Spirit Cave Man
Archaeologists want to further examine mummified remains despite objections from American Indians.
By Sean Whaley
Donrey Capital Bureau
CARSON CITY -- One of Nevada's earliest known residents -- Spirit Cave Man -- has a face to go with his name after more than 9,400 years of anonymity.
He looks out on the modern world from the basement of the Nevada State Museum in the capital, the center of a controversy pitting scientists who want to conduct DNA testing on his remains against American Indians who claim him as one of their own and want him untouched and reburied.
The decision of whether to allow testing of Spirit Cave Man rests with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the director of the Nevada State Office. A decision could come any time, but regardless, a lawsuit is likely to follow.
The politically charged decision has made work on the partially mummified remains of Spirit Cave Man controversial, including the artistic rendition of his bust that state museum officials had commissioned but thus far have kept from public view. The bust was created by Sharon Long, a Reno sculptor with training and experience in forensic facial approximations.
Spirit Cave Man, along with the more publicized 9,200-year-old Kennewick Man found along the banks of the Columbia River in Washington, may provide clues to the first immigrants of the Western Hemisphere.
Found in a cave east of Fallon in 1940 in the Grimes Point area, Spirit Cave Man is the oldest mummified remains discovered in North America. He is also one of the best dated early humans in the New World, the result of radio carbon testing on seven separate samples of bone, hair and a finely woven reed mat in which he was buried. He apparently was in his mid-40s when he died. He had a bad back and had suffered but survived a skull fracture when he was buried 9,415 years ago. He was found wearing finely made moccasins from three types of animal hide. He stood 5-foot-2 and was mummified accidentally in the dry air of the cave, not intentionally like mummified remains found in Egypt or Chile.
His remains were thought to be only about 2,000 to 3,000 years old when they were discovered by S.M. and Georgia Wheeler more than five decades ago. Spirit Cave Man was first dated in 1994 at the University of California, Riverside, and stunned state museum officials announced the discovery in April 1996.
There are some scientists who argue Spirit Cave Man may not be related to Native Americans now living in western Nevada, but instead represents an earlier migration of humans.
Before further study of Spirt Cave Man can occur, however, the federal government must respond to the request by the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe to return the remains under the American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The law, passed in 1990, requires human remains held by museums and researchers to be returned to Indian tribes that can make a valid claim for them.
Pat Barker, an archaeologist with the Nevada State Office of the BLM, said research conducted thus far, along with Native American oral traditions that suggest Spirit Cave Man is a Paiute ancestor, are being weighed and evaluated.
"Our job is to evaluate the tribe's claim and see if it is reasonable or not," he said. "The law does allow the completion of scientific studies that are deemed important to the nation as a whole, regardless of the affiliation decision. So even if the decision is that Spirit Cave Man is affiliated with the tribe, tests may still be allowed if they are determined to be in the national interest."
Amy Dansie, an archaeologist with the state Museums and History Division, which has possession of the remains of Spirit Cave Man, said one theory suggests two different groups of people may have lived in this region of Nevada and the West more than 9,000 years ago.
Evidence for this comes from another set of ancient remains found at Pyramid Lake, known as Wizards Beach Man, who is 9,225 years old.
An artistic rendition of the visage of this other ancient resident also was created by Long. The skulls, and the two busts, suggest different populations, Dansie said.
"We have newly developing information all the time that entry into the New World may be much older than previously thought," she said. "Spirit Cave Man could be the remanent of the fist migration, and Wizards Beach Man may represent a second."
The two men have the same basic Southern Asian origin, but they are two different peoples, Dansie said. "Spirit Cave Man looks more like the non-Mongoloid, non-Asian native Ainu of Japan," she said.
Physical evidence, both from Kennewick Man, who has a spear point imbedded in his pelvis, and the skull fracture of Spirit Cave Man, suggests violence among early humans, Dansie said.
"We have an accumulating level of evidence that there was conflict between two groups 9,000 years ago," she said. The Spirit Cave Man culture, as identified by the finely woven tule mats, seems to disappear around 9,000 years ago, she said.
"They either died out or moved on," Dansie said. Humans are generally thought to have migrated to the Western Hemisphere over an ice bridge between Siberia and Alaska about 12,000 years ago, but some archaeologists are now arguing there is evidence suggesting migrations occurred thousands of years earlier.
Paiute Indians dispute the interpretations of archaeologists and say there is a clear link between Spirit Cave Man and their tribe. Tribal traditions also say that burials are sacred and need to be respected, said Mervin Wright, chairman of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, in an interview last year.
"No matter what your belief, if your ancestor or relative is put to rest, you want to have dignity and respect to allow that person to rest in peace, whether he is 50,000 years old, 1 million years old or just put in the ground yesterday," he said.
Native American concern about the care of Spirit Cave Man's remains rose to such a high level that questions were even raised about the artistic renditions created by Long. But Spirit Cave Man, who is not on public view in the museum, was created without any damage to his remains. His skull was CAT-scanned at the Carson-Tahoe Hospital, information that then was used to create a resin model of the cranium.
Dansie said she respects the views of Native Americans, but as a scientist she seeks to know more about Spirit Cave Man.
"We have the same values about burial in our culture," she said. "But the history of America is tied up in this. Spirit Cave Man, Wizards Beach Man and Kennewick Man are pivotal points for whether or not we will ever be able to really explore the early history of America."
Spirit Cave Man