http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/19/science/19skul.html A Skeleton Moves From the Courts to the Laboratory by TIMOTHY EGAN New York Times, July 19, 2005 SEATTLE, July 18 – The bones, more than 350 pieces, were laid out on a bed of sand, a human jigsaw with ancient resonance. Head to toe, one of the oldest and best-preserved sets of remains ever discovered in North America was ready to give up its secrets. The hip and skull of Kennewick Man went through high-resolution scans in Chicago. Those three-dimensional pictures were used to produce plastic replicas of the bones, above. American Indian tribes had planned to bury the skeleton, but a federal magistrate’s ruling in 2002 cleared the way for scientists to study it. Harley Soltes for The New York Times After waiting 9 years to get a close look at Kennewick Man, the 9,000-year-old skeleton that was found on the banks of the Columbia River in 1996 and quickly became a fossil celebrity, a team of scientists spent 10 days this month examining it. They looked at teeth, bones and plaque to determine how he lived, what he ate and how he died. They studied soil sedimentation and bone calcium for clues to whether he was ritually buried, or died in the place where he was found. They measured the skull, and produced a new model that looks vastly different from an earlier version. And while they were cautious about announcing any sweeping conclusions regarding a set of remains that has already prompted much new thinking on the origins of the first Americans, the team members said the skeleton was proving to be even more of a scientific find than they had expected. “I have looked at thousands of skeletons and this is one of the most intact, most fascinating, most important I have ever seen,” said Douglas W. Owsley, a forensic anthropologist from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. “It’s the type of skeleton that comes along once in a lifetime.” He said the initial job of the team was to “listen to the bones,” and the atmosphere, judging from the excitement of the scientists as they discussed their work, was electric. Dr. Owsley said answers to the big questions about Kennewick Man – where he fits in the migratory patterns of early Americans, his age at the time of death, what type of culture he belonged to – will come in time, after future examinations. “But based on what we’ve seen so far, this has exceeded my expectations,” said Dr. Owsley, leader of the 11-member team and one of the scientists who sued the government for access to the bones. “This will continue to change and enhance our view of early Americans.” In preparation for the initial examination, the hip and skull were flown to Chicago, where they went through high-resolution CT scans, much more detailed than hospital scans. Those three-dimensional pictures were used to produce casts and replicas of the bones. For now, the team has finished what amounts to a sort of autopsy, with added value. To that end the examination, which took place under extraordinary circumstances at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Washington, was aided by a forensic anthropologist, Hugh Berryman of Nashville, who often assists in criminal investigations. “This is real old C.S.I.,” said Dr. Berryman, referring to the crime scene investigations that inspired the hit television shows. The skeleton caused a furor from the time of discovery, making waves far beyond the academic realm, after an examining anthropologist said it appeared to have “Caucasoid” features. One reconstruction made Kennewick Man look like Patrick Stewart, the actor who played Capt. Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” American Indian tribes in the desert of the Columbia River Basin claimed the man as one of their own, calling him the Ancient One. The tribes planned to close off further examination and to bury the remains, in accordance with a federal law that says the government must turn over Indian remains to native groups that can claim affiliation with them. A group of scientists sued, setting off a legal battle, while the bones remained in the custody of the Army Corps of Engineers. In 2002, a federal magistrate, John Jelderks of Portland, Ore., ruled that there was little evidence to support the idea that Kennewick “is related to any identifiable group or culture, and the culture to which he belonged may have died out thousands of years ago.” The ruling, backed by a federal appeals court last year, cleared the way for the scientists to begin their study. After being dragged into the culture wars, Kennewick Man remains a delicate subject – something that was clear in how the examining scientists parsed their descriptions of the skull at the end of 10 days of study. David Hunt, an anthropologist at the Smithsonian who was instrumental in remodeling the skull, said he was sure there would be criticism of his reproduction, but he said it was based on the latest and most precise measurements of the head. He said it was accurate to within less than a hundredth of an inch. Standing by the translucent model inside the Burke, Dr. Hunt said, “I see features that are similar to other Paleo Indians,” referring to remains older than 7,000 years that have been found in North America. But his colleague at the Smithsonian Dr. Owsley said that term was imprecise. “It should be Paleo-American,” Dr. Owsley said. These bones are very different from what you see in Native American skeletons.” Earlier, other anthropologists said that Kennewick Man most resembled the Ainu, aboriginal people from northern Japan. The scientists who examined Kennewick Man this month did not dispute that designation, but they said fresh DNA testing, carbon dating and further examinations would give them more accurate information. Earlier DNA testing, done during the court cases, failed to turn up matches with contemporary cultures. One key to Kennewick Man’s life and times will be the stone spear point that was found embedded in his hip bone. Dr. Owsley said it was clear that the man did not die of the projectile, which had been snapped off. “This was a healed-over wound,” he said. But the spear point, which was made of basalt, will be the guiding clue as anthropologists seek a match to other cultures. Kennewick Man’s discovery brought fresh vigor to the discussion over how the Americas were inhabited. Earlier theories held that people crossed a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska. But Kennewick Man, along with a few other findings, suggested that there were waves of migration by different people, some possibly by boat. The scientists who examined the skeleton, and their supporters, still fear that a political move could cut off future study. On behalf of several tribes, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona and chairman of the committee that controls Indians affairs, has introduced an amendment to the law the governs custody of ancient remains. His proposed change would broaden the definition of Native American remains, expanding it to well into the past. Indians say such a change is needed to protect ancient ancestors, while others say it will make it nearly impossible to study ancient remains, even if they have little or no connection to present tribes. But as the scientists finished their 10-day study of Kennewick Man, with plans to report the results in October, the politics for once seemed to take a back seat to the giddiness of discovery. “This is like an extraordinary rare book,” Dr. Berryman said, “and we’re reading it one page at a time.” ~~~

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8599291/site/newsweek/

A 9,000-Year-Old Secret After a long legal battle, scientists are studying an ancient skeleton that could change theories about the first Americans. by Jerry Adler Newsweek July 25 issue When last heard from, 9,000-year-old Kennewick Man was in federal court, his battered bones the subject of a tug of war between scientists who wanted to study them and Indian tribes who sought to bury them. Almost from the moment he came tumbling out of the muddy bank of the Columbia River during a speedboat race in 1996, the proto-American with the “Caucasoid-like” skull has been arousing passions on all sides. Was he a messenger from the past, bearing evidence that the New World was populated not just once, by way of the now vanished land bridge from Siberia, but at different times, by unrelated groups, from diverse parts of the world? If so, who were his people—and who were the ones who embedded a stone spearpoint in his right hip? Or was he merely an uncommonly remote ancestor of the Northwest Indian tribes who live along the river today, and who are thereby entitled to bury him according to their rites? Last week he was in the news again as scientists began studying the 300-odd pieces in which he was found, hoping to answer the first questions raised by any human remains: how did he die, and how was he buried? The examination, ordered by a federal magistrate in 2002 and affirmed by an appeals court last year, came as a disappointment to the Indian coalition which had claimed the skeleton under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. This 1990 law, which gives tribes custody of human remains to which they can plausibly assert a cultural kinship, was meant to remedy the wholesale 19th-century plundering of Indian corpses for museums and private collections. But it had never been tested in a case involving a hypothesized ancestor separated by hundreds of generations. And the proportions of Kennewick Man’s skull were different—not as long or broad, but bigger front to back—from modern Indian skulls (and from any other present-day population). One early description used the word “Caucasoid,” giving rise to a boomlet in speculation about Europeans’ settling North America from the east. Anthropologists now say the closest match appears to be with the Ainu, an ethnic minority in Japan. The Indian position is that it doesn’t matter when Kennewick Man lived, or what size his head was. “[Indian] remains are sacred to the native peoples because we are a part of this earth and we were put here to take care of the land,” says Rex Buck Jr., a religious leader among the Wanapum. They were supported by the Department of the Interior, which was eager to show its good will by turning the skeleton over for burial. Nor did the tribes feel the need to research how their ancestors got to America, because they already know the answer. “From our oral histories, we know that our people have been part of this land since the beginning of time,” Armand Minthorn of the Umatillas contended. To the scientists, the chance to examine the remains was self-evidently a triumph for reason. “It comes down,” says Douglas Owsley of the Smithsonian, “to the right to ask questions of the past.” He and 10 colleagues spent a week poring over the bones, studying faint chemical stains and microscopic patterns of breakage and the tiny beads of calcium carbonate that accumulate on the downside, indicating how the corpse was positioned. To minimize handling of the skeleton, which the Indians still hope to rebury, the scientists scanned the bones and made three-dimensional models that could be measured and pieced together to give a better idea of what Kennewick Man might have looked like under the skin. As to his world, and who else lived in it, that information must await new discoveries elsewhere. In 1998, apparently in response to the Indians’ fears that more skeletons might be unearthed, the government buried the discovery site under 2 million pounds of dirt. With Juliet Chung_________________

Darwin2go

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/19/science/19skul.html A Skeleton Moves From the Courts to the Laboratory by TIMOTHY EGAN New York Times, July 19, 2005 SEATTLE, July 18 – The bones, more than 350 pieces, were laid out on a bed of sand, a human jigsaw with ancient resonance. Head to toe, one of the oldest and best-preserved sets of remains ever discovered in North America was ready to give up its secrets. The hip and skull of Kennewick Man went through high-resolution scans in Chicago. Those three-dimensional pictures were used to produce plastic replicas of the bones, above. American Indian tribes had planned to bury the skeleton, but a federal magistrate’s ruling in 2002 cleared the way for scientists to study it. Harley Soltes for The New York Times After waiting 9 years to get a close look at Kennewick Man, the 9,000-year-old skeleton that was found on the banks of the Columbia River in 1996 and quickly became a fossil celebrity, a team of scientists spent 10 days this month examining it. They looked at teeth, bones and plaque to determine how he lived, what he ate and how he died. They studied soil sedimentation and bone calcium for clues to whether he was ritually buried, or died in the place where he was found. They measured the skull, and produced a new model that looks vastly different from an earlier version. And while they were cautious about announcing any sweeping conclusions regarding a set of remains that has already prompted much new thinking on the origins of the first Americans, the team members said the skeleton was proving to be even more of a scientific find than they had expected. “I have looked at thousands of skeletons and this is one of the most intact, most fascinating, most important I have ever seen,” said Douglas W. Owsley, a forensic anthropologist from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. “It’s the type of skeleton that comes along once in a lifetime.” He said the initial job of the team was to “listen to the bones,” and the atmosphere, judging from the excitement of the scientists as they discussed their work, was electric. Dr. Owsley said answers to the big questions about Kennewick Man – where he fits in the migratory patterns of early Americans, his age at the time of death, what type of culture he belonged to – will come in time, after future examinations. “But based on what we’ve seen so far, this has exceeded my expectations,” said Dr. Owsley, leader of the 11-member team and one of the scientists who sued the government for access to the bones. “This will continue to change and enhance our view of early Americans.” In preparation for the initial examination, the hip and skull were flown to Chicago, where they went through high-resolution CT scans, much more detailed than hospital scans. Those three-dimensional pictures were used to produce casts and replicas of the bones. For now, the team has finished what amounts to a sort of autopsy, with added value. To that end the examination, which took place under extraordinary circumstances at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Washington, was aided by a forensic anthropologist, Hugh Berryman of Nashville, who often assists in criminal investigations. “This is real old C.S.I.,” said Dr. Berryman, referring to the crime scene investigations that inspired the hit television shows. The skeleton caused a furor from the time of discovery, making waves far beyond the academic realm, after an examining anthropologist said it appeared to have “Caucasoid” features. One reconstruction made Kennewick Man look like Patrick Stewart, the actor who played Capt. Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” American Indian tribes in the desert of the Columbia River Basin claimed the man as one of their own, calling him the Ancient One. The tribes planned to close off further examination and to bury the remains, in accordance with a federal law that says the government must turn over Indian remains to native groups that can claim affiliation with them. A group of scientists sued, setting off a legal battle, while the bones remained in the custody of the Army Corps of Engineers. In 2002, a federal magistrate, John Jelderks of Portland, Ore., ruled that there was little evidence to support the idea that Kennewick “is related to any identifiable group or culture, and the culture to which he belonged may have died out thousands of years ago.” The ruling, backed by a federal appeals court last year, cleared the way for the scientists to begin their study. After being dragged into the culture wars, Kennewick Man remains a delicate subject – something that was clear in how the examining scientists parsed their descriptions of the skull at the end of 10 days of study. David Hunt, an anthropologist at the Smithsonian who was instrumental in remodeling the skull, said he was sure there would be criticism of his reproduction, but he said it was based on the latest and most precise measurements of the head. He said it was accurate to within less than a hundredth of an inch. Standing by the translucent model inside the Burke, Dr. Hunt said, “I see features that are similar to other Paleo Indians,” referring to remains older than 7,000 years that have been found in North America. But his colleague at the Smithsonian Dr. Owsley said that term was imprecise. “It should be Paleo-American,” Dr. Owsley said. These bones are very different from what you see in Native American skeletons.” Earlier, other anthropologists said that Kennewick Man most resembled the Ainu, aboriginal people from northern Japan. The scientists who examined Kennewick Man this month did not dispute that designation, but they said fresh DNA testing, carbon dating and further examinations would give them more accurate information. Earlier DNA testing, done during the court cases, failed to turn up matches with contemporary cultures. One key to Kennewick Man’s life and times will be the stone spear point that was found embedded in his hip bone. Dr. Owsley said it was clear that the man did not die of the projectile, which had been snapped off. “This was a healed-over wound,” he said. But the spear point, which was made of basalt, will be the guiding clue as anthropologists seek a match to other cultures. Kennewick Man’s discovery brought fresh vigor to the discussion over how the Americas were inhabited. Earlier theories held that people crossed a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska. But Kennewick Man, along with a few other findings, suggested that there were waves of migration by different people, some possibly by boat. The scientists who examined the skeleton, and their supporters, still fear that a political move could cut off future study. On behalf of several tribes, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona and chairman of the committee that controls Indians affairs, has introduced an amendment to the law the governs custody of ancient remains. His proposed change would broaden the definition of Native American remains, expanding it to well into the past. Indians say such a change is needed to protect ancient ancestors, while others say it will make it nearly impossible to study ancient remains, even if they have little or no connection to present tribes. But as the scientists finished their 10-day study of Kennewick Man, with plans to report the results in October, the politics for once seemed to take a back seat to the giddiness of discovery. “This is like an extraordinary rare book,” Dr. Berryman said, “and we’re reading it one page at a time.” ~~~

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8599291/site/newsweek/

A 9,000-Year-Old Secret After a long legal battle, scientists are studying an ancient skeleton that could change theories about the first Americans. by Jerry Adler Newsweek July 25 issue When last heard from, 9,000-year-old Kennewick Man was in federal court, his battered bones the subject of a tug of war between scientists who wanted to study them and Indian tribes who sought to bury them. Almost from the moment he came tumbling out of the muddy bank of the Columbia River during a speedboat race in 1996, the proto-American with the “Caucasoid-like” skull has been arousing passions on all sides. Was he a messenger from the past, bearing evidence that the New World was populated not just once, by way of the now vanished land bridge from Siberia, but at different times, by unrelated groups, from diverse parts of the world? If so, who were his people—and who were the ones who embedded a stone spearpoint in his right hip? Or was he merely an uncommonly remote ancestor of the Northwest Indian tribes who live along the river today, and who are thereby entitled to bury him according to their rites? Last week he was in the news again as scientists began studying the 300-odd pieces in which he was found, hoping to answer the first questions raised by any human remains: how did he die, and how was he buried? The examination, ordered by a federal magistrate in 2002 and affirmed by an appeals court last year, came as a disappointment to the Indian coalition which had claimed the skeleton under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. This 1990 law, which gives tribes custody of human remains to which they can plausibly assert a cultural kinship, was meant to remedy the wholesale 19th-century plundering of Indian corpses for museums and private collections. But it had never been tested in a case involving a hypothesized ancestor separated by hundreds of generations. And the proportions of Kennewick Man’s skull were different—not as long or broad, but bigger front to back—from modern Indian skulls (and from any other present-day population). One early description used the word “Caucasoid,” giving rise to a boomlet in speculation about Europeans’ settling North America from the east. Anthropologists now say the closest match appears to be with the Ainu, an ethnic minority in Japan. The Indian position is that it doesn’t matter when Kennewick Man lived, or what size his head was. “[Indian] remains are sacred to the native peoples because we are a part of this earth and we were put here to take care of the land,” says Rex Buck Jr., a religious leader among the Wanapum. They were supported by the Department of the Interior, which was eager to show its good will by turning the skeleton over for burial. Nor did the tribes feel the need to research how their ancestors got to America, because they already know the answer. “From our oral histories, we know that our people have been part of this land since the beginning of time,” Armand Minthorn of the Umatillas contended. To the scientists, the chance to examine the remains was self-evidently a triumph for reason. “It comes down,” says Douglas Owsley of the Smithsonian, “to the right to ask questions of the past.” He and 10 colleagues spent a week poring over the bones, studying faint chemical stains and microscopic patterns of breakage and the tiny beads of calcium carbonate that accumulate on the downside, indicating how the corpse was positioned. To minimize handling of the skeleton, which the Indians still hope to rebury, the scientists scanned the bones and made three-dimensional models that could be measured and pieced together to give a better idea of what Kennewick Man might have looked like under the skin. As to his world, and who else lived in it, that information must await new discoveries elsewhere. In 1998, apparently in response to the Indians’ fears that more skeletons might be unearthed, the government buried the discovery site under 2 million pounds of dirt. With Juliet Chung_________________

Darwin2go