(U-WIRE) EAST LANSING, Mich.-This week Michigan State University anthropologists will begin examining 3,000-year-old human skeletal remains found at a Bay City construction site.
Bay City officials granted the university permission Tuesday to examine the remains, found Friday by MSU archeologists in four-and-a-half feet of sand during a routine search for historical objects at a planned construction site.
The archeologists were examining an area near the Marquette Street Viaduct, slated for construction later this year.
City officials had hoped to replace the 72-year-old viaduct, closed since 1997, with a street-level railroad crossing by October.
The city is scheduled to accept bids on construction work for the railroad crossing project April 5.
“That sometimes happens that, when we’re doing fieldwork; we find human remains,” said William Lovis, an anthropologist and MSU Museum curator.
An extensive archaeological dig will take place in May to search for artifacts at the construction site. Lovis said that he and other MSU scientists will look for stone tools, pottery and fire pits to determine what culture lived in the area.
After the Bay County medical examiner declared the remains did not require an autopsy, MSU was given permission to begin tests on the remains to determine the age, gender and whether the body was buried with others.
“The site is a known artifact area,” said Dr. Howard Hurt, the county’s medical examiner. “MSU scientists confirmed the skeleton was an archeological problem; the police are not missing bodies and it’s not known as a burial ground for murders.”
Anthropology Professor Norman Sauer will lead the examination of the remains. Sauer will examine the body to determine how it was buried and also will determine ancestry and age.
Bay City officials should receive a report of his findings in two or three weeks to help determine what to do with the remains.
“At this point it is premature (to say) what to do with the bones,” said John Kolessar, Bay City director of engineering and public infrastructure.
