Buhl Woman

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Bone additions, including a 31 mm long needle

As Buhl Woman woman is called, whose skeleton in January 1989 in Buhl in Twin Falls County in Idaho was found. According to radiocarbon dating , she died 10,675 ± 95 years ago and is therefore one of the oldest Indian people whose remains have been examined.

Investigations

A team led by Thomas J. Green from the Arkansas Archeological Survey examined the skeleton in consultation with the Shoshone - Bannock tribes of Fort Hall before it was returned in 1991 to be reburied . Genetic tests were not carried out because the methods of the time did not yet allow DNA to be extracted from the bones obtained. The relevant methods were therefore the morphology and chemical composition of the skeleton. The build of the 1.56 m tall woman corresponds to that of the Amerindian peoples , but there are also attributions to Polynesian similarities.

According to the research conducted by Green, the young woman died between the ages of 17 and 21. According to an analysis of the collagen, their diet consisted mainly of meat and less of fish. Also, the food could be made likely to be cooked. The woman's bones showed signs of presumably seasonal malnutrition.

Additions

Artifacts were found next to the skeleton . A biface (biface) obsidian point (probably of a spear), parts of a bone needle and two other bone artifacts were interpreted as a burial object. The obsidian point and the needle show no signs of use and were probably made especially for the funeral. The obsidian tip is similar in texture to the finds from the Windust Caves in Washington. The needle is around 31 mm long, has a diameter of 2 mm and the eye of the needle is 0.8 mm. It was not drilled, but chiseled or grooved. At the broken tip there were eleven deepened grooves.

The woman's cause of death could not be determined.

literature

  • Thomas J. Green, Bruce Cochran et al: The Buhl Burial: A Paleo Indian Woman From Southern Idaho , in: American Antiquity 63/3 (1998) 437-456

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Buhl Woman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION hominine fossil
DATE OF BIRTH between 89th century BC BC and 85th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH between 89th century BC BC and 85th century BC Chr.