Lovelock Skull and Spirit Cave Man- Nevada

Besides the skulls of the "Nebraska Loess Man" (posted yesterday), other odd looking skulls have been found in the U.S., of course, they received a similar treatment, they are classed as normal, and any unusual features are noted but their real cause is assumed as natural variations (i.e. within normality), instead of wondering if they could belong to another more primitive or archaic human, they are boxed off as recent H. sapiens remains.

The Skull

Lovelock skull, notice the occipital bun and the brows (arrows). From [1]

The skull of an adult male was found in 1967, 3 miles southwest of Lovelock cave, in a salt-flat.

It had a "notably strong browridge... strong nuchal crest [one running along the center of the rear part of the skull, though not apparent in the photographs] ...retreating forehead ... massive occipital torus or crest".[1]

It was classed among the "Early Period Central California material", which also have big occipital buns and glabellar prominences (crest between the eyes above the nose).

Therefore it is not of "any great antiquity" not more than 6.000 BC.

However, "occipital buns" are a feature found in 81.8% of Neanderthal skulls but only in 60% of Upper Paleolithic Modern Humans. [2] It is rare among modern Humans. Maybe the native American found at Lovelock was one of those "select few" modern humans who have a bun. Or he had a high proportion of Neanderthal genes in him.

Spirit Cave

However, there are other clues: A mummified body of a man was recovered from Spirit Cave also at Lovelock, Nevada in 1940; it was dated in 1994 to 10,630 Ka. It was contested in a court of law by the local Paiute natives who have lived there as far as anyone can remember, they wanted to keep it out of a museum and bury it (read more and even more on the issue of "repatriating" native American remains, which also concerns another "caucasoid": Kennewick man and placed his remains in a legal limbo).

The unusual “Caucasoid” features of the cave-man are quite unlike those of current Native Americans (Paiute) living in the area in historic times, Spirit Cave man exhibits “Caucasoid” features and "Red hair" (which was attributed to decoloring due to the salt of the nearby salt-flats).[4]

Interestingly, the Paiute natives of Nevada, according to a book written in 1883 by one of them, Winnemucca, a Chief's daughter, tells us how they exterminated a “small tribe of barbarians” known as “people-eaters"; who waylayed them to “kill and eat them”. They “had reddish hair” from which the Paitue later made dresses. [3]

Red hair is not at all common among Amerindians or East Asians but Neanderthal had the MC1R gene (melanocortin 1 receptor) associated with red hair in humans.[5]

So maybe a band of relict Neanderthals lived in Nevada until quite recently and were wiped out by the Paiute.

Sources

[1] Reed, E., (1967). An Unusual Human Skull from near Lovelock, Nevada, University of Utah Press. Miscellaneous Collected Papers, No.18.
[2] Ahern, J. link
[3] Hopinks Winnemucca, (1883). Life among the Piutes, their wrongs and claims. Putnam’s. N. York. P 73
[4] Barker, C Ellis, S. Damadio, (2000). Determination of cultural affiliation of ancient human remains from Spirit Cave. Nevada P Bureau of Land Management Nevada State Office.
[5] Lalueza-Fox, C., Römpler, H., Hofreiter M., et al., (2007). A melanocortin 1 receptor allele suggests varying pigmentation among Neanderthals. Science, October 25, 2007

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