Kennewick Man

Kennewick Man. 'The Ancient One'. , In 1996, while watching the “Water Follies”, two students discovered a skeleton on the Columbia River bank. It appeared to be one of the oldest skeletons ever found in the Americas. Through carbon dating the human remains were identified as a male, around his death 40 years old, living in the area around 9300 years ago.In his lifetime he had a skull fracture, osteoarthritis, a withered right arm, broken ribs and the remains of a spear point still in his right hip. At the time the remains were found, the origins were not clear. This resulted in an intense debate about who his closest living relatives are. , In 1998 the local consultant Jim Chatters, the first to examine the remains, and sculptor Tom McClelland depicted Kennewick Man as ‘caucasoid, not native american’. , A scientific panel in 1999 concluded, based on visual comparisons of the skull, Kennewick Man was of Eastern Asian origin. The Ainu or Polynesians could have arrived in America thousands of years ago through coastal migration. , The Asatru, a pre-Christian European religion, believed that Kennewick Man was of European descent (from Europeans crossing an Atlantic land bridge during the last ice age). , In 2012, Dr. Owsley, an anthropologist with the Smithsonian Institute released a detailed report. Based on isotopic analysis of the bones he was eating a coastal diet and a marine mammal hunter. , In 2014, advanced DNA research in Denmark concluded that his genome is closest to the members of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville reservation. His remains were reburied in 2017 at an undisclosed location.