Arlington Springs Man

Arlington Springs Man was an ancient Paleoindian, "Remains of no more than 50 individuals have been found that can be said with confidence the predate 9,000 years BP." It was under the leadership of Phil C. Orr, curator of anthropology and paleontology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, who had been prospecting the steep bluffs of Arlington Canyon annually since 1946. They were radiocarbon dated to 10,000 years Before Present, using the relatively primitive dating technology available at the time. The area was once marshy and the man had died on the edge of a ciénega, a type of marsh common in the region. According to Orr's original paper the man may have died accidentally. Orr named him Arlington Springs Man, wrapped the bones in plaster, and stored them at the museum where they sat undisturbed and largely overlooked for the next 30 years. making him the earliest dated (adult) individual in North America. It was also determined the bones were from a female. The moniker was changed to Arlington Springs Woman, but after more time and study, in 2006 Johnson reversed his assessment, concluding that the remains were more likely those of a man. Author Stephen Fried noted that Kitty Harvey probably would have been delighted by the gender controversy because she was herself openly gay. At the time the island was inhabited by Pygmy mammoths, which it is supposed the Arlington Man's people hunted, because at the same time full-sized Columbian mammoths were being hunted elsewhere in North America. In April 2022, under the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), his remains were repatriated to the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Mission Indians. According to the museum president, they were "honored to care for this important cultural heritage for many years and now find it deeply satisfying [to] transfer custody back to the Chumash community".