Archaeologists Uncover the 11,000-Year-Old Remains of Ice Age Infants Buried in Alaska

Researchers have made some startling new findings at a site in Alaska. They've discovered the remains of two Ice Age infants who were buried more than 11,000 years ago. The findings represent the youngest human remains ever discovered from this ancient period in North America.

In 2013, the archaeologists ventured to a site called Upward Sun River site, near the Tanana River in central Alaska. Working closely with local and regional Native tribal organizations, they eventually uncovered the remains of the two infants.

And yet the infants aren't the only children buried at the site. In 2010, the researchers uncovered the cremated remains of another three-year old. The bones of the infants were actually found in a pit directly below a residential hearth where the 2010 remains were found.

"Taken collectively, these burials and cremation reflect complex behaviors related to death among the early inhabitants of North America," said Ben Potter, the lead researcher, in a news release.

What's more interesting is that apparently these ancient people conducted burial ceremonies. The archaeologists uncovered grave offerings, including shaped stone points and associated antler foreshafts decorated with abstract incised lines, representing some of the oldest examples of hafted compound weapons in North America. The fact that the weapons were buried with the infants shows the importance of hunting in this early culture.

One of the infants survived a few weeks after birth while the other died in utero. It's possible that the three deaths in this one location represent resource stress, such as food shortages, among these early Americans.  It's likely that the hunter-gatherer group occupied the site between June and August before moving on.

"The deaths occurred during the summer, a time when regional resource abundance and diversity was high and nutritional stress should be low, suggesting higher levels of mortality than may be expected given our current understanding of survival strategies of the period," wrote the authors.

The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.