{"id":24813,"date":"2024-11-15T22:03:31","date_gmt":"2024-11-16T05:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/prehistoric-human-skull-found-at-canyons-of-the-ancients\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:02:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:02:37","slug":"prehistoric-human-skull-found-at-canyons-of-the-ancients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/prehistoric-human-skull-found-at-canyons-of-the-ancients\/","title":{"rendered":"Prehistoric human skull found at Canyons of the Ancients"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Canyons
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Pueblo of Acoma in New Mexico recently made claim to a human skull found in Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.<\/p>\n

A hiker found the cranium and its detached lower mandible about a year and a half ago while recreating in the monument. They contacted authorities instead of moving it themselves, said Ray O\u2019Neil, the monument manager at Canyons of the Ancients.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as you pick up things and move them, they lose value in many ways,\u201d O\u2019Neil said.<\/p>\n

Once a prehistoric object or individual is moved, and if there\u2019s not extensive documentation of where they were found, they lose the context in the archaeological record.<\/p>\n

Based on how the skull was found, they believe it was placed recently and had been sitting on the ground for the past few years, O\u2019Neil said.<\/p>\n

The Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office, Bureau of Land Management law enforcement and an archaeologist got together to determine the skull was, in fact, prehistoric.<\/p>\n

The skull had \u201cdistinct occipital flattening,\u201d also known as cradle boarding, which \u201cis commonly found in prehistoric Puebloan remains throughout the Four Corners region of the American Southwest,\u201d according to the Federal Register notice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Therefore, it\u2019s likely the individual lived between 1050 and 1295 BCE and is an ancestor of modern Puebloan people.<\/p>\n

Because it was found in isolation \u2013 nothing else was found \u2013 it \u201cprevents further determination of cultural affiliation but does indicate that the location was not the site of an intentional prehistoric burial,\u201d according to the notice.<\/p>\n

The other 20 Pueblo tribes that trace ties to the area have the next 30 days to claim the cranium and its detached lower mandible, as part of the 1990 Native American Graves and Repatriation Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really a social justice initiative,\u201d said O\u2019Neil. \u201cIt gives tribes ownership and control of ancestors and grave objects \u2026 and it should be their decision. It\u2019s their ancestors, their objects.\u201d<\/p>\n

The law also is significant in that \u201cCongress recognized that human remains of any ancestry \u2018must at all times be treated with dignity and respect,\u2019\u201d according to the National Park Service.<\/a><\/p>\n

Tribes most often request that the object or individual be returned to the ground, though they have the option to take it or let the institution that found it, hold it, O\u2019Neil said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not an expert, but it\u2019s fair to say they\u2019d want their objects and individuals to continue on their journey and not live on a shelf somewhere,\u201d O\u2019Neil said.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neil has been in his managerial role for more than three years. He said it\u2019s common for people to bring in objects, but not so common to find human remains.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big picture is that these are individuals and objects,\u201d said O\u2019Neil. \u201cWhat happens to them should be the tribe\u2019s decision.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s likely an ancestor of Puebloan people<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24813"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78686,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24813\/revisions\/78686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24813"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}