Posted on 02/22/2006 1:25:48 PM PST by Spunky
Scientists plan to disclose their findings about Kennewick Man on Thursday in Seattle, nearly a decade after the discovery of the 9,000-year-old skeleton that attracted worldwide interest and sparked a lengthy legal fight.
"Kennewick's story is finally going to get told," said Cleone Hawkinson, president of Friends of America's Past. Hawkinson has been working for years to ensure Kennewick Man's bones would be studied by the top scientists in the country.
Kennewick Man's bones are significant to scientists because they are considered one of the most complete ancient skeletons ever found. Scientists have theorized he was about 45 years old when he died, and had been wounded by a stone projectile.
Doug Owsley, the forensic anthropologist for the Smithsonian and the lead scientist studying Kennewick Man, will detail his findings at the American Academy of Forensic Scientists annual meeting.
He wouldn't reveal details about his upcoming speech, but he hinted it will be significant.
"I think you will be surprised at what all is accomplished," he said. "I'm anxious to share it. I think you will be taken aback with how much information is going to come out."
Owsley plans to say whether Kennewick Man was buried or not, and if his bones laid in the same position until he was discovered. Scientists have long wondered whether Kennewick Man drowned or was buried along the river.
The Mid-Columbia's most famous resident was found in 1996 along the shores of the Columbia River by teenagers sneaking their way into Water Follies, the annual hydroplane races.
The discovery of the ancient skull and bones triggered a nine-year-long legal clash between scientists, the federal government and Native American tribes who claimed Kennewick Man as their ancestor.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately ruled in the scientists' favor, allowing the first studies of the bones last summer.
Nearly all the scientists who were original plaintiffs in the case plan to attend Thursday's speech in front of the nation's finest forensic experts.
"I think I am going to be nervous that day," Owsley said.
The scientist has been working on the Kennewick Man project off and on since July's weeklong study at the Burke Museum in Seattle. He and a dozen experts have been coordinating their findings since leaving Seattle for their respective universities, project sites and labs around the country.
About 15 scientists will be conducting a second study of the bones this week at the University of Washington's Burke Museum in Seattle, Hawkinson said. Kennewick Man's remains are housed in the museum.
"It's a wonderful thing to have them all in the same place," she said.
This week's study will focus less on how Kennewick Man's bones changed over the centuries, and more on how he lived. Scientists likely will spend long hours at the lab, Owsley said.
Scientists plan to inspect Kennewick Man's hands and feet, the dimensions of his skull and look for repetitive stress to his bones. That will help them determine more about his daily life, his health and where he might have come from, Owsley said.
It's the last study planned for the bones. But Owsley said it's likely scientists will seek more studies in the future to confirm their findings and answer more questions.
Hawkinson said she expects experts from other countries will request the chance to study the bones as well. European, Asian and South American scientists are interested in how the skeleton compares to ancient remains in their countries.
But Hawkinson said all the tests and studies are sure to raise just as many questions as they answer.
"There may be some things that we will never know," she said.
There was no justification except for the Native Americans got to Clintoon because they didn't want any possibility of scientists finding other remains, tools, etc.
I don't give a damn about the race of Kenniwick Man. His DNA would be fascinating, since that can inform me about the location of his ancestors. His lifestyle that can be gleaned from the bones and teeth would be very interesting. His race, however, is close to meaningless as meaningless gets. Human beings tend to wander, usually (but not always) in tribal groups, and that means people get pushed around. People also intermarry once they become neighbors (as well as fight wars), and that further makes race meaningless. The same racial purity garbage emerging from the Umatilla about Kenniwick Man being an ancestor because he was found near to their current tribal land is as equally absurd as someone cheering about Kenniwick Man's "Caucasian" background. Nine thousand years is a lot of time between us and him, especially concerning such easily changable features like skin color, nose shape, and so on that determine "race." I've seen the Patrick Stewart lookalike; that model is also without many designators of race like hair, skin color, and hair color. My guess, based on nothing more than seeing lots and lots people in this lifetime, is that he would have looked like no one we've ever seen before. Just a guess, but a lot better guess than presuming he looked like some Nordic dude.
I rest mine. Obviously you are so sensitive to your beliefs you can't even tolerate that. Evo's can't tolerate questions about their theories.
For instance, the big bang theory. If it all started with a bang, enough force to create all the dust that made planets, then we wouldn't have a galaxy at all, because it would have just kept on going. Too little force and it would have collapsed back on itself. The odds of equalibrium are beyond impossible billions of times over. But I'm not stopping you from believing what you like. I could care less. Billions of times over. I know for a FACT that neither you or I will prove anything one way or another, and neither will anyone else in my or your lifetime, so why worry about it. It the same thing for Global warming idiots. For some reason they cannot fanthom the inmense size of the earth, and just how insignificant human life, and anything we do is in comparision to the awsome forces of nature. Someone here of FR said it right, we are to this earth but a microscopic layer of slime on a boulder. Or something along those lines.
From what I remember, and I admit, I haven't been paying attention to this either, one of the initial theories had Kennewick man as possibly Cauvasian because of his height (6 ft or more) and the shape of his skull.
It was right after those things went public, I seem to remember a ton of Indians coming out to muck the process up.
Once you find one paleface older than most Indian civilizations, you're bound to start looking for more, and perhaps, one day find the Grandaddy of them All that makes the Indian claims to being here "first" so much horse manure.
Did they manage to get any DNA from it? I didn't think they did.
Kennewick's small museum has put up a very good display of Kennewick Man (replica of his skull) and they ordered a skeleton to complete the rest of his skeleton.
I don't like McCain either.
And you are correct on the "race" thing. But expect attacks on that statement too. Man moves around like you state, different climates, foods, enviromental forces, Local minerals, elevations etc. all act on man who adapts to them. Some settle in these new found places and some move on and adapt to the new places they find and settle. Centuries go by and suddenly they rediscover their own ancestors, who they think are different because they no longer look the same.
Never heard of it. Here's some more words of wisdom for you though, since you asked for them. I think we can agree that the earth had a beginning, and will have an end, and so will mankind. Enjoy your short little life while you can. If you want to believe that human life is meaningless, has no purpose, then that is your privilege, as it is mine to believe otherwize.
Yes, McCain, and his Indian buddies, are also intellectual luddites.
"Scientists plan to disclose their findings about Kennewick Man on Thursday in Seattle, nearly a decade after the discovery of the 9,000-year-old skeleton that attracted worldwide interest and sparked a lengthy legal fight."
Chatters did do an early and hurried DNA test. I saw a breakdown of it once and then it just disappeared. I remember something like this:
* Ainu = 23% (largest % on the list)
* Polynesian = (forgot)
...and so on.
I expect we'll have some in this press release Thursday.
Since Indians and Europeans share ancestry, this fellow fits the picture one way or the other.
Professor Stephen Oppenheimer says that the oldest Mongoloid skeleton ever found is only 10,000 years old. Anything older than that in the Americas (and there are many) isn't American Indians/Native Americans.
I've campaigned for a change in the titles we give people in the Americas. Anything older than 6,000 years ago should be called paleo-Americans, anyone younger, paleo-Indians.
Don't know anything yet. A few days ago, before I heard of the big announcement to take place this week, I had an email in to one of the folks, but the address changed and it didn't go through.
I am most interested in if any DNA was obtained. That would tell the story.
There have been other skulls found in that area; I studied one in grad school that had some unusual traits, but I don't know what ever happened to it.
My bet is on the SE Asia/Ainu Early Coastal Migration (using watercraft) connection, with relationships to a much different part of Asia than the subsequent land migration. But we'll see.
Thanks for the reply. It's good to have folks on FR that actually know stuff.
"The oldest human remains found in the Americas were recently "discovered" in the storeroom of Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology. Found in central Mexico in 1959, the five skulls were radiocarbon dated by a team of researchers from the United Kingdom and Mexico and found to be 13,000 years old. They pre-date the Clovis culture by a couple thousand years, adding to the growing evidence against the Clovis-first model for the first peopling of the Americas."
"Of additional significance is the shape of the skulls, which are described as long and narrow, very unlike those of modern Native Americans."
The Mexicans aren't bound by the NAGRA nonsense like the US.
These remains are much to old to be Jimmy Hoffa.
It is Judge Crater.
Thanks for the articles.
Bump!
This is when the Clinton adminstration buldozed the site the bones were found.
The indian tribes are realllly scared of this revealing he was not an indian.
This would prove that EVERY one came to this continent.
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