A 4,270-Year Old Skull Found in Indiana

A human skull dating back millennia was discovered on a riverbank in eastern Indiana, a local coroner announced this week.

Fayette County Coroner Eddie Richardson said a skull found over the summer has been dated back to 2300 B.C., making it approximately 4,270 years old.

“This remarkable discovery is a powerful and humbling reminder that people have walked this land, our home in Fayette County, for millennia,” Richardson said in a statement. “It calls upon all of us to handle this matter with the utmost respect and diligence.”

The skull was recovered on June 2 by a local landowner on a bank of the Whitewater River, according to the coroner’s office. The resident, described as an “avid collector of Native American artifacts,” reported the finding to the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department.

Under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, agencies that receive federal funds and knowingly discover Native American human remains must notify the appropriate Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization.

They haven’t yet.

In 2022, an older skull was found. A pair of kayakers traversing the the Minnesota River found an 8,000 year-old skull on the bank of the waterway. Analysis found that the skull belonged to a person who lived between 5500 and 6000 B.C.

The Oldest Skull

The oldest human skull Yunxian 2 was found in China. It is a million years old.

Yunxian 2 possessed a unique mixture of traits: a large braincase, thick brow ridges, a long, low skull, and a broad base reminiscent of earlier human species, yet it also displayed a flat face and other traits typical of later hominids.

These “mosaic” traits suggest that Yunxian 2 was a transitional form between Homo erectus and later groups.