In April 2006, two locals on Wolfe Island, Ont., were checking the damage of the previous day's storm on the shoreline when they noticed something strange on the edge of a sandy bank.

They approached the object — and discovered it was a human skull.

The police and coroner came to the scene and uncovered more remains — some teeth, some long bones — and took some of them away for analysis. They left the rest in the ground.

During a preliminary assessment, a provincial archaeologist wrote: "It seems most likely that the individual in question would be affiliated with the Point Peninsula Culture, late Middle Woodland period, dating to circa AD 750.…