Minnesota Woman

Minnesota Woman, also known as Pelican Rapids-Minnesota Woman (c. 5955 – c. 5939 BC), is the skeletal remains of a woman thought to be 8,000 years old. The bones were found near Pelican Rapids, Minnesota on June 16, 1931, during construction on U.S. Route 59. The bones were brought to Albert Jenks at the University of Minnesota, who identified them as the bones of a girl who was 15 or 16 years old, but who had never borne children. The girl had two artifacts—a dagger made from an elk's horn and a conch shell pendant. The conch shell came from a whelk species known as Sinistrofulgur perversum, which had previously only been known to exist in Florida.