A Plains Woodland Burial from the Badlands of Western Nebraska

Abstract

Late Plains Woodland burial from a badlands region of western Sioux County, Nebraska produced the nearly complete skeleton of a robust adult male. Burial practices and associated grave goods are typical for the Woodland culture. However, osteological analysis has revealed a pattern of physical characteristics for the human skeleton which shows no real affinity to known Woodland populations to the south and east. Rather, the traits resemble very closely those of the nearly contemporaneous Late Middle Period people of Wyoming, to the immediate west. This lends evidence in support of recent hypotheses regarding the spread of Woodland culture across the central and western Plains.     

An Isolated Human Burial of Probable Woodland Association from Golden Gate Canyon,Colorado

Abstract

In late 1975 a human burial was discovered under rather fortuitous circumstances during quarrying operations for gravel in Golden Gate Canyon, just north of Golden, Colorado. The skeletal matenal, recognized as being prehistoric by authorities, was subsequently turned over to the University of Colorado at Denver for analysis. The burial is analyzed in terms of its metric, nonmetric and pathological features. The archaeological sequence in the immediate area of the discovery indicates a probable Woodland period age for the burial, although no cultural materials were recovered and all contextual relationships were destroyed prior to examination by archaeologists.     

A Late Woodland Burial from Platte County,Missouri

Abstract

A skeleton of a female discovered in a grave located on the west bank of Short Creek, Platte County, Missouri provides some of the first evidence for mortuary practices and human morphology for the Western Missouri-Eastern Kansas Late Woodland. The burial is a bundle type, with most of the bones placed in a central heap. Analysis of the distribution of the bones indicates that some soh tissue was still adhering to the skeleton at the time of the secondary burial. Bones of the right hand and foot and the vertebral column from cervical 7 to the coccyx are the only remains preserved in anatomical order. Many of the long bones appear to have been broken and there is also some evidence for burning and fleshing of the skeleton before final interment. Measurements of the cranial and post-cranial skeleton are given for comparison with future Late Woodland discoveries.     

A Woodland Burial from Boney Spring,Missouri

Abstract

A secondary burial from a peat layer adjoining the spring feeder at Boney Spring, Benton County, southwestern Missouri, is identified as a young adult male, interred about A.D. 50. The burial, associated with Early Woodland materials in the peat bed, was less than one meter from the edge of the spring feeder in deposits once saturated with water - suggesting that the burial (and associated Woodland features) was made at a time of reduced spring discharge and, perhaps, during a period of reduced precipitation. The burial is well within the limits of characteristics recorded for eastern Archaic groups, lending support to the hypothesis of continuity between the Archaic and Early Woodland peoples in the American Midwest.     

Jackson Fall-Leaf: A Multi-Component Occupation Site Inc Northeasternc Oklahoma

Abstract

The Jackson Fall-Leaf site is a deeply buried multi-component occupation site located in the Little Caney River Valley of Northeastern Oklahoma. The site, situated in the Cross Timbers province on the southeastern periphery of the Southern Plains, contains cultural debris from the Woodland and Plains Village periods. Excavation produced a large quantity of chipped stone artifacts and allowed the delineation of an activity area within the site. Typological cross dating, in combination with intensive paleo-environmental research at the site and at other locales in the Copan area, indicates that the site dates from the period between A.D. 500 and A.D. 1300.     

The Elliott Site (14Ge303): A Preliminary Report

Abstract

Initial work at the Elliott site, Geary County, Kansas, reveals three cultural components: Archaic (Munkers Creek?), Woodland, and Smoky Hill, spatially distributed over the site in five clusters. The Woodland cluster (14GE312) was tested and is reported here. The data suggest a tentative Schultz focus affiliation.     

Archaic Skeletal Remains from the Central Plains: Demography and Burial Practices

Abstract

Recently a number of reports on Plains Archaic skeletal material have been published which quadruple the number of burials described and analyzed in the literature. Although the total number of burials is still relatively small, it is large enough to allow research to begin in paieodemographic aspects of the central part of thePlains and the suggestion of burial patterns for these materials. By combining all Archaic burials from the Plains a demographic profile has been developed. It is compared with other Archaic populations from the eastern United States, and with a Plains population dating after A.O. 1000. The results of the analysis show that with few exceptions burial patterns and the demographic picture of the Plains are quite stable over time, although differences are found in metric and non-metric variations in both the time and space continua. The analysis further shows that certain anomalous conditions in the skeleton appear to be much more prevalent inArchaic material than in recent material from the same area. The results finally suggest that Archaic people in the demographic and burial practice continua are quite similar to later populations, at least through Middle Mississippian populationsin the Plains.     

Phillips Spring, 23HI216:

Abstract

The Phillips Spring Site is situated on a Holocene terrace of the Pomme de Terre River in northern Hickory County, Missouri. Eleven. radiocarbon dates provide a good chronologie framework for the four cultural components recognized at the site. There are three Archaic components which span the period 4280 to 1990 BP. The initial Archaic occupation coincides with the establishment of the present vegetation pattern in the area. A single Late Woodland assemblage, dating from 1410 to 1000 BP, is comparable in cultural content to components of the HighlandAspect.     

Late Woodland In The Kansas City Locality

Abstract

14WYB, situated near Edwardsville, Kansas, is a single-component site representative of terminal Kansas City Hopewell. Comparisons with other components with similar artifact assemblages, which are radiocarbon dated, demonstrates this terminal period to be from ca. A.D. 500 to A.D. BOO, and equivalent to early Late Woodland in the Illinois River Valley. Settlement and subsistence changes are not recognizable at this time, but do occur between A.D. BOO and A.D. 1000, perhaps as reflection of the adoption of agriculture as important to the subsistence base during the late Late Woodland period.     

MIDDLE WOODLAND POTTERY TYPOLOGY FROM SOUTHWEST IOWA

Abstract

This paper presents a typology for Middle Woodland pottery from the vicinity of Glenwood, southwest Iowa. It shows that the Glenwood materials have their closest Plains affiliation with Valley Cord Roughened and their closest Eastern Woodland affiliation with Havana tradition pottery of the Illinois River Valley. The main source of influence for the Valley Focus seems to have come from the Eastern Woodlands and not from the Hopewellian instrusion at the Renner site. Finally, it is argued that the Valley Focus and related materials originated in the Middle Woodland period, were composed of generalized Woodland traits, and were imposed onto the life styles of indigenous peoples on the Central Plains.     

The adult skeleton from the Capsian site of Aïn Misteheyia,Algeria

We describe an adult skeleton excavated in 1976 near Chéria, Algeria, in the context of a Capsian escargotière, associated with an absolute date of 9130 B.P. Analysis suggests a young adult male of moderate robustness and c. 181 cm in height. Comparison with published skeletal material from North Africa in Epipalaeolithic context concludes that the individual falls within the expected range of variation for this temporal period. The problem of assessing the affinity of individual skeletons is discussed.     

Plant Remains From a Woodland Storage Pit,Boney Spring,Missouri

Abstract

An Early Woodland storage pit, dated at 1920±50 BP, was found in the peat layer surrounding the spring feeder at Boney Spring, Benton County, western Missouri, in association with a burial and other cultural material. The pit contents were unusually well preserved, apparently because of the saturated condition of the spring deposits. Materials from the pit were compared with plant remains from a control block removed from the surrounding contemporary peat layer. The pit contained masses of white oak and bur oak acorns, numerous shagbark hickory nuts, and seven species of autumnal seeds, i ncl udi ng squash (Cucurbita pepo), giant ragweed, poke berry, wild pi um, elderberry, cocklebur, and black haw which did not occur in the control block and which indicate the contents were placed in the pit during the fall.     

Osteoporotic bone loss in two prehistoric Indian populations

To examine the demineralizing effects of the ageing process on the human skeleton, a photon absorptiometric method was employed which measured bone mineral mass. Rates and amounts of demineralization were compared in two prehistoric Indian populations: Indian Knoll (dated between 2500 and 2000 B.C. ) of the Archaic Period and Pete Klunk (dated between 50 B.C. and 250 A.D. ) of the Middle Woodland or Woodland or Hopewell Period. The former was exclusively a hunting and gathering group while the latter supplemented its hunting and gathering with part-time agriculture. Archaeological and osteometric data suggest that Hopewell had a more nutritionally adequate and reliable diet than Indian Knoll. By regression slope analysis it was shown that, as in modern populations, trabecular and female rates of loss are greater, respectively, than cortical or male rates. Hopewell males and females lost bone at a faster rate than Indian Knoll males and females. When amounts of demineralization in these two groups were compared to that of a contemporary group, the Indian Knoll and contemporary populations were found to lose the same amount while Hopewell lost the greatest amount. It is suggested from these comparisons that dietary sufficency does not contribute significantly to skeletal maintenance during ageing.     

An early Indian cranium from the Medicine Crow site, (39BF2), Buffalo County,South Dakota

Artifacts of Paleoindians have been found in most if not all of the Plains states; however, documented human skeletal remains from this early period are rare. The Medicine Crow cranium dates by stratigraphy and by the amount of absorbed alpha and beta radiation at between 5,000 and 2,000 B.C. This places this young adult male in the Archaic period and represents the earliest documented human skeletal material from South Dakota. It compares favorably in age with other well documented human skeletons from the Plains area, such as Lansing Man (Kansas) (3579 B.C.). Metrically, (with a cranial index of 76.7) and morphologically the Medicine Crow cranium falls well within the range of other early or middle Archaic skeletons.     

Ancient DNA from the Schild site in Illinois: Implications for the Mississippian transition in the Lower Illinois River Valley

Archaeologists have long debated whether rapid cultural change in the archaeological record is due to in situ developments, migration of a new group into the region, or the spread of new cultural practices into an area through existing social networks, with the local peoples adopting and adapting practices from elsewhere as they see fit (acculturation). Researchers have suggested each of these explanations for the major cultural transition that occurred at the beginning of the Mississippian period (AD 1050) across eastern North America. In this study, we used ancient DNA to test competing hypotheses of migration and acculturation for the culture change that occurred between the Late Woodland (AD 400–1050) and Mississippian (AD 1050–1500) periods in the Lower Illinois River Valley. We obtained sequences of the first hypervariable segment of the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) from 39 individuals (17 Late Woodland, 22 Mississippian) interred in the Schild cemetery in western Illinois, and compared these lineages to ancient mtDNA lineages present at other sites in the region. Computer simulations were used to test a null hypothesis of population continuity from Late Woodland to Mississippian times at the Schild site and to investigate the possibility of gene flow from elsewhere in the region. Our results suggest that the Late Woodland to Mississippian cultural transition at Schild was not due to an influx of people from elsewhere. Instead, it is more likely that the transition to Mississippian cultural practices at this site was due to a process of acculturation. Am J Phys Anthropol 156:434–448, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Gender-related differences in the apparent timing of skeletal density bands in the reef-building coral Siderastrea siderea

Density banding in skeletons of reef-building corals is a valuable source of proxy environmental data. However, skeletal growth strategy has a significant impact on the apparent timing of density-band formation. Some corals employ a strategy where the tissue occupies previously formed skeleton during as the new band forms, which leads to differences between the actual and apparent band timing. To investigate this effect, we collected cores from female and male colonies of Siderastrea siderea and report tissue thicknesses and density-related growth parameters over a 17-yr interval. Correlating these results with monthly sea surface temperature (SST) shows that maximum skeletal density in the female coincides with low winter SSTs, whereas in the male, it coincides with high summer SSTs. Furthermore, maximum skeletal densities in the female coincide with peak Sr/Ca values, whereas in the male, they coincide with low Sr/Ca values. Both results indicate a 6-month difference in the apparent timing of density-band formation between genders. Examination of skeletal extension rates also show that the male has thicker tissue and extends faster, whereas the female has thinner tissue and a denser skeleton—but both calcify at the same rate. The correlation between extension and calcification, combined with the fact that density banding arises from thickening of the skeleton throughout the depth reached by the tissue layer, implies that S. siderea has the same growth strategy as massive Porites, investing its calcification resources into linear extension. In addition, differences in tissue thicknesses suggest that females offset the greater energy requirements of gamete production by generating less tissue, resulting in differences in the apparent timing of density-band formation. Such gender-related offsets may be common in other corals and require that environmental reconstructions be made from sexed colonies and that, in fossil corals where sex cannot be determined, reconstructions must be duplicated in different colonies.     

The Identity and Demography of the Plains-Ojibwa

Abstract

One of the largest Indian tribes of the northern praries is the Bungi or Plains-Ojibwa, Despite their importance in the historic period they go unmentioned in most histories. In large part this is due to semantic confusion in their identification by writers and official agencies.

In language, social organization, art, ceremonial, and costume the Plains Ojibwa is a distinct ethnic group. Although they are descended from Woodland groups, 150 years of separate political and cultural existence has made them a distinct tribe.

The gradual migration of small Ojibwa groups unto the Plains began near the end of the 18th century. By 1800 those living west of the Red River of the North were beginning to be thought of as a distinct group. However, confusion as to their irlentity has persisted.

At present 2 ethnic groups make up the Plains-Ojibwa, a “full-blood” minority group and a metis group which, although basically PlainsOjibwa with some Cree admixture, has a large amount of French as well as other European blood.