Experts To Comb Site Where Kennewick Man Was Found Scientists Hope To Find Evidence That Will Help Them Date Remains

Scientists will begin to study this week the Columbia River site where ancient bones were found last year in an attempt to better date the skeleton, believed to be 9,200 years old.

Experts from the Army Corps of Engineers’ geotechnical laboratory in Vicksburg, Miss., will begin studying the site Friday. Joining them will be teams of scientists gathered by Washington State University researcher Gary Huckleberry and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

Potentially, scientists will be able to determine whether “Kennewick Man,” as the remains are known, floated downriver or was buried at the site.

One of the biggest potential finds is organic material, such as plant or animal remains, that could be carbon-dated to confirm the age of the skeleton.

“We feel the geology has a strong potential to give us some real ties to the age of the sediment” that held the remains, said Lillian Wakeley, project leader.

Work will involve copious note taking about site characteristics, lots of photographs and gathering of soil samples, Wakeley said. She expects it to be completed by Dec. 19.

The timing of the study is less than ideal. Short daylight hours, cold, mud and the potential for snow or rain could force scientists to spend twice as long as they would have in August or September.

But the scientists are doing it now before the corps moves forward with plans to stabilize the eroding riverbank, perhaps by adding large rocks to protect the area, which would make it inaccessible to the scientists.

The bones of Kennewick Man - believed to be the oldest and most complete prehistoric human skeleton found in the Pacific Northwest - were found in July 1996 along the Columbia River, and were carbon-dated at about 9,200 years old. They have sparked controversy because some scientists contend they appear to have caucasoid features.

Five Northwest tribes, including the Umatilla, told the corps that the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act mandated the bones be returned to them for burial.

The corps was close to granting that request when eight scientists sued for the right to study the bones, saying the remains are too old to link to modern American Indians without more study.

Anthropologists say an examination that was made before the legal dispute arose indicates the skeleton may have been unrelated to the ancestors of present-day Indians.