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Skulls Buried In Florida Backyard Date To 1200 AD

Posted: Updated: 05/18/2012 11:14 am

Skulls
Police in Florida are investigating how 1200-year-old skulls from Peru found their way into someone's backyard.

When a plumber discovered two skulls buried in the ground of a Florida backyard last January, police thought they had a murder mystery to solve. Turns out, this is one case that won't crack anytime soon.


A medical examiner in Winter Gardens says that the pair of skulls -- that of a 10-year-old boy and an older man -- date back to between 1200 and 1400 and likely originated in Peru or other regions in South America.

"The mystery is how they ended up there," medical examiner Jan Garavaglia said, according to Newser. "We don't have any way of finding out."

The plumber who first encountered the objects was installing an in-ground swimming pool when he struck bone. He reported the discovery to police.

ABC News reported:

When x-rayed by the medical examiner's office, it was clear that the bones were hundreds of years old, and that the human tissue on the cheek of the skull had been mummified. The skulls featured an "Inca bone," a telltale sign of a human from the Incan culture of Peru, Garavaglia said.

Experts from the University of Central Florida and Yale University also identified cloth items representing primitive slings. The items may have belonged to a tourist when laws restricting the transport of human remains were less strict, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

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When a plumber discovered two skulls buried in the ground of a Florida backyard last January, police thought they had a murder mystery to solve. Turns out, this is one case that won't crack anytime so...
When a plumber discovered two skulls buried in the ground of a Florida backyard last January, police thought they had a murder mystery to solve. Turns out, this is one case that won't crack anytime so...
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04:54 PM on 06/18/2012
Read the Book Of Morman this will explain why these bones are there
03:30 PM on 06/07/2012
A 10 year old boy and an older man, an ancient pedophilia crime perhaps ?
01:57 PM on 05/31/2012
I blame Bush.
01:56 PM on 05/31/2012
Aliens or magnets.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Boissiere Parker
This isn't a term paper so stop correcting me!
08:52 AM on 05/17/2012
weird
04:02 AM on 05/17/2012
Not sure why, but feel a bit odd when I consider my skull might just pop-up in 800 years or so. Well, just as long as it's not in Florida.
02:59 AM on 05/17/2012
far as im concerned,the bones should be left where they were found.
taking them out, poking and prodding them,it shows no respect to the dead.
Whoever they were,wherever they were from,they should be returned to their final resting place.
leave the dead to their slumber while the living roam.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
lithium12
Fighting ignorance makes you an enemy of the right
12:37 PM on 05/17/2012
I think they had to by law to determine if there was foul play involved.
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Denisehh3
redneckislandgirl
12:17 AM on 05/17/2012
What if these Ancient Natives make the trek from South America to Florida?........it's a strong possibility........considering the fact that Prehistoric bones when we least expect it, often are unearthed not to far below the surface ........
10:25 PM on 05/16/2012
Dang. Only thing I would find digging in my back yard is dirt! However they got where they were found, they should be reburied there and left alone.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
meleagrid
10:00 PM on 05/16/2012
We'd suppose it might be peruvian, but, considering the crania were found it Florida, seems just as possible to be prehistoric Native American crania. A few measurements might show the probability of ethnicity. Inca bone, a wormian bone found in the back of cranium at a point called lambda, is so named because of its early discovery, descripton, and prevalence in Peruvian human skeletal populations, but they do occur in skeletal populations in North America Indian populations. More tests needed to suggest origin of crania and population they are most likely associated. Probably more than one wants to or needs to know...
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Catherine Girod
12:48 AM on 05/17/2012
Some isotope analysis of the teeth will help with determining where they came from.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
OCerInTN
Hoplophobics worst nightmare.
05:10 AM on 05/17/2012
I have to wonder if you read the article. These are not pre-historic remains. They date from 1200 - 1400.
08:10 PM on 05/16/2012
I guess the illegal immigration problem has been going on longer than I thought.
09:21 PM on 05/16/2012
It started in 1492. This would have been earlier.
10:02 PM on 05/16/2012
You thought that your bullets and Euro diseases would have wiped them out, but obviously an error in judgment was made!!! They built an immunity and are still coming and multiplying!!
11:25 PM on 05/16/2012
We've got more bullets
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Brian Childers
What we've got here is a failure to communicate
08:06 PM on 05/16/2012
Inca dinka do...Inca dinka don't.........
08:26 PM on 05/16/2012
you should be pun-ished for that
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etherialecho
Beware of absolutes.
10:10 PM on 05/16/2012
Enough of the skulduggery!
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Brian Childers
What we've got here is a failure to communicate
10:49 PM on 05/16/2012
Inca dinka will, Inca dinka won't......
02:53 AM on 05/17/2012
wow man,thats actually pretty offensive.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Brian Childers
What we've got here is a failure to communicate
04:20 AM on 05/17/2012
To whom is it offensive?
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tstratford
and that's the way it is
07:12 PM on 05/16/2012
Digging Up Bones, by Randy Travis
06:31 PM on 05/16/2012
They were probably slaves. Slavery goes back thousands of years may be even more.
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Joker1969
Carpe Cerevisi
07:40 PM on 05/16/2012
Slaves of whom?? The Native Americans??
09:07 PM on 05/16/2012
lol all Natives did was help others
09:12 PM on 05/16/2012
Yes. Don't act so shocked. Read your prehistory.
08:48 PM on 05/16/2012
Sorry . . . but ya think?
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
06:15 PM on 05/16/2012
When are they going to apply for a green card, welfare, section 8 housing, medicaid, and food stamps. More future democrat voters.
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beadcat
06:21 PM on 05/16/2012
Have you been drinking again?
08:27 PM on 05/16/2012
more likely, forgot to take his meds
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sandradel7509
GOP=The party of lies.
06:27 PM on 05/16/2012
Um what does this have to do with the article? I'd like to know.
11:07 PM on 05/16/2012
Sorry, your right sandrade. . In my case... I usually don't go off subject but when that drinking comment came up by beadcat. my "old joke" instinct kicked in. I do better when the caffeine is working but, I ran out and am starting to ........zzz
I think part of it is the article caught our curiosity, but it was too hard to come up with a responsible comment considering even the experts don't know much, and commenting is habit forming? In last defense: Only the initial comment brought up Politics junk. Take care.