KENANSVILLE - When workers digging up peat at a former Central Florida sod farm unearthed human remains with their backhoe, they called the police. But this was a cold case that authorities were unlikely to solve.
The bones found Thursday appear to be those of a young man who died in his late teens or early 20s about 4,800 years ago, said Anthony Falsetti, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Florida.
"It's quite significant because it ties into some earlier discoveries in the 1980s . . . dating back to 8,000 years ago," Falsetti said Friday. "It continues to fill in the picture of early life . . . in Florida."
The remains are being suspended in water at the lab so they don't dry out and crumble. Archaeologists did not give a nickname to the bones. Instead, the skeleton is designated as 10-B-03.
The Bureau of Archaeological Research in Tallahassee will survey the site where the remains were found for other signs of a past civilization. Animal bones designed in a decoration also were found with the remains.
