The Spirit Cave mummy is the oldest human mummy found in North America. [1][2][3] It was discovered in 1940 in Spirit Cave, [4] 13 miles (21 km) east [5] of Fallon, Nevada, United States, by the husband-and-wife archaeological team of Sydney and Georgia Wheeler.

Feb 20, 2025 · A new study revealed that the "Spirit Cave Mummy" belonged to the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone tribe rather than the "Paleoamericans." The story of the 10,600-year-old 'Spirit Cave Man' has upended some major theories about the first Americans.

Nov 13, 2018 · A new twist in the mapping of early human migrations into North and South America has occurred after DNA samples from the 10,000-year-old “Spirit Cave mummy,” unearthed in a cave in Nevada, revealed it’s the ancestor of a Native American tribe.

Dec 7, 2016 · Spirit Cave is at an elevation of 4,154 feet in the foothills of the Stillwater Mountains. The sequencing of a 10,600-year-old genome has settled a lengthy legal dispute over who should own...

Nov 9, 2018 · The latest study also marks an important chapter in the history of the Spirit Cave mummy—a prehistoric man who died in his forties and was preserved naturally.

Oct 1, 2016 · Such is the case of the man found entombed in Spirit Cave, 13 miles east of Fallon, Nevada. The naturally preserved body was first discovered in the 1940s but then shelved until the 1990s. Today, the battle over cultural heritage wages as scientists and Native Americans vie over the dead man’s fate.

Dec 7, 2016 · Archaeologists Georgia and Sydney Wheeler discovered it in Nevada’s Spirit Cave in 1940. The skeleton, an adult male aged around 40 at the time of his death, was shrouded in a rabbit-skin...

One set of remains came to be known as the Spirit Cave Mummy. When first discovered the mummy was believed to be 1500 to 2000 years old. But in 1994 mass spectrometry determined that the remains were approximately 10,600 years old, older than any other North American mummy yet discovered.

Nov 9, 2018 · Ancient DNA sequencing has definitively shown that the world's oldest natural mummy -- a 10,700-year-old skeleton discovered in Nevada nearly 80 years ago -- was Native American.

Nov 8, 2018 · A legal battle over a 10,600 year old ancient skeleton -- called the 'Spirit Cave Mummy' -- has ended after advanced DNA sequencing found it was related to a Native American tribe.