The Kennewick Man makes you think of two things; One, is the Brendan Fraser movie California Man (or Encino Man if you live stateside), and the other being that episode of South Park, Prehistoric Man, where Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny unearth Gorak/Larry. Recommended watching on both counts!
As with many prehistoric finds, the initial uncovering of The Kennewick Man (who will now be called Kenny) was a total accident, with his skull being found by two spectators attending the annual hydroplane races. Not entirely sure what they were doing at the time, but sometimes it’s best not to ask hmm?
The skull was shipped off to the coroner, who noticed that this guys time of death was slightly longer than usual, and thus called in an archaeologist, named James Chatters. It took ten visits to the site to collect 350 bones and pieces of bone, due to the remains being scattered throughout the reservoir by erosion. There was near enough a complete skeleton, the cranium was fully intact and still had all the teeth that were present when Kenny died.
After studying the bones, Chatters determined Kenny to have been in his mid fifties when he kicked the bucket, and he was about 5’6 (173cm) tall. He also found what appeared to be a spearhead lodged in the pelvis, dated anywhere between 7,500 to 11,000-12,000 years ago, which may have been a contributing factor in Kenny’s death, but they’ll likely never know.
Ever since his discovery, Kenny’s remains have been stuck in a legal battle over who owns his bits and bobs. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were set to return the remains to the Native American tribes for reburial until a group of scientists launched their own claim in order to further study the bones. They won, and Kenny now resides in the Burke Museum at the University of Washington.
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