George R. Milner

Sex Determination of Ancient Human Skeletons Using DNA

A method for determining the sex of human skeletons was developed using molecular genetic techniques. The amelogenin gene, found on the X and Y chromosomes, was examined using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and a nonradioactive dot blot procedure. DNA was analyzed from 20 modern individuals of known sex and 20 skeletons from an archaeological site in central Illinois dating to A.D. 1300. An independent assessment of the sex of each skeleton was made according to standard osteological methods. The sex of 19 ancient and 20 modern individuals was accurately determined using this molecular genetic technique. Molecular sex determination will be especially useful for juvenile and fragmentary remains when it is difficult, or impossible, to establish an individuals sex from morphological features.

Warfare in Prehistoric and Early Historic Eastern North America

Recent criticisms of the use of historically and ethnographically recorded conflicts as models for warfare in prehistoric times force archaeologists to reexamine assumptions about the frequency, severity, and effects of intergroup fighting. In eastern North America, skeletons of victims and palisaded settlements—the only information consistently available on intergroup hostilities—indicate that the prevalence of conflicts varied greatly over time and space. Occasionally the attacks, typically ambushes of small numbers of people, cumulatively resulted in numerous casualties. Variation in palisade strength is consistent with the organizational structure and warrior mobilization potential of late prehistoric societies in different parts of the Eastern Woodlands.

Transition analysis: A validation study with known‐age modern American skeletons

Transition Analysis-a recent skeletal age-estimation procedure (Boldsen et al.: Paleodemography: age distributions from skeletal samples (2002) 73-106)-is evaluated using 252 known-age modern American males and females from the Bass Donated Collection and Mercyhurst forensic cases. The pubic symphysis worked best for estimating age, followed by the sacroiliac joint and cranial sutures. Estimates based on all skeletal characteristics are influenced by the choice of prior distribution, although its effect is dwarfed by both the inaccuracy and imprecision of age estimates. Age intervals are narrowest for young adults, but are surprisingly short in old age as well. When using an informative prior distribution, the greatest uncertainty occurs from the late 40s into the 70s. Transition Analysis estimates do not perform as well as experience-based assessments, indicating the existing procedure is too narrowly focused on commonly used pelvic and cranial structures.

Isotopic and archaeological interpretations of diet in the central mississippi valley

Abstract This study will compare archaeological and isotopic characterizations of diet, specifically the role of maize, for Woodland, Mississippian, and Oneota populations from the North American midcontinent. Archaeological interpretations have tended to associate maize dependence with the rise of major centres, such as Cahokia. These models, based upon volume and ubiquity of maize in village site middens and features, frequently contrast the key role of maize in regional centres with the situation in smaller, remote communities. Mississippian inhabitants of frontier villages, for instances, are assumed to be less maize-dependent than their counterparts in larger and more complex communities. Recent analyses of stable carbon isotope ratios have, however, called into question standard archaeological interpretations. A series of δ 13 C values that characterize the period of agricultural intensification in the central Mississippi and Illinois river valleys identifies significant maize dependence at locations some distance from Cahokia during its period of major regional influence. Time transgressive trends apparent in maize ubiquity for the Cahokia region also stand in contrast to those seen in diachronic sequences of δ 13 C values. In this paper, we present newly generated δ 13 C values for five sites from the central Mississippi and Illinois river regions. Archaeological and isotopic evidence for maize-dependence is evaluated for biases that may underlie the seeming contradictory diachronic and synchronic patterning evident in the two data sets.

The late prehistoric Cahokia cultural system of the Mississippi River valley: Foundations, florescence, and fragmentation

The development, florescence, and subsequent demise of an organizationally complex cultural system in the American Bottom, part of the central Mississippi River valley, spanned a little over half a millennium. Cahokia, the largest Precolumbian site in the United States, is located within this segment of fertile floodplain, as are many other subsidiary settlements that varied greatly in terms of their size, internal structure, and occupational histories. Numerous projects over the past 30 years have resulted in the rapid accumulation of considerable information and divergent interpretations about the nature of the societies represented archaeologically by a series of superimposed settlement systems.

The Osteological Paradox Reconsidered

ter, and Sontz I97I; Gallagher I977; Hayden I977, I979) that the rules may be so lax (at least with regard to the overall morphology of the lithic artifacts) that the archaeologist may be unable to ascertain from the lithics that they were made according to such rules. I suspect (although I do not speak as a lithics specialist) that we recognize the symbolic nature of the archaeological record of early Upper Paleolithic Europe more from its decorative and representational art than from its lithics. Nevertheless, I am in complete agreement with Byerss interpretation of the Middle-to-Upper-Paleolithic transition in Europe with the one exception that there are more kinds or levels of symbolic behavior than he mentions and that the origins of language are as important to understand as the origins of symbolic culture. Above all, I am encouraged to see a scholar from outside Paleolithic archaeology taking a serious and anything but naive interest in what archaeology has to offer. If we archaeologists can return the compliment by taking a serious and ideally not too naive interest in what other disciplines have to tell us about the evolution of human culture and of the human mind, our discipline will benefit enormously.

An Osteological Perspective on Prehistoric Warfare

Identifying and measuring intergroup relations represent significant, but intractable, problems for researchers dealing with prehistoric peoples. Human skeletons hold a great potential for providing otherwise unattainable information about interactions among ancient societies, including antagonisms that led to outright warfare. As used here for prehistoric horizons, warfare refers to purposeful violence calculated to advance the ambitions of separate political factions, regardless of who was involved, the regularity of fighting, the numbers of participants, or specific combat tactics. Despite the rather obvious connection between skeletons and combat casualties, osteological analyses have made few contributions to the study of conflict among prehistoric peoples (for a well-known exception see Wendorf [1968]).

Nineteenth-century arrow wounds and perceptions of prehistoric warfare

In recent years, prehistoric warfare has increasingly attracted the attention of archaeologists in North America, much like other parts of the world. Skeletons with several forms of trauma, including arrow wounds, are often used as evidence of intergroup conflict, although opinion is divided over what these casualties might mean in terms of the effect of warfare on everyday life. Information on 191 patients from the nineteenth-century Indian Wars in the American West indicates that only about one in three arrows damaged bone, and as many as one-half of wounded lived for months or years following their injuries. Arrow wound distributions vary among Indian Wars cases, modern Papua New Guinea patients, and prehistoric skeletons from eastern North America, in large part because of differences in how fighting was conducted. Despite arguments to the contrary, it is reasonable to infer that even low percentages of archaeological skeletons with distinctive conflict-related bone damage indicate that warfare must have had a perceptible impact on ways of life.

Social and Temporal Implications of Variation among American Bottom Mississippian Cemeteries

Mississippian period cemeteries in the American Bottom, Illinois, were divided into three categories representing two distinct social strata. Burial areas for an elite stratum occurred in large, regionally important town-and-mound centers. Locational, organizational, and artifactual criteria distinguish these burial areas from those of a non-elite social stratum. Members of the non-elite social stratum were buried either in cemeteries located within regional centers or in peripherally located cemeteries associated with outlying communities. Mortuary practices in the American Bottom changed somewhat during the several hundred year duration of the Mississippian period. These changes were particularly apparent at peripheral cemeteries. The size and distribution of these cemeteries were related to levels of regional social segmentation and settlement autonomy, which changed throughout the Mississippian period.

Mississippian Period Population Density in a Segment of the Central Mississippi River Valley

Recent archaeological investigations of Mississippian period (A.D. 1000-1400) sites permit the development of population estimates for an area immediately south of Cahokia, the largest prehistoric site in North America. Population estimates are derived from the number of structures at 11 sites, with the amount of prehistorically habitable land being incorporated as part of the estimating procedure. Population density increased somewhat during the earliest two of four Mississippian phases, reaching its peak during the Stirling phase. Thereafter, population decreased, reaching its lowest point during the Sand Prairie phase.