Kennewick Man

[Frank Harrist]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l ... ck24m.html

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/02 ... index.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060224/ap_ ... man;_ylt=A
m8z0883Ffaq84LjXthukMcPLBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmN
hdA--


It seems the spear point wasn't the cause of death and he was buried deliberately, not by sediment as first believed. Also he was younger than first beleived. Study is ongoing. These three article each contain different info along with the same basics.

[Leona Conner]

I read two of these beforehand. Sure glad that the courts went along with the scientists this time and didn't give in to the N.A. who would have had him buried long ago. I feel we could learn a lot from him, at least that maybe the Asians weren't the only early settlers.

[RK Awl-O'Gist]

That's good news. I've been fascinated with this skeleton since it was first discovered.

[FreeThinker]

I shudder to think of the pain that poor guy went through with that spear point imbeded in him. Ever step on a board with a nail in it and have that nail go through your shoe and into your foot? I have and it was no fun...we had to use a prybar to get it off my foot and I limped for a month (the nail had stuck into my heel bone). It was bad but an injury like a stone point imbedding itself in your bone, snapping off, and then slowly healing over would have been many, many times more painful. It is amazing it didn't get infected, perhaps evidence of an ancient effective understanding of medicinal resources. I would imagine that, healed over or not, the injury likely caused him discomfort for the rest of his life. The people who made it to adulthood back then were made of sterner stuff than us moderns, I think.

Way back when Kennewick Man was first discoverd I read an article about an initial examination of the morphology of his teeth, most importantly his incisors. In the article it was discussed how his incisors were found to have a shovel like hollow on the inward face. Morphologically this showed a possible Asian connection as this same peculiar feature is also found in ancient Chinese remains (and even to a lesser extent in some modern Chinese populations). This of course would be in conflict with the notion that Kennewick Man was from European descent (as based on the morphological similarities to typical European skull proportions) that gained so much traction in the press. The remains are so ancient that in all likelyhood our modern notions of racial types wouldn't apply. In truth, the modern scientific notion of the differences between the races is that the different racial features are only local environmental adaptations. There is no gene for, say, "whiteness" or "blackness", only sets of local characteristics aquired over time to address surviving in the local environment. As remains from the period of Kennewick and before are quite rare it is hard to draw conclusions as to how the people of that time compared to now "racially". I, as I am sure all of you do, eagerly await further word of what the study of these remarkable remains will reveal. BTW, if anyone is familiar with the earlier study I cited on the shovel shape of his incisors I would be interested in hearing from you.

[Minimalist]

It bothers me greatly that Arizona Senator, John McCain, is behind an attempt to lessen scientific study into pre-Columbian remains by giving native American tribes control of such finds. Given the demographic factors, there are enormous Indian reservations in Arizona, this amounts to little more than political pandering. I had thought better of McCain but perhaps my confidence was misplaced.

I think I will write him a letter asking him to cease attempting to overturn the court's decision in the Kennewick case in the interest of science. The Indians will be happy if they can open another casino or two, instead.

[Rokcet Scientist]

Another dozen bars first!

[daybrown]

Be careful what you wish for. The Native American effort to control what is found will drive Native European researchers back to Europe, and the finds from Europe to Tien Shen province of China will drive all Native American work to the back burner.

Everyone can see that China will emerge as the great power it usually was in History, and many will see the lessons of the Silk Road, the last time the Aryans and Chinese were able to trade freely, as an important lesson in what is to come of the opening of China again.

[Minimalist]

An update on an ongoing effort and some additional data on lesser known finds.


http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/ne ... 508399.htm

ELLENSBURG, Wash. - Behind two locked doors at Central Washington University, what might be called Son of Kennewick Man sits inside a cardboard box.

The faceless skull dates back 9,000 years - just 400 years younger than the superstar skeleton unearthed from the banks of the Columbia River. While Kennewick Man ignited a legal battle over the control of ancient bones, the skull at CWU has barely raised a ripple.

"It just misses the mark in terms of people's interest," said CWU anthropology professor Steven Hackenberger.

Nicknamed "Stickman" for the mythical beings some tribes believe once inhabited the Columbia plateau, the skull ranks among the continent's most-ancient human remains.

About 40 sets of these remains from the distant past dot the map, mostly concentrated in the western United States.

[Leona Conner]

I found the article, on the whole, extremely interesting. But the part wherethe author disucsses finding DNA sequences that matched those found in several locations along the Pacific coastline down to South America.

[stan]

The Kennewick man skull
is a beautiful specimen. Notice how the teeth are worn down.
Life was tough back then! THose pointy flanges on the jaw
seem unusual to me.
Has anyone seen an Ainu skull?

[Minimalist]

That's the second time you asked that, Stan, and I was going to go looking around the last time and got distracted.

Now, I've got some free time.

[Minimalist]

No Ainu skulls but an interesting article.


http://www.rgj.com/news/specials/story9.html

[stan]

Yes, thanks, that is a good summary of the questions and some of the
techniques used to determine similarities in skull types.
I am a little skeptical of the "shotgun" graph comparisons because
there is no neessary antecedent or genetic connection between specimens being compared. However, if there are a lot of them, such
comparisons are more meaningful.

The Ainu were the original inhabitants of Japan and many of their descendants still live on that nation's northernmost island. They lived in Asia before the people we now call Asians migrated there. They looked more like modern Caucasians than like modern American Indians or Asians, and had lots of body hair. Their predominant eye color was blue rather than brown, scientists said.

However, the Ainus shouldnt be spoken of in the past tense only...they ar e still around! I don't suggest you guys would knock off any Ainus to check out
their skulls....but xrays might suggest something...
But someone must already have a trove of them in order to have done the comparative studies. I still think the wide flanges on Kennewick's mandible are unusual.

[Minimalist]

I think I saw those two in a Godzilla movie.

[Guest]

It bothers me greatly that Arizona Senator, John McCain, is behind an attempt to lessen scientific study into pre-Columbian remains by giving native American tribes control of such finds.

it bothers me when politicians play politics with such discoveries. there is no way that north american indians should have control of the finds unless it is a proven discovery of their past.

to make generic legislation only leads to trouble.

let's see-- the tohono are the largest in the south of the state i believe (can't remember the rest of their name) then there are the navajo, the apaches, the hopi. yes, arizona is just crawling with reservations.