A skull fragment discovered almost 40 years ago near Lake Pontchartrain is found to be 3,500 years old. In 2009 because of its degraded condition DNA testing could only tell them it was female. In January, Cold Case Investigator Chris Knoblauch with the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office, said Carbon-14 testing was performed.
“And I kind of thought well maybe it’s Native American, maybe it’s 200 or 300 years old, maybe 500 years at the most. But certainly, never at all expected it to be as old as it was,” said Knoblauch.
Knoblauch said it’s hard to fathom who this woman, was in back in 1634 to 1504 B.C. and how a fragment of her skull ended up in what’s now St Tammany Parish. She’s estimated to be between 25 to 35 years, and testing even revealed her diet.
“That she was heavy in vegetation, which doesn’t surprise me but also that she was heavy in fish and mollusks. So that would stand to reason that she was from the Lake Pontchartrain area. So that was all interesting as well.,” said Knoblauch.
Geographically, Knoblauch said back then the area was much different from what it is now. He said the Mississippi River is believed to be elsewhere and geographic landmarks that we know now didn’t necessarily exist then.
“But the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain was here in that time period, and so it all makes sense, kind of comes together when you think about the diet and everything that we know about her it all fits kind of right in,” said Knoblauch.
The LSU FACES lab has current possession of the fragment.
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