The two kayakers spotted a brown chunk on the bank while kayaking on the Minnesota River. They looked closer as they paddled toward it. They called the Renville County Sheriff's Office because it looked like a bone.
When Sheriff Scott Hable was told of the kayakers discovery near the city of Sacred Heart, he wondered if it was the remains of a missing person from a nearby county.
Sheriff Hable said that nobody was anticipating the news to come.
The bone was sent to a medical examiner by the sheriff's office and then to a forensic anthropologist with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who were unable to identify the person, but did make a startling discovery on Tuesday through carbon dating. Sheriff Hable said that the anthropologist found that the bone was from a young man who lived between 6000 B.C. and 8000 B.C.
Sheriff Hable said by phone on Wednesday that there was a strange report that it was ancient.
According to a report by the Archaeology Laboratory at Augustana University, the young man traveled through parts of Minnesota during the Archaic period in North America, when people ate mostly nuts and seeds.
Kathleen Blue, a professor of anthropology at Minnesota State University, said on Wednesday that the young man would have likely eaten a diet of plants, deer, fish, turtles and freshwater mussels in a small area rather than following mammals and bison as they migrate for miles.
The glaciers have retreated a few thousands years before that, so there probably wasn't a lot of people in Minnesota 8,000 years ago.
She said that it is rare for Native American tribes in the state to allow the bones of their ancestors to be examined for archaeological purposes.
Sheriff Hable said that the F.B.I. anthropologist had found evidence ofblunt force trauma to the man's skull.
According to Dr. Blue, the wound appeared to have healed and not been his cause of death.
It would have been something he survived, according to Dr. Blue.
She said the skull could have been placed in a burial site close to the water and carried away for thousands of years.
On Wednesday, when the Renville County Sheriff's Office posted a news release about the skull and pictures of it, Sheriff Hable said, his office was contacted by various Native American groups in the state. They told the sheriff's office that publishing photos of the skull was offensive to the Native American culture.
Sheriff Hable said that the post was taken down because there was a chance that the bones belonged to someone with Native American heritage.
The Minnesota Indian Affairs Council didn't respond to a request for comment on Wednesday or Thursday.
Dr. Blue said that the skull was from a tribe that was present in the area today.
The Minnesota Indian Affairs Council is very protective of any remains.
If the sheriff had not sent the skull to the medical examiner's office, it would have been a felony.
Sheriff Hable said that the skull would be returned to the Native American tribes.
The skull was found in the environment. According to a report from Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources, the state was 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217
In some parts of the state, it was as serious as anything experienced in over 40 years, according to the report.
Global warming increases the risk of a dry spell. Higher temperatures cause more precipitation to fall as rain than snow, which can affect water availability for agriculture. Climate change can affect precipitation around the world.
Sheriff Hable said that parts of the Minnesota River had not been before.
He said that the people who found the skull were in a kayak. The names were not released by the sheriff's office.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said that a metal barrel containing the remains of a person killed about four decades ago was exposed by a drop in the water levels in Nevada's Lake Mead.
The officials said that the water level drop could result in other bodies being found.
Sheriff Hable didn't expect any more skulls to be found in his area, let alone one from a different millennium.
He said that this is extremely rare.
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