SEATTLE, WASHINGTON—A new book due out next month will offer the most detailed account to date of the research conducted on the remains known as Kennewick Man. Discovered in 1996 on federal land in the Columbia River Valley, the analysis suggests that Kennewick Man was a seal hunter from the Pacific Northwest coast who died 9,000 years ago. Scientists found a projectile point lodged in his hip, five broken ribs that had healed improperly, two small dents in his skull, and a worn shoulder from the repetitive stress of throwing spears. “He was a long-distance traveler,” forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, and a co-editor of the book, told The Washington Post. Scientists are still waiting for the results of genetic testing, which is being conducted in Denmark. The skeleton remains in the custody of the Corps of Engineers. For the latest on how archaeologists are rethinking the early history of the New World, see ARCHAEOLOGY's special section "America, in the Beginning."
