Kennewick Man

9,300-year-old skeleton found along the banks of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington, USA, in July 1996. The skeleton, the oldest ever found in the Northwest USA, is 90% complete – one of the most complete skeletons ever unearthed in the Americas. It belongs to a 45-year-old male about 175 cm/5ft 10in tall, who died with a projectile point embedded in his pelvis. It also displays Caucasoid features and has raised questions about the origin of humans in the Americas.

Controversy has surrounded the skeleton since its discovery. Five Northwest tribes want the remains of the man they view as their ancestor turned over to them for reburial under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (1991), while anthropologists have sued the federal government for the right to study the remains. In May 1998 the US government gave permission for the remains to be analysed.

Kennewick Man, along with similar discoveries at Spirit Cave in Nevada dating from about the same period, have led to suggestions that early Caucasoid populations extended from Europe, across north Asia, and into North America. Other scientists have hypothesized that the first Americans came from Europe, moving from England to Iceland, Greenland, and eventually to Canada in skin boats, the trip being made possible by the lower sea levels and shorter distances.