.

[dennisw]

The tribes laid on the BS very thick. I thought they were going to win in court and keep KM from being examined by scientists

[blam]

Spirit Cave Man is 9,400 years old, 100 years older than Kennewick Man. He is the oldest mummy ever found in the Americas. He was found fully clothed in a cave.

Spirit Cave Man

Spirit Cave Man eked out a life among the oases of an unforgiving desert. He fished in Great Basin lakes, hunted small mammals and wore clothing woven from strips of pelts and marsh plants.

The hunter survived to his mid-40s. But he had broken his right hand and suffered chronic back pain from arthritis, herniated disks and a fracture in his spine. A blow to the left temple dented and cracked his skull, which had just begun to heal when he died, perhaps from that injury or the advanced abscesses in his upper and lower jaws.

He was buried lying on his right side, arm flexed so his hand rested beneath the chin, in a shallow grave dug in a desert cave. The cave's climate preserved patches of skin and reddish-brown shoulder-length hair on the skull, making him North America's oldest mummy. Dried intestines contained fish bones from a final meal.

Also preserved were his rabbit fur robe, two shrouds of woven tule reeds, and well-worn moccasins of three kinds of animal hide, sewn with hemp and sinew, and patched on the soles. Copyright © 1999 Discovery Communications Inc.

[moog]

You are right. Just look at a map.

[Vaduz]

DNA test show related to Vince Foster

[Altamira]

""Scientists have no respect for anything. I had to shut my eyes. It is not a comfortable feeling," said Larena Sohappy, culture committee chairwoman for the Yakama Nation.""

Scientists have respect for uncovering the truth about this guy, dimwit, and not for catering to your need to cover up the fact that other peoples besides "native americans" might have been running around this continent long before you got here, thus depriving you of your claim to "victim" status for having "your" land "stolen" from you.

[moog]

I thought they were going to win too, but I'm glad they didn't.

[Spunky]

...we don't know anymore than we already did..."

We learned that he had actually been buried where he was found and not washed down from some other area.

That means that there must be others here. You are correct that we still don't know his ancestry for sure.

[moog]

Larena, needs to take out the h and the a from her last name.

[Altamira]

" Especially since the Columbia River runs toward the West!"

The Columbia River does a fair amount of winding around; check it out on a map...

[pabianice]

Can you imagine the constant pain he had to live with from a spear head lodged in his pelvis?

[moog]

OUCH!!! He must have had some cahoonas.

[moog]

Yeah, you can't get rivers to go straight at all. They meander around too much.

[blam]

"These African and European markers date back long before that. Clovis was about 10,000 B.C. and the European Solutrean culture which resesmbles it predates Clovis. The African type skulls go back several thousnd years in South America.

Luzia is the skeleton you're talking about, it is now about the third oldest skeleton ever found in the Americas...She is believed to be Australian.

Luzia

Dozens of skeletons have emerged from the caves dotting Lagoa Santa in eastern Brazil, but one in particular has recently caused a stir -- 25 years after it was dug up from a 40-foot-deep pit.

New dating of the bones have determined that Luzia (her name pays homage to the famous African fossil "Lucy," who lived 3.2 million years ago) is the most ancient known American, with remains 11,500 years old.

Luzia died in her early 20s. Although flint tools were found nearby, hers are the only human remains in Vermelha Cave.

The anatomy of her skull and teeth - including a narrow, oval cranium, projecting face and pronounced chin - likens Luzia to Africans and Australasians. Brazilian anthropologists propose that Luzia traveled across the Bering Strait, perhaps following the coastline by boat, from northeast Asia, where her ancestors had lived for tens of thousands of years since exiting Africa. Copyright © 1999 Discovery Communications Inc.

[dennisw]

When I think of American Indians I honor the part Sioux Pappy Boyington. I don't have much respect for their "sovereign nation" nonsense that gives them the right to casinos, tax free sales of tobacco and gasoline, and blocked examination of Kennewick Man.

American Indians don't pay for building and upkeep of roads leading to their casinos nor any roads in the state they live

5. Do Indians pay state taxes? Federally recognized Indians do not pay state income nor property tax if they live and work on reservation or trust land.

[Spunky]

"It would seem to me that in order for the Yakima to claim this person as an ancestor,"

Are you from around here? You know the spelling. It was Yakima all my life and then suddenly it became Yakama

[moog]

When I think of American Indians I honor the part Sioux Pappy Boyington. I don't have much respect for their "sovereign nation" nonsense that gives them the right to casinos, tax free sales of tobacco and gasoline, and blocked examination of Kennewick Man. American Indians don't pay for building and upkeep of roads leading to their casinos nor any roads in the state they live 5. Do Indians pay state taxes? Federally recognized Indians do not pay state income nor property tax if they live and work on reservation or trust land

Good info, thanks. There was one thing I liked about them growing up--they sold good fireworks.