Mangold, William L. (Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Reclamation),
Stephen P. Nawrocki, and Jennifer Scherbauer (University of Indianapolis)
THE SHAFFER SITE (12 GR 109): ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON AN ALBEE PHASE SITE IN THE WHITE RIVER VALLEY
The Shaffer Cemetery was one of the Greene County sites used to define the Albee
Phase in southwestern Indiana in the early 1930's (Black 1933; MacLean 1931).
Over a fifty year period, as many as forty burials have been recovered from the
site. Unfortunately, most were found in either a poor state of preservation or
badly disturbed with little context.
In August 1993, another burial (Figure 8)
was disturbed during line maintenance by Citizens' Gas Company at the site southeast
of Worthington. The burial was found lying on its right side, facing north, with
the legs drawn up into a loosely flexed position. Both hands were near the face.
The burial pit had been dug deeper in the area of the lower legs, and the body
had been strongly twisted to fit into its confines. The areas of the right knee
and of the neck and lower jaw had been disturbed by burrowing rodents.
Accompanying the burial were a bone awl and an unidentified bone implement made
from a split mammal bone and exhibiting wear polish, a turtle shell bowl or cup,
a turtle shell pendant, and a cordmarked ceramic pot. The bone tools were found
in the abdominal area of the skeleton and may have been in a pouch or bag which
was attached to a belt worn by the deceased. The bowl was placed behind the left
shoulder while the pendant had shifted from the chest area to above the right
shoulder during interment. The skull rested against the ceramic pot.
A seemingly low standard of construction was apparent in the bowl and pot when
compared with similar items found previously at the site. The marginal areas of
the bowl had not been ground to form a more even lip, and numerous cutmarks were
present on the interior. The pot contained numerous finger impressions on the
incompletely smoothed interior, the vessel walls were significantly thicker than
the base and decoration was applied to only one side, the one visible when placed
in the burial pit. This would seem to indicate that death was unexpected and items
were hastily prepared for inclusion with the burial.
Fragments of sandstone were found in the upper torso area. This trait has been
seen in other Albee sites (Black 1933; MacLean 1931; Tomak, personal communication
1993) and may be the result of stones being placed to hold down a piece of mat,
hide or leather which covered the head and face to prevent them from coming in
direct contact with the fill dirt.
Due to the ambiguous nature of the location of the excavations reported by Glenn
Black in 1933 and the lack of any locational data from excavations in 1964 and
1974, this find cannot be precisely correlated with any of the previous excavations.
Black (1933) mentioned the existence of two mounds, one south and one east of
his excavations. Information provided by older employees of Citizens' Gas indicated
that several feet of dirt had been removed from the area and that both the 1964
and 1974 excavations were in the general area. A slightly domed remanent landform
was present just north of the most recent investigations; therefore, the location
of the burial may be associated with one of two reported mounds rather than with
the cemetery area.
The skeletal remains were analyzed at the Archaeology and Forensics Laboratory
of the University of Indianapolis . With the exception of all but two foot bones:
the right patella and four auditory ossicles, all skeletal elements were present
and extremely well preserved. The cranium is complete with no postmortem distortion.
Thirty-one of the permanent teeth are present, lacking only the upper left central
incisor.
Discrete traits of the pelvis and cranium (pubic and sacroiliac morphology, cranial
superstructures) clearly indicate that the individual is female. A cross racial
discriminant function developed by Giles & Elliot (1962:153) for determining sex
from cranial measurements corroborates this assessment. Similar functions constructed
for the Gibson-Klunk Middle Woodland series (Illinois) by Buikstra (1976:13),
however, yield conflicting results. All measurements from basion are shorter for
the present specimen compared to the group means of Buikstra's sample or for other
Albee Phase crania from Indiana (e.g. Commissary Site (Glenn 1982:44)). A two
subgroup discriminant function analysis of 21 cranial measurements using FORDISC
1.0 (Jantz & Ousley 1992) strongly aligns the specimen with Amerindian females
rather than males (n=73; posterior probability = 1.000; typicality probability
= 0.04). Cranial and mandibular measurements are presented in Table 2. No artificial
cranial deformation is present.
The third molars are fully erupted and in occlusion, and the spheno occipital
synchondrosis is fused. The pubic symphyses, while eroded, appears youthful (Suchey
- Brooks Phase II or III). The medial clavicular epiphyses have only recently
joined their shafts (Suchey late Stage III), and lines of epiphyseal union are
still present on other bones. Age at death, therefore, appears to have been in
the mid to late twenties. Living stature is estimated at 4'8" +/- 1.3" (143 +/-
3.4 cm), based on formulae developed for prehistoric Midwestern populations (Sciulli
& Giesen 1993).
The dentition displays moderate wear with dentin exposure on most teeth. Two small
interproximal carious lesions lie between the upper right premolars, and multiple
linear enamel hypoplasias are evident on the mandibular and maxillary canines.
There is minimal calculus buildup. The fifth lumbar vertebra is spondylolytic
with complete, but asymmetrical, separation of the spine and right lamina from
the remainder of the neural arch. Pseudoarthritic changes are evident on the articulations
between the two segments, showing signs of secondary fusion. Spondylolisthesis
(anterior slippage of the vertebral body) was probably not present, although slight
osteophytic development of the lumbosacral joint is likely associated with this
activity - or trauma-induced condition.
References Cited
Black, Glenn A.
1933 The Archaeology of Greene County. Indiana Historical
Society, Indianapolis.
Buikstra, J.E.
1976 Hopewell in the Lower Illinois Valley. Northwestern
University. Archaeological Program, Scientific Papers
No. 2, Evanston, Illinois.
Glenn, Elizabeth J.
1982 Skeletal material. In The Commissary Site: An Early
Late Woodland Cemetery in East Central Indiana, edited
by B.K. Swartz, pp. 33-49. Contributions to Anthropological
History No.3, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana.
Giles, E. and O. Elliot
1962 Race identification from cranial measurements. Journal
of Forensic Science 7:147-57.
Jantz, R.L. and S.D. Ousley
1992 FORDISC 1.0 Personal Computer Forensic Discriminant
Functions. University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
MacLean, J.A.
1931 Excavations of the Albee Mound, 1926-27. Indiana
Historical Society, Indianapolis.
Sciulli P.W. and M.J. Giesen
1993 An Update on Stature Estimation in Prehistoric Native
Americans of Ohio. American Journal of Physical
Anthropology 92:395-399.
Table 2: Cranial and Mandibular Measurements, 12 Gr 109.
Measurement mm Measurement mm
glabella-opisthocranion 175 occipital chord 90
maximum cranial breadth 129 lambda-asterion chord(left) 77
bizygomatic breadth 125 lambda-asterion chord(right) 81
basion-bregma 130 lambda-asterion arc(left) 83
basion-nasion 92 lambda-asterion arc(right) 89
basion-prosthion 88 foramen magnum length 37
maximum palate breadth 58 foramen magnum breadth 28.5
maximum palate length 51 mastoid length(left) 23.5
biauricular breadth 118 mastoid length(right) 25
biasterionic breadth 111
nasion-prosthion 64 chin height 28
minimum frontal breadth 92 body height, mental
foramen(left) 28
maximum frontal breadth 111 body height, mental,
foramen(right) 29
upper facial breadth 100 body thickness at above(left) 7.5
nasal height 47 body thickness at above(right) 8
nasal breadth 28 bigonial breadth 87.5
orbital breadth(left)(d-ec) 41 bicondylar breadth 115
orbital breadth(right) 43 minimum ramus breadth(left) 32.5
orbital height(left) 36 minimum ramus breadth(right) 32
orbital height(right) 35 maximum ramus breadth(left) 39.5
biorbital breadth 95 maximum ramus breadth(right) 40
interorbital breadth 17.5 maximum ramus height(left) 55
frontal chord 107 maximum ramus height(right) 58
parietal chord 115 condyle breadth(left) 19.1
parietal arc 131 condyle breadth(right) 18.4
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