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 among the first to be dated using a special type of radiocarbon dating called accelerated mass spectrometer dating. Its discovery and study provided important information and encouraged more research about the history of the western Great Basin.
Discovery
The Wheelers, who worked for the Nevada State Parks Commission, were checking areas that might have important historical remains to stop them from being lost because of mining for bird droppings. When they entered Spirit Cave, they found the remains of two people wrapped in tule matting. One set of remains was buried deeper and had been partially preserved (the head and right shoulder). This preserved individual, known as the Spirit Cave mummy, was wearing moccasins and wrapped in a rabbit-skin blanket when placed there. With help from nearby residents, the Wheelers collected sixty-seven items from the cave.
These items were studied at the Nevada State Museum, where experts first thought they were between 1,500 and 2,000 years old. They were then placed in the Nevada State Museum’s storage area in Carson City, where they stayed 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 northeast of Fallon, Nevada. Similar traits in the remains found in Spirit Cave have shown clear connections to remains discovered in other places, such as the Wizard Beach man and the Crypt Cave dog burial.
Dating
In 1996, an anthropologist from the University of California, Riverside named R. Ervi Taylor studied seventeen artifacts from Spirit Cave using a scientific method called mass spectrometry. The results showed that the mummy was about 9,400 years old (uncalibrated RCYBP; approximately 11,500 years old when adjusted for accuracy) — older than any other mummy found in North America before this time. Scientists believe this person lived around 7420 B.C. Before the mass spectrometry tests, the mummy was thought to be between 1,500 and 2,000 years old.
The study was published in the Nevada Historical Quarterly in 1997 and quickly received attention from people across the United States.
Repatriation and DNA Analysis
In March 1997, the Paiute-Shoshone Tribe of the Fallon Reservation and Colony filed a claim under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) to show a cultural connection to certain artifacts.
In 2000, additional research could not confirm a clear link between the remains and any specific group.
In September 2006, the United States District Court for the District of Nevada ruled in a lawsuit by the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had made a mistake by ignoring evidence without fully explaining its decision. The court sent the case back to 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 testing showed the remains were similar to groups from 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, researchers shared findings that DNA from the remains was used to study Paleoamericans (Y-haplogroup Q1b1a1a1-M848, mt-haplogroup D1).
Wizards Beach Man
The remains of a man from the same time period, known as Wizards Beach Man, were also part of the collection at the Nevada State Museum. These remains were radiocarbon dated at the same time as the Spirit Cave Man. This dating showed that Wizards Beach Man was another early Holocene skeleton from nearly the same era.
Wizards Beach Man was discovered in 1978 at Wizards Beach on Pyramid Lake, which is about 100 miles (160 km) to the northwest of Spirit Cave. Radiocarbon dating has determined that he lived more than 9,200 years ago.
Lovelock Cave, another significant early site, is also located nearby.