A Comparative Health Analysis of the Historic African American Cemetery Population from 1La151, Foster Cemetery, to Three Contemporaneous Historic Southeastern African American Cemetery Populations (original) (raw)
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A search for unmarked graves in the state-owned right of way and underneath the pavement of State Highway 332 resulted in the discovery and archeological excavation of 11 unmarked graves associated with Pioneer Cemetery, an African American burial ground in Brazoria, Texas. Prewitt and Associates, Inc., conducted the fieldwork for the Texas Department of Transportation’s Archeological Studies Program. Between 2008 and 2012, the 11 unmarked graves were discovered, exhumed, analyzed, and then reinterred in Pioneer Cemetery in September 2012. This report describes the bioarcheological investigations of those burials along with 3 other unmarked burials that were previously exhumed and reburied in 2003. The mortuary remains, especially the manufacturing dates on the coffin hardware, indicate that the 14 exhumed burials date to the late-nineteenth century and early-twentieth centuries. Based on the osteological evidence, the deceased persons were 5 women, 2 men, 2 indeterminate adults, an...
From May 2007 through June 2012, faculty and students from the Department of Anthropology and Sociology conducted Phase III cultural resources excavation and bioarchaeological analysis of a French Colonial cemetery located at the Moran site (22HR511) in Biloxi, Mississippi. The work was supported by the Heritage Preservation Division of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (DMR) and the Coastal Impact Assistance Program (CIAP). The site is located in Harrison County in Section 26, Township 7 South, Range 9 West, on the U.S.G.S. Biloxi Quadrangle 7.5-Minute Series Topological Map (U.S. Geological Survey 2012) topographic quadrangle. Its physical address is 110 Porter Avenue, which is situated on the eastern side of the street just north of the intersection with US Hwy 90 (Beach Boulevard). The area under investigation consists of 6920 sq ft (0.16 acres or 0.06 hectares). The primary purpose of the investigation was to assess mortuary activity on the site related to the period between 1717 and 1723 when New Biloxi served as a staging ground for thousands of European immigrants brought over to work the inland concessions. The cemetery had first been revealed in 1969 after Hurricane Camille and was fully exposed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 with the devastating destruction of the Moran Art Studio which had been located on the property. Subsequent systematic excavation between 2007 and 2009 focused on the southeastern portion of the site, and yielded skeletal remains of approximately 27 individuals. Grave goods and Carbon-14 testing confirmed the early eighteenth century date for the cemetery. Burials were irregularly spaced and oriented on a general N-S axis. With few exceptions, individuals were in an extended supine position with hands crossed over the abdomen. One individual in the prone position as well as one set of stacked burials evidently sharing a single grave shaft suggest that interment may have been hastily and/or without great care. Burial goods consisted of a crucifix, three shroud pins, and two shell buttons, indicating that personal possessions of the deceased were likely given to the living. The human remains recovered subsequently underwent bioarchaeological analysis for demographic, health and activity patterns. The results revealed that the population was comprised predominantly of young adult males, which conforms to expectations based on historical documents. All those interred were likely of European ancestry; although this suggests a potentially segregated cemetery consistent with implementation of principles of the ancien régime, it is based on a very small sample size. Health patterns, including relatively short stature and indicators of frequent growth disruptions during childhood, suggest a stressed population, which supports historical documents noting the lower class origins of most who immigrated. In Spring 2012, the DMR purchased the property from the Moran family, and archaeological testing of the rest of the site took place in from May 14 until June 8 of that year. Nineteen units and over 200 shovel and auger tests were excavated. No new burials were identified, but one feature, a late nineteenth century refuse deposit, was discovered. Although further evidence of use of the site during the French Colonial period other than as a cemetery was not found, excavation did reveal extensive evidence of domestic occupation during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This accords with historical records that document a summer residence on the property constructed by 1891 as well as subsequent construction of an additional house on the property in the 1930s or 1940s. It is recommended that the human remains be reinterred on site with an appropriate memorial constructed to commemorate this often overlooked but pivotal period in the history of Biloxi.
The stone-box burial and cemetery is a ubiquitous characteristic of the Middle Cumberland Mississippian occupation. While stone-box burials are well-documented across much of the southeastern U.S., the classic form of stone-box burial known as the Cumberland type are distinctive to the Middle Cumberland Region. Furthermore, the Middle Cumberland Region is unrivaled in the number and size of stone-box cemeteries. Numerous reports describing stone-box cemeteries and concomitant excavations and studies evaluating the form and construction, distribution of stone-box burial types, as well as the health and demography of the makers and occupants of the stone-box cemeteries are available. However, no evaluations aimed at the interpretation of the structure and variation represented within and between stone-box cemeteries have been conducted. This study is an initial attempt to recognize and interpret variability within this aspect of Middle Cumberland Mississippian culture.
Revisiting the Dead at Helena Crossing, Arkansas
Revisiting the Dead at Helena Crossing, Arkansas, 2010
This paper presents the restdts of a bioarchaeological reanalysis of the skeletal remains interred in the Middle Woodland burial mounds at the Helena Crossing site (3PHÍ1). Based on current bioarchaeological methods, our reanalysis offers summaries of the sex and age estimates, pathologies, and trauma of the burials from Helena Crossing that are useful for their subsequent interpretation. We also document preimusly unrecognized evidence of postmortem processing in specific burials as evidenced by cut and chop marks that are associated with deflcshing, disarticulating, and possibly mutilating particular corpses. We note the special attention paid to detaching and processing the mandibles and/or maxillas of several btirials that indicates, along with evidence from other sites, that the motith was an important symbolically charged orifice during the Middle Woodland period in the Eastern Woodlands.
Cortical bone maintenance in an historic Afro-American Cemetery sample from Cedar Grove, Arkansas
American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 1987
The relocation and analysis of 80 skeletons from the Cedar Grove Cemetery, located in southwest Arkansas, provides an opportunity to examine the level of health and nutrition exprienced by Afro-Americans in the post-Reconstruction South (1878-1930). The demographic profile lends support to the interpretation that Cedar Grove participated in the nationwide decline in Afro-American health. The high frequencies of skeletal lesions indicative of dietary deficiencies and infectious disease demonstrate that this was a highly stressed population. For this analysis, adult femoral thin sections (15 females and 14 males) are examined histologically. These data provide support to the assertion that the Cedar Grove population experienced poor health. Measures taken from the sections include cortical thickness, percent cortical area, and mean number of resorption spaces and forming osteons per square millimeter of bone. As a group, they demonstrate low percent cortical area compared with well-nourished normals. They also show high rates of resorption to formation, thereby disrupting the balance necessary for normal cortical bone maintenance. The pattern established for bone porosity in this group is not a function of age but rather is due to other factors, most likely nutrition and disease stress. What may be unique about this group is that males, as well as females, experienced problems with calcium homeostasis and normal maintenance and repair of bone. Taken together, these data support the interpretation that diet and health were substandard in the post-Reconstruction South.