Minnesota, Big Stone County, Brown Valley
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On October 9, 1933, William H. Jensen, an amateur archaeologist, uncovered the badly broken skeleton of a man in a gravel pit on the plateau visible about ½ mile south of this marker. The plateau was formed as an island in the ancient River Warren, an outlet of Glacial Lake Agassiz.
From flint spear points of the parallel-flaked type found in the grave and from the surrounding geological evidence, University of Minnesota archaeologists estimated that the burial dated to about 6000 B.C.
The skull of Browns Valley Man, reconstructed and measured at the university was that of an adult male between 25 and 40 years of age who possessed many of the physical characteristics of the North American Indian. No additional traces of his culture have been discovered in the immediate vicinity.
The skeleton disappeared some time after it was returned to Jensen, deepening the mystery surrounding the Browns Valley Man. It was rediscovered by the Jensen family in 1987. The radiocarbon dating method has now dated the skeleton to 9,000 years ago. This makes the skeleton one of the earliest ever found, to date, in the New World.
(Anthropology • Native Americans) Includes location, directions, 1 photo, GPS coordinates, map.
On October 9, 1933, William H. Jensen, an amateur archaeologist, uncovered the badly broken skeleton of a man in a gravel pit on the plateau visible about ½ mile south of this marker. The plateau was formed as an island in the ancient River Warren, an outlet of Glacial Lake Agassiz.From flint spear points of the parallel-flaked type found in the grave and from the surrounding geological evidence, University of Minnesota archaeologists estimated that the burial dated to about 6000 B.C.
The skull of Browns Valley Man, reconstructed and measured at the university was that of an adult male between 25 and 40 years of age who possessed many of the physical characteristics of the North American Indian. No additional traces of his culture have been discovered in the immediate vicinity.
The skeleton disappeared some time after it was returned to Jensen, deepening the mystery surrounding the Browns Valley Man. It was rediscovered by the Jensen family in 1987. The radiocarbon dating method has now dated the skeleton to 9,000 years ago. This makes the skeleton one of the earliest ever found, to date, in the New World.
(Anthropology • Native Americans) Includes location, directions, 1 photo, GPS coordinates, map.