A Texas man discovered a human femur bone that is believed to be nearly 800 years old, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.
Parker County resident Scott Fuller was fishing along the Brazos River on March 22 when he saw the bone floating about a foot from shore, according to WFAA.
"I'm still wrapping my mind around it," Fuller told the television station. "I thought this could be a drowning, this could be a murder mystery.”
It was neither. The bone was identified and tested by a forensic anthropologist, Bryan Wright, an investigator in Parker County, told the Weatherford Democrat.
“She realized that the bone was probably ancient and took a sample to a lab in Florida, and they did a carbon-14 dating on it and it came back to be about 800 years old,” Wright told the newspaper.
The bone belonged to someone who died between 1286 and 1398, the forensic anthropologist said.
“The carbon-14 date shows the bone to be from 1286 to 1398 A.D. with a 95.4 percent accuracy,” Wright told the Democrat. “So the Indian that that bone belonged to was here before (Christopher) Columbus discovered North America. It was 200 years before that, even.”
Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler told the newspaper the bone likely belonged to a Caddo Indian.
Now, Fuller is wondering who the person was.
"Just every thought goes through my mind," Fuller told WFAA. "I would just love to hear from them. I'd love to talk to them and learn more.”
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