Abstract
A skeletal series exhibiting many of the complexities associated with cases of commingled remains, including numerous individuals and incomplete element representation, comes from the Crow Creek Site, South Dakota. Prior research on Crow Creek adult skeletal materials assessed the relationship between bone mineral density and element representation (Willey et al. 1990; Galloway et al. Human bone mineral densities and survival of bone elements: A contemporary sample. In Haglund & Sorg (Eds.), Forensic taphonomy: The postmortem fate of human remains (pp. 295–317). Boca Raton: CRC Press, 1997). In the present study, we expand upon the previous work and incorporate subadult skeletal remains in an attempt to show that age is correlated with element survival. Altogether, this study consists of 25,963 element segments. The 25,963 segments represent a total of 2,286 elements. The results of this study demonstrate that the paleodemographic profile of any skeletal series has the potential for bias when one ignores the relationship between BMD and element survival. Because adult skeletal elements have a higher BMD than subadult elements, the denser and larger elements have a greater likelihood of being represented. Therefore, skeletal series tend to be biased in favor of adult skeletal elements. The authors of this chapter outline the substantial impact that BMD has on MNI estimations and paleodemographic reconstructions involving commingled series.
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Acknowledgments
Frank Bayham for discussion of MNI in zooarchaeology.
Alison Galloway and Lynn Snyder for access to the BMD values and Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research funding (Grant No. 5251) for the original BMD research.
Nebraska State Historical Society for permission to reprint Fig. 2.
Judy Stolen of Chico Map Works produced the maps and bone segments.
Larry Bradley and Adrian Holtzer of the University of South Dakota’s Archaeology Laboratory for Fig. 3.
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Kendell, A., Willey, P. (2014). Crow Creek Bone Bed Commingling: Relationship Between Bone Mineral Density and Minimum Number of Individuals and Its Effect on Paleodemographic Analyses. In: Osterholtz, A., Baustian, K., Martin, D. (eds) Commingled and Disarticulated Human Remains. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7560-6_6
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