The Biological and Social Analyses of a Mississippian Cemetery from Southeast Missouri: The Turner Site, 23BU21A 9780932206817, 9781951519032

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ANTHROPOLOGICAL PAPERS

MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY, UNNERSITY OF MICHIGAN NO. 68

THE BIOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL ANALYSES OF A MISSISSIPPIAN CEMETERY FROM SOUTHEAST MISSOURI: THE TURNER SITE, 23BU21A BY THOMAS K. BLACK III

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN

1979

© 1979 Regents of the University of Michigan The Museum of Anthropology All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America ISBN 978-0-932206-81-7 (paper) ISBN 978-1-951519-03-2 (ebook)

CONTENTS Figures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tables.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER I. MIDDLE MISSISSIPPIAN CEMETERIES . . . . . . . . . . A Brief History of Mortuary Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Powers Phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Powers Phase Burials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Problems with the Powers Phase Burials. . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER II. DESCRIPTION OF THE BURIALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Designation of Individuals in Burials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sex Determination. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Age Determination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Turner Site Human Remains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Snodgrass Site Human Remains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Powers Fort Human Remains. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER III. THE PHYSICAL ANALYSES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cranial Measurements and Cranial Deformation. . . . . . . Stature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pathology and Trauma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dentition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER IV. THE SOCIAL ANALYSIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Demography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Social Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUBSTANTIVE CONTRIBUTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . REFERENCES CITED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . APPENDIXES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

v v vi ix

1 3 3 5 7 7 11 11 14 16 20 40 43 47 47 54 63 66 85 85 98 117 121 141

Appendix A: Appendix B: Appendix C: Appendix D: Appendix E:

Individual Ages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Individual Sexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Minimum Count of Individuals per Burial on the Bases of Age and Sex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Minimum Parts Inventory of Powers Phase Burials ..... 152 Tabulation of Age, Sex, Burial Form, Burial Position, Orientation, and Number of Individuals per Burial for the Turner Site Cemetery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

FIGURES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Selected Mississippian Cemeteries Powers Phase Settlement System . . . Snodgrass Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . Location of the Cemetery on the Turner Site Landmarks of Long Bones . . . . . . . . Incidence of Enamel Hypoplasia by Age Turner Site Cemetery . . . . . . . . . . .

2 6 8 9 56 83 119

TABLES

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.

Approximate degree of tooth wear by age . Cranial measurements . . . . . . . . . . Discriminant function sexing of crania .. . Artificial deformation of crania . . . . . . . Discrete traits recorded for Powers phase crania . Observations on discrete traits . . . . . . . . . . . . Mean measures of divergence among five skeletal populations. A test of Steele and McKern's (1969) regression formulae for predicting femur length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Corrected regression formulae for predicting femur length . . Regression formulae for predicting stature from long bone length Individual statures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stature histograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Estimated stature for some Mississippian populations .. Percentage distribution of cusp patterns on lower molars Percentage distribution of cusp patterns on upper molars . Summary tooth measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20 48 49 50

52 52 53 58

59 60 61 61

62 68 70 70

17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 4 7. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59.

Cross-sectional areas of teeth in the Powers phase Indians . . Enamel pearls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Number of defective teeth in complete sets of molars Number of defective teeth in half sets of molars . . . Condition of individual teeth by age class . . . . . . . Incidence of dental caries in four populations with reference to differences among teeth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Test of association of alveolar resorption with dental calculus . Association of alveolar resorption and dental calculus by age class . Test of association of alveolar resorption with age Test of association of calculus with age . . . . . Frequencies of hypoplastic teeth . . . . . . . . . . Uncorrected life table for the Turner Cemetery. . Comparison of Turner and Dickson mounds mortality: ages 10 and over Comparison of Turner and Dickson mounds mortality: all ages. Corrected life table for the Turner cemetery . . . . . . . . . Model life table MT:20.0-60.0. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Man-years at Turner derived from two population estimates . . Man-years at Turner derived from the structure/number approach . Man-years for Turner and Snodgrass derived from Cook and Heizer's approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Man-years for Turner and Snodgrass derived from the structure/number approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tabulation of age . . . . . . . . . Tabulation of sex (adults only) . Tabulation of form. . . . Tabulation of position . . . . . . Tabulation of orientation . . . . Number of individuals per burial A three-way cross-tabulation of age and multiplicity of burial A two-way cross-tabulation of age and multiplicity of burial . A three-way cross-tabulation of form, age, and number of individuals per burial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A two-way cross-tabulation of age and the number of persons in a burial . A three-way cross-tabulation of form, sex, and the number of persons in a burial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A two-way cross-tabulation of form and multiplicity of burial . . . . . . . A two-way cross-tabulation of sex and the number of persons in a burial . A two-way cross-tabulation of sex and the multiplicity of burial. . . . A two-way cross-tabulation of age and orientation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . A two-way cross-tabulation of sex and orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Expected frequencies and probabilities of exclusive and mixed burials of children and adults in different size burials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Observed and expected frequencies of exclusive and mixed burials of children and adults in different size burials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Test for assortative burial on the basis of sex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Test for assortative burial of children with adult males or females . . Whole vessel assemblages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Powers Phase Burials: Artifact distribution and record of disturbance . Individuals aged by the development of the occipital. . . . . . . . . . . .

71 73 74 75 76 78 80 81 81 81 82 86 87 87 89 90 96 96 97 97 101 101 101 101 101 102 103 104 104 105 105 106 106 107 107 108 109 109 110 110 111 113 142

60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69.

Individuals aged by dental calcification and eruption. Individuals aged by dental attrition. Pelvic sex. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cranial sex. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sex from femur circumference at midshaft Minimum count of individuals per burial on the bases of age and sex Powers Fort (23BU10) minimum parts skeletal inventory. . . . Snodgrass Site (23BU21B) minimum parts skeletal inventory. . . . . Turner Site (23BU21A) minimum parts skeletal inventory . . . . . . Tabulation of age, sex, burial form, burial position, orientation, and number of individuals per burial for the Turner Site Cemetery . . . . .

PLATES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7A. 7B. 8. 9. lOA

Turner site, Burial 5, facing east. . . 129 Turner site, Burial13, facing north. 130 Turner site, Burial13, facing east. . . 131 132 Turner site, Buriall5, facing east. . . Turner site, Burial18, facing south. . 133 134 Turner site, "Burial 61 ",Individual A, facial view Turner site, Burial 13, Individual C, facial view . 135 Turner site, Buriall3, Individual C, lateral view 136 PowersFort,Burial2................ 137 PowersFort,Buriall................ .138 & lOB. Powers Fort, Burial 6, left and right lateral views . 139

142 143 144 145 146 149 153 155 157 168

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This report on a small Mississippian village, the Turner site, in southeast Missouri is one of several resulting from the Powers Phase Project of the Museum of Anthropology of the University of Michigan with primary support from the National Science Foundation to James B. Griffin as Principal Investigator and James E. Price as Field Director. The primary funding was provided by the National Science Foundation Anthropology section in 1968, 1970 and 1973 under Grants GS1966, and GS3215. In addition the project was aided by grants from the undergraduate participation program of the National Science Foundation and by the University of Michigan. My own research was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. A brief history of the Powers Phase Project has recently been published along with a study of the Snodgrass site by Price and Griffin [1979]. The Turner site is within a furlong of the Snodgrass site and both are part of the remains of a relatively short-lived Mississippian occupation of about AD. 1300. Figures 2, 3, and 4 appear through the courtesy of James E. Price. Figure 7 was redrawn by the author from the original burial map of the Turner site made by James J. Krakker. All other redrawn figures or remade tables are cited in the text. I would like to thank my committee, Christopher S. Peebles, James B. Griffin, and C. Loring Brace, all of the University of Michigan, for their advice and criticisms of this paper which was submitted to this committee in 1976 as a Preliminary Paper. Only minor revisions and additions have been made in this published version. My good friends Jerry Voss and Jim Krakker must also be thanked for their encouragement and suggestions. In addition, I greatly appreciate the often thankless efforts of my wife, Deborah, to make this study intelligible.

Introduction This study endeavors to show that, even under adverse circumstances, mortuary analysis can make valuable contributions to our understanding of prehistoric societies. Other authors have amply demonstrated the benefits to be gained from the detailed analysis of the burial practices of prehistoric societies. Few, however, would have suspected that a looted cemetery containing poorly preserved bone could provide much worthwhile knowledge. Yet, the analysis of the poorly preserved burials from the disturbed Turner site cemetery yields information regarding the health, stature, demography, and social organization of Turner's erstwhile inhabitants. The examination of the Turner cemetery also represents the synthesis of physical and social analyses of prehistoric burials. This is not the first tin1e that the biological and social analyses of a cemetery have been performed by the same individual (e.g. Buikstra 1972, Green, Green and Armelagos 1974, Lane and Sublett 1972, Spence 1974), but it is part of a trend which should become the rule in mortuary analysis. When the mortuary analyst is also the physical anthropologist, he is better able to control the sources of error from the biological analysis. The quality of the study should be further enhanced by the removal of the possibility of poor communication between the physical anthropologist and the mortuary analyst. In the special case of disturbed, poorly preserved burials, it is advisable that a single individual perform or supervise both the excavation and the analysis of the burials, since there can be many unanticipated sources of confusion. Because this study deals with just one class of data (mortuary) taken primarily from a single site (Turner) which was only one part of the larger Powers phase society, it will raise more questions than it answers. These questions will aid in the design of future research in the Powers phase and in mortuary analysis.

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