Monday, Jul. 11, 2005

Kennewick Man's hip, skull replicas unveiled

By Anna King, Herald staff writer

SEATTLE -- Doug Owsley ran his hand along the plastic model skull of Kennewick Man looking for an old injury. His fingers paused at a tiny indentation near the top of the skull.

"That's the least of his worries," Owsley, a Washington, D.C., forensic anthropologist for the National Museum of Natural History, said with a laugh.

The plastic replica of Kennewick Man's skull and hipbone were garnering a lot of attention when they were finally unveiled Sunday by the scientists who were studying the ancient remains last week at the Burke Museum in Seattle.

The study ends Friday, but the team of about a dozen scientists said they wanted to share what's been learned so far. It's the first detailed look at the 9,400-year-old bones after a nearly decadelong court battle between those who want to study the remains and the Native Americans who want to lay the old man to rest.

The model skull and hip cost more than $20,000 to make, and look like pieces of weathered sea glass. They are translucent green and feel lightweight. They were laid on a piece of black cloth at the news conference Sunday and closely watched by officials like an expensive diamond necklace might be displayed in a downtown shop.

The models are so exact that every bump and crevice can be felt as if it were the genuine article. They were made using a high-powered CAT scan of the original to make a three-dimensional computer image of the inside and outside of the skull. Almost 800 cross-section views of the head and hipbones were made. The completed computer image was used to make the plastic models.

Owsley refused to pick up the skull while pointing out interesting details, because the model's 11 parts had recently been glued together. The model of the hipbones will reveal more information about the arrowhead that is imbedded inside the bone from another old injury, Owsley said.

These plastic models will be used to make another, more durable, plaster model that scientists can study. It's been about a week since the scientists started working intensively with the bones, and Owsley said he is more optimistic now than he had been at the start of the work.

"I wasn't sure how far we would get," he said. "But we will be able to provide a very strong statement as to whether this was a burial or not."

The scientists say they will be able to tell how Kennewick Man was laid along the banks of the Columbia River -- face up could suggest a burial, face down might be a strong clue that he drowned.

But the scientists don't plan to release that information, or any other information, for months. Some findings may be released after years of more study and peer review. The group of scientists say they will eventually print a book outlining their findings.

Owsley said they also would be able to discern if Kennewick Man's feet or head was pointed toward the river by looking closely at clues on the bones like calcium and soil deposits and algae stains.

Other scientists plan to test Kennewick Man's diet, how his bones might have broken over time and the soils that surrounded him.

"This is like working with a Rembrandt," said Hugh Berryman, a forensic anthropologist from Middle Tennessee State University in Nashville. "This is one of a kind."

Berryman said he usually works with skeletons of soldiers found after wars like Korea, Vietnam and World War II, but studying Kennewick Man was something he was happy to help with.

Berryman laughed before sharing his most exciting find during the first week of study. Few would understand his enthusiasm, he said.

While studying one of Kennewick Man's femurs, the bone was so well preserved that he could tell how it had been broken. He said he could see where the bone had been torqued and where the pressure for the break had come from.

"It's hard to express how rare this thing is," he said. "I've certainly never seen anything this old before."

Thomas Stafford, a geochemist from the University of Wisconsin, said he will be taking about 20 fragments from the skeleton back to his lab for some testing after the study in Seattle is complete.

The scientist -- wearing worn tennis shoes, wild-looking eyebrows and a tan -- appeared like he would be far more at home at his archeological dig in southern Chile than in the stuffy news conference at the Best Western University Tower Hotel.

He intends to find out what Kennewick Man might have eaten. By doing chemical tests on small hunks of bone he also will be able to tell what Kennewick Man ate. Stafford should know by Christmas if Kennewick Man ate more corn, meat or fish.

"Whatever he was eating was extremely abrasive," he said. "His teeth were (worn) down to the nubs."

Stafford also would like to test Kennewick Man's age once again. There is about a 3,000-year difference in opinion from earlier tests. But whether he will be allowed to pin down Kennewick Man's age more closely must be negotiated in court and with the Army Corps of Engineers.

Wayne Smith, from Texas A&M University, said the scientists' days have been long and often they are still mulling questions over even after they have stopped work.

But Smith, an expert in conserving bones that have been found in watery environments, said the opportunity to finally pull together a group of experts to work on the rare skeleton is fun to be a part of. Smith explained that each tiny bit of new information they find will fill in a piece of Kennewick Man's story.

"It's made up of lots of little brush strokes," he said. "Together it makes a great picture."