3 bodies of 1,000-yr-old mysterious tribal group found in Alaska

WASHINGTON - Construction workers unearthed the remains of three humans in Kivalina, Alaska, who are believed to have been members of a mysterious tribal group from about 1,000 years ago. According to a report in The Arctic Sounder, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium was doing excavation for Kivalina’s new wastewater treatment plant when they came across some old bones, which an onsite archeologist determined to be animal bones. Construction resumed until more bones were found - this time human. Three bodies were found close to each other, two together and one in what could have been a wooden house.

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Interesting. However I noticed the article states puzzlement on how these people could survive without whaling. They forgot to take into account the changes in climate. These bones look like they may date back to the Medival Warm Period when the climate was different than today.

... Alaska is the largest U.S. state of the United States by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait.... experienced three time intervals of comparable warmth: A.D.... 1–300, 850–1200, and post-1800. Knowledge of the North American Medieval Warm Period has been useful in dating occupancy periods of certain Native American habitation sites, especially in arid parts of the western U.S.

Review of more recent archaeological research shows that as the search for signs of unusual cultural changes during the MCA has broadened, some of these early patterns (e.g. violence and health problems) have been found to be more complicated and regionally varied than previously thought while others (e.g., settlement disruption, deterioration of long distance trade, and population movements) have been further corroborated. www.absoluteastronomy.com...

reply to post by crimvelvet


I agree, they wouldn't have been living in a wooden house if it was bellow 0 degrees outside. The wood would be pretty hard to find if it had been anyway.

[edit on 23-8-2009 by VitalOverdose]