A Late Archaic Burial From Southwestern Texas

Abstract

A unique rockshelter burial in southwestern Texas contained a 35 year old male placed in asitting position in a pit lined with matting. Remains of a woven stick and grass structure were over the burial pit. Affiliation is late Archaic and dates ca. 200 B.C.-A.D. 200.     

The Jared Site: A Comanche Burial at Fort Sill,Oklahoma

Abstract

A late-19th century ravine burial from Southwest Oklahoma is described. The site is compared with historic and anthropological records to document a nineteenth century Comanche burial practice.     

A Late Prehistoric Bundle Burial From Southern Wyomingc

Abstract

A Late Prehistoric bundle burial from the Stone Fence Site in south-central Wyoming produced partial skeletal remains of a middle-aged male of Shoshonean biological affinities.A total of 19 bone beads were found in the grave. Both osteological and cultural interpretations were possible from the previously undisturbed grave and its contents.     

Ear Disease in Skulls From the Sully Burial Site

Abstract

A study was made of 358 skulls (255 Arikara from a single burial area) visually and with X-rays looking for evidence of disease in and about the ears with special reference to infection and OTOSCLEROSIS with fixation of the stapes footplate. No stapes fixation was found. X-rays showed altered mastoid cell development in 139 of 255 ears (55o/o). Osteomas were found in l 7 external auditory canals of ll individuals (3. Oo/o).     

Five Feuds: An Analysis of Homicides in Eastern Kentucky in the Late Nineteenth Century

Kentucky feuds are an example of market-based feuding, one of two major types of feuding. Compensation is not paid for a homicide in regions where a local market system is linked to the world system. Feuding kinship groups in Kentucky struggle to eliminate each other, whereas in regions where compensation is paid functional/equilibrium theories are used to explain the balance that seems to occur between kinship groups. The trouble case method is used to analyze five Kentucky feuds. Episodes or homicidal encounters are placed within feud sequences. Encounters include ambushes, gunfights, house attacks, encounter battles, and arranged battles. Although each feud differs greatly from the others, the structure of the Kentucky feud is delineated, [feuding, homicide, Kentucky feuds, Appalachia, war]     

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 Gore Pit Site: An Archaic Occupation in Southwestern Oklahoma and a Review Of the Archaic Stage in the Southern Plains

Abstract

The Gore Pit site (34CM131), which is within the city limits of Lawton, Comanche County, Oklahoma, has been revealing evidence of Archaic occupation through excavation and surface collection since 1963. The site is contained in the bottom of a large borrow pit which was sera ped to a depth of 15 to 20 feet by he Highway Department.The pit is on the active flood plain of East Cache Creek and borders the creek a few feet to the east. The artifacts recovered by surface collection include projectile points, scrapers, scraper planes, Clear Fork gouges, andgrinding stones and basins. Three burned rock middens were excavated, one of which yielded radiocarbon dates, 6030 + 300 B.P. (Bastian 1964) and 6145+ 130 B.P. (GX1558). In the spring of 1968, a partially preserved, semiflexed human burial was discovered in the pit. There were no associated artifacts. A radiocarbon date obtained from the apatite fraction of the bone resulted in a determination of 7100+350 B.P. (GX2009). The earliest Archaic on the Southern Plains is presently dated around 6000 B.P. However, there is a paucity of dated and documented sites for the preceding 2000 years. Archaic subsistence patterns occur at least 2000 years earlier in areas to the west and east. The origin and age of the earliest Archaic in the Southern Plains remains undetermined. The Archaic must ultimately be identified on the basis of subsistence patterns and not on the basis of projectile point styles.     

The Turk Burial Site, 48WA301

Abstract

This fissure burial in the southern mountains contained four adults and one child. Its age is estimated to be between 100 and 300 years, and the anthropometric evidence is consistent with a Shoshonean affiliation. Though considerably disturbed prior to investigation, the site yielded important information about the burial mode and artifacts of a fairly recent people.     

A Multivariate Analysis of the Fristoe Burial Complex in Southwestern Missouri

Abstract

This paper presents the result of an analysis of 24 burial mounds and cairns in southwest Missouri. All of the sites belong to the Fristoe Burial Complex with an estimated age of A. D. 500 to A.D. 1000. Data selected for analysis consisted of 41 traits distributed in varying numbers among the sites. In order to observe relationships between sites, a Q-type factor analysis was used. An orthogonal rotation yielded five factors. Three factors are discussed. Factors 2 and 5 are not discussed because of the small number of sites explained by them. Factor 1 loads heavily on eight sites and Factors 3 and 4 each on seven sites. Seventeen of the 24 sites are explained by the three factors which are hypothesized to represent three distinct temporal groupings. Factor 1 is thought to depict a late grouping based on trade relationships between the Gulf Coast and the Ozark Highlands. Factor 4 appears to be a grouping of Late Woodland elements, and Factor 3 possibly represents a set of Mississippian and Late Woodland elements. Results of the analysis allow us to hypothesize three temporal groupings within the Fristoe Burial Complex. The results further indicate that factor analysis can be used as a technique to order archeological materials and generate hypotheses.     

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 Petrographic Analysis Of Late Woodland Ceramics From The Sperry Site,Jackson County,Missouri

Abstract

A sample of 11 sherds from the Late Woodland component of the Sperry Site in Jackson County, Missouri was selected for petrographic analysis. The findings indicate that sherds as well as granite particles, and possibly limestone and sand served as tempering agents. It is suggested that prehistoric potters may have been utilizing till clays (available locally) which contain naturally occurring granitic particles and further tempering the clay with sherds, limestone, or sand.     

Charles Girard: Relationships and Representation in Nineteenth Century Systematics

Early nineteenth century systematists sought to describe what they called the Natural System or the Natural Classification. In the nineteenth century, there was no agreement about the basis of observed patterns of similarity between organisms. What did these systematists think they were doing, when they named taxa, proposed relationships between taxa, and arranged taxa into representational schemes? In this paper I explicate Charles Frederic Girard’s (1822–1895) theory and method of systematics. A student of Louis Agassiz, and subsequently (1850–1858) a collaborator with Spencer Baird, Girard claimed that natural classificatory methods do not presuppose either a special creationist or an evolutionary theory of the natural world. The natural system, in Girard’s view, comprises three distinct ways in which organisms can be related to each other. Girard analyzed these relationships, and justified his classificatory methodology, by appeal to his embryological and physiological work. Girard offers an explicit theoretical answer to the question, what characters are evidence for natural classificatory hypotheses? I show that the challenge of simultaneously depicting the three distinct types of relationship led Girard to add a third dimension to his classificatory diagrams.