A hobbyist’s keen eye led authorities to a human skull on the bank of an Indiana river — a find that turned out to be over 4,000 years old.
The Fayette County Coroner’s Office announced the discovery in an Oct. 9 press release.
The skull, which was reported to authorities on June 2, was uncovered near the West Fork of the Whitewater River, which flows through Indiana’s historic Whitewater Valley.
A hobbyist, described as a local landowner, spotted the skull on an eroded bank. Authorities said that the finder was an ‘avid collector of Native American artifacts.’
FACES OF ANCIENT MUMMIES, HIDDEN FOR CENTURIES, FINALLY REVEALED THROUGH DIGITAL RECONSTRUCTIONS
The Fayette County Sheriff’s Department began the initial investigation and quickly concluded that the skull was human. But its age took longer to confirm.
Samples of the skull were sent out to the University of Indianapolis Human Identification Center and the Center for Applied Isotope Studies at the University of Georgia for forensic and radiocarbon analyses, respectively.
After months of tests, officials can now say that the skull is around 4,270 years old. It likely belonged to a Native American who lived around 2300 B.C.
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