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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- Tim Heaton will return to Alaska this week for the reburial of 10,000-year-old human bones he found while digging for animal fossils from the Ice Age.

The discovery in On Your Knees Cave on Prince of Wales Island in 1996 was later found to carry special significance, the University of South Dakota professor said Monday.

"They were dated to be the oldest (human remains) from Alaska or anywhere in the northern part of the continent," he said. "There are older ones farther south, but it's the oldest remains from which they've made a successful extraction of human DNA from the Americas."

A crew doing surveying work for possible timber cutting in 1993 spotted the partially hidden cave, later given its name for obvious reason. "There is no place to stand up," said Heaton, chair of the USD Department of Earth Sciences who began summer fossil-exploration trips to Alaska in 1991.

Full excavation in the cave began in 1996 after bear bones that were discovered the previous summer were found to be three times older than any previous discovery.

A spear point found in the cave early in summer wasn't given much importance until the final excavation day in July when Heaton found a human jawbone, pelvis and a bone tool for human use.

"Literally I was filling the last bag of sediment from our grid when I hit these things," he said.

Further digging in the following years uncovered human ribs, vertebra and teeth from what is believed to be one person. Heaton said it is far from a complete skeleton.

Digging in the cave ended in 2004. Heaton said nearly 40,000 fossils were cataloged from the cave, which researchers believe was used by bears, foxes and otters.

A two-day reburial ceremony is being organized Friday and Saturday by the Tlingit, an indigenous people of Southeast Alaska who have named the human remains Shuka Kaa, meaning "Man Ahead of Us."

Heaton said he and others will speak on scientific discoveries made from the excavation at a two-day program that will be both celebratory and educational.

"It's the oldest human remains that are being turned over for reburial. That's significant," he said.

The remains will be reburied in an area of other graves, Heaton said.

"There was talk of reburying in the cave but the cave is in a very remote location so even if they gated it, which would have been a big expense, you can never make it 100 percent safe and it would be hard to monitor."

The U.S. Agriculture Department also will present an award to USD and other groups that worked together on the project, Heaton said.

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On the Net:

http://www.usd.edu/~theaton/