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Re: 9,000-Year-Old Caucasian Found in Seattle!
Susan S. Chin (susansf@netcom.com)
Sat, 14 Sep 1996 22:35:38 GMT
Paul Myers (myers@netaxs.com) wrote:
: In article <susansfDxqE0v.3F@netcom.com>, susansf@netcom.com (Susan S.
: Chin) wrote:
: > Yes, I was very skeptical myself after reading about this in this
: > newsgroup last week.
: >
: > The key here is VARIATION. Humans within a race vary in morphology just
: > as humans across races do. I wouldn't be so quick to call this a white guy,
: > er Caucasian male. What characters did they use to determine it was male
: > anyway? Let alone that the individual was of European ancestry?
: >
: Well, I think the morphological characters that can be used to determine
: race are relatively reliable (but of course not 100% certain)...I'd be more
: inclined to suspect that the dating is bogus, and that this skull is
: of a contemporary individual of European ancestry, of which there are plenty
: of examples roaming around Washington state.
: --
: Paul Myers Department of Biology
: myers@netaxs.com Temple University
: http://fishnet.bio.temple.edu/ Philadelphia, PA 19122
After posting the above, I realized the reference to the skull being that
of a male individual came from a post last week "9600 yr old skull
found." I am still curious what criteria were used to determine that it
was a male. There are diagnostic features of a skull which could suggest it,
but they were not mentioned in that post. Also there was mention of a
skeleton as well, but it wasn't clear if this belonged to the same
individual, what the context of the burial or find was, etc.
The carbon dating definitely needs corroboration from an independent
source before it can be considered valid.
The features which lead the researchers to call the skull of
European/Caucasian ancestry were, I believe, an elongated skull and
relatively unworn teeth.
Would be nice if we could see for ourselves what this skull actually
looks like...
Susan
--
susansf@netcom.com
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