Research published in today's issue of
Science details the discovery of the remains of an 11,500-year-old Native child in Alaska.
The child was about three years old and was cremated in a hearth inside a home. It is the first discovery of its kind in Alaska and the oldest set of remains found in the region.
"This was a living, breathing human being that lived and died," Ben A. Potter of the
University of Alaska Fairbanks, who led the excavation of the site, told the Associated Press.
The Healy Lake Traditional Council, a federally recognized tribe, has named the child Xaasaa Cheege Ts'eniin, which means Upward Sun River Mouth Child in Athabaskan.
The site is near Xaasaa Na, or Upward Sun River.
Get the Story:
Child Burial Provides Rare Glimpse of Early Americans (Science 2/24)
Oldest subarctic North American human remains found (The Seward Phoenix Log 2/24)
Earliest Human Remains In US Arctic Reported (AP 2/24)
Ice-age child's remains discovered in Interior (The Anchorage Daily News 2/25)
Body of ice age child found in Interior Alaska (The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner 2/25)
Meet Xaasaa: Scientists make historic discovery of 11,500-year-old toddler bones in Alaska (The Daily Mail 2/25)
Scientists: Oldest human found in Alaska is a child, cremated 11,500 years ago
(The Washington Post 2/25)
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