Voyageurs in a New World: A French Colonial Cemetery in Nouveau Biloxi (original) (raw)

2018, Bioarchaeology of the American Southeast: Approaches to Bridging Health and Identity in the Past

Abstract

New World colonization is the subject of Funkhouser and Hester’s analysis of human skeletal remains from the French colony of New Biloxi. They cite results of paleopathological assessment and ancient mtDNA analyses, in comparison with other French colonial cemeteries from the New World, and contemporaneous populations in Europe, finding groups of soldiers and sailors to be most alike, as mostly young and male, and having experienced childhood impoverishment and adult physical strain. As a population, they are comparable with Shuler and colleagues’ (chapter 9) analysis of a later 19th- and early 20th-century historic cemetery complex where sailors, laborers, and the indigent were also laid to rest. Funkhouser and Hester’s comprehensive application of paleopathological indicators is echoed in almost every chapter in this volume, from oral health (e.g., Listi, chapter 2; Betsinger and Smith, chapter 3; Griffin, chapter 4), to nonspecific infections and trauma (Stevens and colleagues, chapter 10). Most frequent in Funkhouser and Hester’s sample, though, appear to be those unfortunates who likely perished of epidemic disease, which may killed them so quickly as to have left no impact on their skeletons.

Figures (7)

Table 8.1. Age and Sex Distribution within the Moran Site Sample in Louisiana, dating to circa AD 1700 to 1730 (Brain 1988). Forged iron coffin nails and brass straight pins with coiled-wire heads, prob- ably used as shroud pins, are of typical eighteenth-century manufac- ture. A brass button with a plain convex crown and a flat-edged lip, concave back, and a U-shaped eye brazed to the back, also of typical eighteenth-century design, was found at the site. Historical archae- ologist Stanley South, of the University of South Carolina, assigned a date of 1726 to 1776 to buttons of this type, again fitting with the colonial context of the site (Greenwell 2008).

Table 8.1. Age and Sex Distribution within the Moran Site Sample in Louisiana, dating to circa AD 1700 to 1730 (Brain 1988). Forged iron coffin nails and brass straight pins with coiled-wire heads, prob- ably used as shroud pins, are of typical eighteenth-century manufac- ture. A brass button with a plain convex crown and a flat-edged lip, concave back, and a U-shaped eye brazed to the back, also of typical eighteenth-century design, was found at the site. Historical archae- ologist Stanley South, of the University of South Carolina, assigned a date of 1726 to 1776 to buttons of this type, again fitting with the colonial context of the site (Greenwell 2008).

Table 8.2. Comparative Series Used in This Study or contrasts with, trends for the period (table 8.2). Five of the com- parative collections were drawn from cemetery samples located in North America. St. Croix Island (Crist 2005) and Fort Rosalie (Man- hein 2003) are quite similar demographically, being composed pri- marily of males belonging to military occupations. The North Ameri- can sample also includes two samples from urban environments: St. Peter’s cemetery of New Orleans (Owsley and Orser 1985) and the Quebec City cemetery (Cybulski 1988). St. Peter’s cemetery was found to contain an assortment of different ancestries and social sta- tuses, including many slaves (Owsley and Orser 1985). The Quebec City cemetery is composed, primarily, of Protestant prisoners of vari- ous European nationalities (Cybulski 1988). The final two samples come from Europe and include a London sample (Miles et al. 2008), which is composed of more socially and economically affluent indi- viduals, and a sample of French census records pertaining to height (Komlos and Cinnirella 2005). This broad range of comparative sites, occupations, living conditions, and access to resources was selected to place the paleopathological conditions observed at Moran within the context of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the early immigrant experience in the New World.

Table 8.2. Comparative Series Used in This Study or contrasts with, trends for the period (table 8.2). Five of the com- parative collections were drawn from cemetery samples located in North America. St. Croix Island (Crist 2005) and Fort Rosalie (Man- hein 2003) are quite similar demographically, being composed pri- marily of males belonging to military occupations. The North Ameri- can sample also includes two samples from urban environments: St. Peter’s cemetery of New Orleans (Owsley and Orser 1985) and the Quebec City cemetery (Cybulski 1988). St. Peter’s cemetery was found to contain an assortment of different ancestries and social sta- tuses, including many slaves (Owsley and Orser 1985). The Quebec City cemetery is composed, primarily, of Protestant prisoners of vari- ous European nationalities (Cybulski 1988). The final two samples come from Europe and include a London sample (Miles et al. 2008), which is composed of more socially and economically affluent indi- viduals, and a sample of French census records pertaining to height (Komlos and Cinnirella 2005). This broad range of comparative sites, occupations, living conditions, and access to resources was selected to place the paleopathological conditions observed at Moran within the context of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the early immigrant experience in the New World.

Figure 8.1. Comparison of mean stature by sex in contemporaneous eighteenth-century populations (J. Lynn Funkhouser).

Figure 8.1. Comparison of mean stature by sex in contemporaneous eighteenth-century populations (J. Lynn Funkhouser).

Table 8.3. Occurrence of Caries and Antemortem Tooth Loss by Burial at Moran

Table 8.3. Occurrence of Caries and Antemortem Tooth Loss by Burial at Moran

Figure 8.2. Metabolic insult at Moran and comparative sites (CO = cribra orbitalia, PH = porotic hyperostosis) (J. Lynn Funkhouser). FRENCH COLONIAL CEMETERY IN Nouveau Brox / 15:

Figure 8.2. Metabolic insult at Moran and comparative sites (CO = cribra orbitalia, PH = porotic hyperostosis) (J. Lynn Funkhouser). FRENCH COLONIAL CEMETERY IN Nouveau Brox / 15:

FRENCH COLONIAL CEMETERY IN Nouveau Bitoxi / 15 Figure 8.3. Nonspecific infection at Moran and comparative sites (J. Lynn Funkhouser).

FRENCH COLONIAL CEMETERY IN Nouveau Bitoxi / 15 Figure 8.3. Nonspecific infection at Moran and comparative sites (J. Lynn Funkhouser).

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