The Life and Death of Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchí, an Ancient Frozen Body from British Columbia: Clues from Remains of Plants and Animals

Authors

  • James H. Dickson
  • Petra Mudie

Abstract

The body of a prehistoric Aboriginal man (Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchí, Long Ago Person Found) was recovered in 1999 from a melting glacier in northwestern British Columbia. The frozen man was lying at 1,600 metres above sea level and about fifty kilometres from the Chilkat River estuary in southeastern Alaska. Archaeobotanical studies, ethnobotanical research, and forensic palynology have been carried out to address the following questions: What had he been doing there? Where had he come from? What was his lifestyle and diet? Was his death related to sudden climate change at the start of the Little Ice Age? We can now answer some of these questions partially or completely, and point towards the start of his last journey in a salt marsh on the coast of southeastern Alaska.

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Published

08/13/2008

Issue

Section

Special Collection Articles