The Spirit Cave mummy is the oldest human mummy found in North America. It was discovered in 1940 in Spirit Cave, 13 miles (21 km) east of Fallon, Nevada, United States, by Sydney and Georgia Wheeler, a husband-and-wife archaeological team. Studies of the remains showed similarities to indigenous peoples from North and South America. In 2016, the remains were returned to the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe of Nevada. The Spirit Cave mummy was one of the first to be dated using a special type of radiocarbon dating method. Its discovery and study helped scientists learn more about the history of the western Great Basin.

Discovery

The Wheelers worked for the Nevada State Parks Commission. They were checking places that might have ancient items to stop them from being lost because of guano mining. When they entered Spirit Cave, they found the remains of two people wrapped in tule matting. One set of remains, buried deeper than the other, was partially mummified (the head and right shoulder). This partially mummified person, called the Spirit Cave mummy, was wearing moccasins and wrapped in a rabbit-skin blanket when placed there. The Wheelers, with help from local people, collected sixty-seven artifacts from the cave.

These artifacts were studied at the Nevada State Museum. At first, experts thought they were between 1,500 and 2,000 years old. They were stored at the Nevada State Museum’s storage facility in Carson City for fifty-four years.

Spirit Cave is located at an elevation of 4,154 feet (1,266 meters) in the foothills of the Stillwater Mountains. The Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge was created in this area. The cave is to the northeast of Fallon, Nevada. Similar features in the bones found in Spirit Cave show a clear connection to other remains discovered in different places, such as the Wizard Beach man and the Crypt Cave dog burial.

Dating

In 1996, R. Ervi Taylor, an anthropologist from the University of California, Riverside, studied seventeen Spirit Cave artifacts using mass spectrometry. The results showed the mummy was about 9,400 years old (uncalibrated RCYBP; ~11.5 Kya calibrated)—older than any other mummy found in North America before. Scientists believe this person died around 7420 B.C. At first, experts thought the mummy was between 1,500 and 2,000 years old. However, carbon dating using mass spectrometry showed otherwise. The findings were published in the Nevada Historical Quarterly in 1997 and quickly gained attention across the country.

Repatriation and DNA Analysis

In March 1997, the Paiute-Shoshone Tribe of the Fallon Reservation and Colony claimed that certain artifacts were connected to their cultural group under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).

In 2000, further research could not confirm a clear connection between the remains and the tribe.

In September 2006, the United States District Court for the District of Nevada ruled that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had made a mistake by dismissing evidence without fully explaining its decision. The court ordered the BLM to review the evidence again.

In October 2015, Eske Willerslev collected bone and tooth samples from the remains with the permission of the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe. DNA analysis showed the remains were similar to groups of indigenous people in North and South America. On November 22, 2016, the remains were returned to the tribe. Willerslev attended the 2018 burial ceremony held by the tribe.

In November 2018, scientists reported that DNA sequencing from the remains was used in research about early people in the Americas (Y-haplogroup Q1b1a1a1-M848, mt-haplogroup D1).

Wizards Beach Man

The remains of a man from the same time period, called Wizards Beach Man, were also part of the Nevada State Museum's collection. These remains were tested using radiocarbon dating around the same time as Spirit Cave Man. The results showed that Wizards Beach Man was an early Holocene skeleton from nearly the same era.

Wizards Beach Man was discovered in 1978 at Wizards Beach on Pyramid Lake, located about 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the northwest of Spirit Cave. Radiocarbon dating confirmed that he lived more than 9,200 years ago.

Lovelock Cave, another important early site, is also nearby.