54. Possible Relatives in the Americas
Kennewick Man (Washington State, USA)
by George Weber
On 29th July 1996 two young men accidentally discovered a human skull and bones in shallow waters along the shore of artificial Lake Wallulla, a dammed-up part of the Columbia river in Washington State, USA.
The remains had eroded out of the stream bank sometime during Spring 1996 and at the time of their discovery had lain in shallow water for several months. Around 90% of the skeleton was subsequently recovered but it remained unclear from where precisely in the stream bank the remains had come. A non-invasive geologic study of the critical river bank was then carried out by the US Army Corps of Engineers (the agency responsible for the area where the remains had been found) . The study provided information on the general stratigraphic context, geomorphic setting, soil profiles, C14 dates, sedimentation and pH of the site together with many other details.
Closer examination of the remains revealed Kennewick man to have been aged around 45 when he died some 9,300 years ago, injured by a stone projectile. It also appears that he was buried deliberately and not left lying where he fell.
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X marks the most likely original location of the Kennewick burial before the river washed the bones out of the river bank. I and II are the two relevant lithostratigraphic units in the area of the Kennewick burial. Red figures are C14 dates in years before the present.
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What upset a great many settled opinions was the discovery that one of the oldest archaeological human finds ever made in the US turned out to be morphologically quite "un-American" (i.e. "un-Amerind").
While it is reasonably clear what Kennewick Man is not , it is not at all clear yet what he is. Precise measurements of the skull made by J.F. Powell and J.C. Rose in 1999 under the auspices of the US Department of the Interior suggest a Polynesian (64%) or Ainu (24%) ancestry. Both would be astonishing if proven true. The Ainu are an enigmatic remnant population in Japan that has been linked to almost anyone at some time, including the Negritos. The Ainu look somewhat European but they are not genetically related to Europeans.
In February 2004, US courts ruled that Kennwick man does not have to be "returned" to the local Amerindian tribes to be re-buried immediately and that scientific research could be done on the remains. Kennewick Man could turn out to be major evidence for prehistoric peoples living in northern America and whether there were (or were not) of the same origin as present day Amerinds. Encouragingly, the Amerind tribes have now largely accepted this and have come round to accept scientific investigations into their remote past.
As regards the understandable fears of living Amerinds, they may take some comfort from the fact that they will certainly retain their status as "First surviving Americans" . Whatever non-Amerind populations there may have been in prehistoric America, they are all long gone.
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Kennewick Man'skull and his face as reconstructed by Jim Chatters and Thomas McClelland |
Restorers of ancient faces base their restoration above all on the structure of the skull.
Evidence of hair structure (straight. curly, etc), hair colour or hair length worn is very rarely available in archaeological finds. Evidence of skin colour is never available with any degree of certainty.
The reconstruction above has left the question of hair and skin open while the one on the left has boldly (and without supporting evidence) gone for straight black hair and a relatively light skin.
The facial features in both reconstructions do not suggest a Negritoid, Australoid or Veddoid ancestry for Kennewick man. He could indeed be an ancestor of today's living Amerind populations.
If the question can ever be definitively settled, the answer is most likely to come from genetics.
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Research on Kennewick man can nbe done - at last! (ref. Nature 436:10, 7 July 2005) After 9 years of battling for access in the courts, scientist have at long last received permission to study the 9,300-year old Kennewick man. Apart from continuing acrimony accompanied by the customary legal wrangling, virtually no new data on Kennewick man has been published. |
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The skeleton of Kennewick Man |
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The location where Kenniwick Man's remains were found. |
Among web-sites with further information are:
- http://www.cr.nps.gov/archeology/kennewick/
- http://www.friendsofpast.org/kennewick-man/
- http://www.friendsofpast.org/nagpra/Hastings/060809Background.pdf
- http://www.kennewick-man.com
- http://www.newnation.org/NNN-kennewick-man.html
- http://www.runestone.org/kmfact.html
- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/04/060425183740.htm
- http://archaeology.about.com/od/kennewickman/a/kennewick4.htm
- http://www.centerfirstamericans.com/
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Last change 15 September 2006
