January 18, 2010

Ancient Bones


We were hiking in the vicinity of Vernal, Utah, a few years ago, exploring the canyon walls for petroglyphs, when we came across some scattered bones.


We gathered the skeletal remains to examine them.  Steve often stops to glance at cow or elk bones for a quick I.D., but this time, the shape of the hip and ankle sockets held his interest.  The bones appeared to be human.



Though the bones looked quite old, we called the police department to report them, just in case.  A reporter, two policemen, and an archeologist all showed up and we led them to the scene.  Everyone eventually concurred that they were Fremont Indian remains that must have washed down from a cliff crevice. (This culture not uncommonly buried their dead in crevices.)
The Ute tribe was notified, and they said they would gather the remains and hold a ceremony.  

The event captured the interest of the reporter, and both local newspapers ran stories about it.  (News was probably slow that week.  In fact, news is pretty much always slow in the Uintah Basin...)

For more views from all over the world, click here.

37 comments:

  1. Beautiful snaps. Yo are part of great discovery.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow! That's pretty awesome. I bet you guys were pretty pumped about your find, how cool!

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's fantastic! What a great find! Great post for the day, Janie! Thanks for sharing the adventure! Give Daisy and Mischief a hug for me! And have a great week -- do let us know if you find anymore bones!!!

    Sylvia

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow! You're now a part of history! Talk about Indiana Jones. :-) Very cool ...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Don't worry - my home town once had a collision between a milk float and a car (both going at around 5mph) as front page news. Your bones are much more newsworthy.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow, you had an interesting find. Great photos and post.

    ReplyDelete
  7. What an exciting find. Great pictures.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Janie that is so exciting...and to be in the paper also..thank you for sharing with us...

    ReplyDelete
  9. Janie - What an interesting story! I really think that is a newsworthy story - I'd sure rather read a great human-interest story than some of the other garbage that is reported!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Fascinating! We only find deer bones but I'm sure one of these days we'll find a corpse (living near one of the UK's major institutions for the criminally insane affects the imagination eventually ;-))

    ReplyDelete
  11. That is too cool! How very exciting for you!!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I enjoyed it when you took me up there. I wish you still lived in Vernal, at least I got to see you sometimes!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I recall that on a college antropology field trip we made a similar discovery. I'm afraid our instructor did not handle it in such an ethical fashion.

    ReplyDelete
  14. How interesting! Thank you for sharing this!

    ReplyDelete
  15. This kind of news is way more interesting than some of the "information" we learn on the nightly news. :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. what an interesting story and find...

    ReplyDelete
  17. Never a dull moment with you two! =D What an interesting find.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Very cool ... especially that "hydrology" was involved (it washed down the gully). It goes to show that if you get out there, you'll find things that others would miss or would otherwise go unnoticed. Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Neat Janie....I'm sure that was exciting--to find those bones. Steve became a celebrity---if for only a short time!!!!!!

    Great post. I really enjoyed it.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

    ReplyDelete
  20. This is absolutely fascinating! I don't think it was a slow news week -- I think some editor recognized a great story when he saw it.

    ReplyDelete
  21. What an amazing find Janie. Glad the remains were returned to the appropriate people.

    ReplyDelete
  22. What an amazing story! Glad the remains were returned for a proper burial.

    ReplyDelete
  23. what an interesting post this is and i love your header.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Wow!!! That's so interesting. Sounds like it was an exciting day for the two of you.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Wow, Janie, what a find. Your husband certainly made the news. What an interesting part of the world you live in.

    ReplyDelete
  26. something i sure would have liked to examine. interesting post janie.
    have a fab week.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Fascinating find and interesting info you've shared with your wonderful photos from your world.
    Hugs and blessings,

    ReplyDelete
  28. Very interesting!! I love stuff like this.... thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Much more interesting than a lot of the so-called "news" about celebrities these days.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Wowee - interesting find!

    ReplyDelete
  31. Very interesting and fascinating indeed. Great to know you part of it!

    ReplyDelete
  32. (Late Comment Post) - if i am not mistaken, i think i have watched this on our tv international news!

    You must be feeling proud of your discovery!

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin