People apparently keep better in the cold as well: a team of archaeologists recently unearthed the oldest cremated human remains yet found in North America.

The burned bone fragments of a 3-year-old child were discovered in a fire pit in the remains of an ancient house near the Tanana River in central Alaska. Writing in the Feb. 25 issue of the journal Science, archaeologist Ben Potter of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, dated the remains to 11,500 years ago, right around the end of the last cold snap at the end of the last Ice Age. According to Potter and his team of researchers, after the child was cremated, the hearth and house were also burned and abandoned.

"The fact that the child was cremated within the center of the house … this was an important member of society," Potter told Fox News.

The site is also the first evidence yet found of a permanent residence built by the native peoples of the American Arctic region, who heretofore were known to have set up temporary residences at worksites and hunting grounds.

Also found in the pit were cooked bones of animals, including salmon, rabbits, ground squirrels and birds. The presence of salmon suggests the house was part of a summer settlement, and the child's presence suggests that women were also present in the house.

University of New Mexico anthropologist E. James Dixon, who was not part of the research team, said the find was consistent with a pattern that shows that 25% of all human bones dating back more than 10,0 00 years in North America are of children.

Source: Live Science/Fox News

Written by Sandy Smith 02/28/2011