he battle over Kennewick Man, one of the most complete skeletons ever found in North America, appears to be over.
Four Northwest tribes seeking to bury the 9,300-year-old bones have announced they will not take their fight to the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) after losing in lower federal courts to scientists who want to study the remains, The Oregonian reported in its Friday editions.
The U.S. Justice Department (news - web sites), which earlier had sided with the tribes, declined Thursday to say whether it would file its own appeal to the nation's highest court by a Monday deadline. Seattle attorney Rob Roy Smith, who represents the Colville Tribes, said he assumes the federal agency will not continue with the case.
And thus the saga ends. This case tested one crucial aspect of the NAGPRA law, that skeletal remains be linked historically with an existing tribe. Despite the efforts of many, this simply could not be done with a 9700 year old skeleton. We doubt that it ever can be done with remains this old, barring extensive DNA analysis which might link populations (see this story from Britain, for example) over such long periods of time. This will no doubt have implications for other very old remains.
Many documents relating to the case can be found at the NPS's web site.
More on ancient cancer How our ancestors avoided cancer
Cancer is a disease that touches most people's lives in some way.
We all seem to know someone who has had it and the global picture is far from encouraging with incidence rates rising year on year.
The increase is largely explained by the fact that the population is steadily ageing, but it is also associated with unhealthy lifestyles, smoking and obesity.
So what of our ancestors? Did they face a life shortened by cancer or were they healthier than modern man?
Research on skeletons dating back thousands of years, indicates that cancer was not something they encountered very frequently.
This is essentially the argument we made last week when noting this research and are, of course, in substantial agreement. We'll continue to be on the lookout for other explanations, however.
Admittedly, we at first read it as "Effing skeletons". . . Epping skeletons sent for analysis
Three human skeletons estimated to be between two and three centuries old discovered Thursday morning at the Hamilton Heights construction site have been sent off to Maine for forensic examination, archaeologists said yesterday.
Kathleen Wheeler, director of Portsmouth-based Independent Archaeological Consultants, said the skeletons were delivered to the University of Maine at Orono.
Marcella Sorg, a forensic archaeologist who also did the studies of African-American slave remains discovered last year under Court Street in Portsmouth, will be heading the investigation, Wheeler said.
“We’ve found finished wood fragments (at the site) which could indicate they were buried in coffins, so right now we’re leaning toward the notion that they were Euro-Americans,” Wheeler said. “Looking at the cranial features, such as the height of the cheekbones, can determine right away if they are Native American, European or African.”
We reported on this over the weekend. There appears to be no new information here, so why we posted it (other than to make the 'effing' joke above) is a mystery to us.
Underwater archaeology update Network of divers will help uncover Georgia's submerged treasures
Archaeologists have been digging up pottery, stone tools and other artifacts in Georgia for years, but until recently there was no coordinated effort to locate the historic treasures submerged along the coast and in rivers and streams.
Georgia has joined at least eight other states, including Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina, in launching a state-funded underwater archaeology program.
As the state's first official underwater archaeologist, Jason Burns is organizing a network of divers and historians to identify the state's submerged relics, including 2,000 shipwrecks.
"When you think of underwater archaeology, it's not just shipwrecks," Burns said. "We're interested in everything from submerged prehistoric sites, to docks, piers and wharves."
Native conflict alert Billie chastises Marineland on burial sites
Town commissioners here have started rewriting their comprehensive plan and land development regulations so the area's sensitive environment will be at least partially protected from runaway development.
But those modern problems took an unusual turn this week as Bobby C. Billie, spiritual head of the Independent Traditional Seminole Nation of Florida, came to the commission and asked it to stop all development.
Billie said Marineland contained indigenous burial grounds.
"White people never ask us how we feel when you put a building on top of our grandmother," Billie said. "You don't respect us. This is our land. Your land is somewhere else."
So that's what the Etruscans did for us... Italy rediscovers glories of its mysterious past
The most extraordinary smile has been beaming down at Romans from hoardings all over the city this week. It belongs to a statue of the Apollo of Veio, the vanished Etruscan city a few miles north of central Rome.
Yesterday, after the first painstaking restoration since the statue's discovery 80 years ago, it went on display in Rome's National Etruscan Museum in Villa Giulia.
The terracotta statue was assembled from 30 fragments found in 1916 in a cave at the site of the vanished city. In 1944 more pieces came to light, enabling archaeologists to add the statue's right arm.
ROMAN RUIN HAS REVEALED ITS SECRET
Ever since a digger clattered into a buried wall seven years ago, experts have been intrigued and perplexed by Swindon's mysterious Roman complex. But yesterday, English Heritage revealed that the enigmatic site in the heart of a housing estate was once a magnificent, luxurious villa.
Today and tomorrow, members of the public have their only chance to view the historic find before the site is buried once again.
English Heritage was overjoyed at uncovering the well-preserved remains of a spacious Turkish bath-like complex after a seven-week dig at Groundwell Ridge. Experts said the elaborate Roman baths and heating system, dating back nearly 1,900 years, exceeded their highest expectations.