--- title: Philadelphia Museum Finds Lost 6,500 Year Old Skeleton in the Cellar description: The find could yield deeper understanding into everyday life in the little-understood period. canonical: https://time.com/3083877/skeleton-basement/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-05T21:49:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:31:09.667Z article:section: Science og:title: Philadelphia Museum Finds Lost 6,500 Year Old Skeleton in the Cellar og:description: The find could yield deeper understanding into everyday life in the little-understood period. og:url: https://time.com/3083877/skeleton-basement/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad1843ffb2932f67/69869e7cd0b6f2d612305944/human-skeltal-remains-skull-archaeology.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Ancient Skeleton og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Philadelphia Museum Finds Lost 6,500 Year Old Skeleton in the Cellar twitter:description: The find could yield deeper understanding into everyday life in the little-understood period. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad1843ffb2932f67/69869e7cd0b6f2d612305944/human-skeltal-remains-skull-archaeology.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Museum Finds Misplaced 6,500-Year-Old Human Skeleton in the Cellar  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Aug 5, 2014 9:49 PM UTC  6,500-year-old human remains are displayed at the The Penn Museum, part of the University of Pennsylvania,, Aug. 5, 2014, in Philadelphia. The museum announced Tuesday that it had rediscovered in its own storage rooms a 6,500-year-old human skeleton believed to have been a man at least 50 who stood 5 feet, 9 inches tall. 6,500-year-old human remains are displayed at the The Penn Museum, part of the University of Pennsylvania,, Aug. 5, 2014, in Philadelphia. The museum announced Tuesday that it had rediscovered in its own storage rooms a 6,500-year-old human skeleton believed to have been a man at least 50 who stood 5 feet, 9 inches tall.Matt Rourke—AP  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Aug 5, 2014 9:49 PM UTC An archaeology museum in Philadelphia said Tuesday it [found](http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/05/us-usa-artifact-pennsylvania-idUSKBN0G52BF20140805?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews) a 6,500-year-old human skeleton in its own basement. Yes. Its own basement. Researchers at the Penn Museum, which is associated with the University of Pennsylvania, said they found documentation for the human skeleton while digitizing old records. The remains are extremely rare and date to 4,500 BCE. They were unearthed by archaeologists around 1930 during an excavation of the ancient city of Ur in modern day Iraq beneath the city’s cemetery, itself dating back to 2,500 BCE, Reuters reports. The skeleton, which scientists have named Noah, is roughly 2,000 years older than any other remains found at the excavation site. The find could give scholars a new depth of understanding into everyday life during the little-understood time period. Noah’s remains indicate he was muscular, about five feet-ten-inches tall and died at 50 years old. \[[_Reuters_](http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/05/us-usa-artifact-pennsylvania-idUSKBN0G52BF20140805?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3083877/skeleton-basement/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3083877/skeleton-basement/"},"headline":"Museum Finds Misplaced 6,500-Year-Old Human Skeleton in the Cellar","datePublished":"2014-08-05T21:49:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:31:09.667Z","description":"But it had only been missing for 85 years, so","url":"https://time.com/3083877/skeleton-basement/","keywords":["Archaeology","Iraq","Philadelphia","Museum"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad1843ffb2932f67/69869e7cd0b6f2d612305944/human-skeltal-remains-skull-archaeology.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Denver Nicks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad1843ffb2932f67/69869e7cd0b6f2d612305944/human-skeltal-remains-skull-archaeology.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ancient Skeleton","caption":"Ancient Skeleton","creditText":"Matt Rourke—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/archaeology/","name":"Archaeology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3083877/skeleton-basement/","name":"Museum Finds Misplaced 6,500-Year-Old Human Skeleton in the Cellar"}}]}] ```