Scientists from around the world who have been studying the centuries-old human remains that melted out of a glacier in northwestern British Columbia in 1999 will gather for the first time in Victoria later this month to talk about what they've learned from the unnamed "iceman."
The Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi Symposium will be held April 24-27 at the University of Victoria.
It is being held in conjunction with the Northwest Anthropology Conference
Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi means "long ago person found" in the Southern Tutchone language and refers to the remains of the young aboriginal hunter found frozen in a glacier in 1999 in the Tatshenshini-Alsek Park, part of the traditional territory of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations.
Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi was hailed worldwide as one of the most significant archeological and scientific discoveries ever.
The well-preserved condition of the remains has allowed scientists the rare opportunity to study in detail everything about the ancient man's lifestyle, from the source of clothing he wore, to what he ate and drank in the hours before his death on the glacier.
The preservation of the remains without the ritual of an official burial also made the discovery important, said B.C. archeologist Al Mackie.
We heard about this sometime back. They still don't say how many "centuries old" this hunter is.
Radiocarbon dating indicates Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi and the artifacts found with him date to approximately 1670 to 1850, which precedes or overlaps with the earliest European contact for the Pacific Coast region.
There was this line in the recent article. Or did you mean the older story didn't have any dates?
An interesting side issue here is that there was a protocol in place with the tribe for dealing with just such a case-science was allowed to take certain samples for study then the remains were returned to the tribe for burial.
No power struggles, no hissing, no spitting and no lawsuits but instead mutual understanding and respect.
I don’t think the “first peoples” in Canada have the white guilt driven gambling income, and thus the need to continually prove themselves the actual first peoples, that the U S “Native Americans” have.
Therefore they are open to a two way exchange.
“If you respect them, and return them to us when you are done, go ahead and check them out.”
