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Death and Disability in a Younge Phase Community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michael W. Spence ,
Lana J. Williams  and
Sandra M. Wheeler
Michael W. Spence
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N5X 4R3 (spence@uwo.ca)
Lana J. Williams
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816
Sandra M. Wheeler
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816
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Abstract

Roffelsen is an early Younge phase mortuary component in southwestern Ontario. The single burial feature is a pit containing the articulated skeletons of seven successively buried individuals, ranging in age from a few months to late middle age. All had been stripped of soft tissues, except for the connecting tissues that maintained their articulation. Most also had a disk cut from the cranium and a hole drilled near bregma. All but the infant display various forms of developmental failure of the outer and middle ear and the petrous portion of the temporal bone. The pit was apparently the burial facility for an extended family with significant hearing impairments. This disability may have limited their interaction with neighboring communities, perhaps even playing a role in their eventual disappearance as a separate community.

Resumen

Resumen

Roffelsen est un site mortuaire dans le sud-ouest de l’Ontario datant du début de la phase Younge de la Tradition Western Basin, soit de 900 á 1200 aprés Jésus-Christ. L’unique tombe de ce site est une fosse contenant les squelettes articulés de sept individus dont l’âge varie de l’enfance á l’age adulte. Ces individus ont été enterrés successivement plutôt que tous en même temps. Avant l’enterrement, chacun d’entre eux avaient été dépouillés de leurs tissus mous, sauf pour les tissus conjonctifs qui avaient tenu leurs os ensemble. Dans la plupart des cas, un disque avait aussi été coupé du crâne et un trou avait été percé dans ce dernier, prés du bregma. Tous, sauf le nourrisson, démontrent différentes formes de malformation au niveau du développement de l’oreille externe et celle moyenne et dans la partie pétreuse de l’os temporal. Ces malformations auraient probablement causé une perte auditive moyenne. Une analyse non métrique de traits indique que ces individus étaient de la même famille. La fosse était évidemment le lieu d’enterrement d’une famille élargie ayant une déficience auditive importante. Ce handicap peut avoir limite leurs interactions avec les communautés voisines et peut également avoir joué un rôle dans leur disparition éventuelle en tant que communauté à part.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 79 , Issue 1 , January 2014 , pp. 108 - 127
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2014

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