Burial Report of CAYOL117

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Burial Report of CA-YOL-117

• Casey Self
• UC Davis
• McNair Scholars Program
• Mentor Henry McHenry

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Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act of 1990

• Protects Native American rights to burial and
  protection of ancestors
• Requires museums and laboratories to report and
  attempt to affiliate remains and specific objects
• Allows tribes to call for repatriation of
  affiliated human remains and associated artifacts

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Concerns

• Requires both small and large institutions to
  evaluate their remains
• Logistical problems
• Funding
• Time limits
• Loss of data by reburial
• Demonstrated a need for standardized data
  collecting techniques
• Data collecting techniques must also be fast and
  relatively simple

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Standards For Data Collection From Human Skeletal
Remains

• Buikstra and Ubelaker, 1994
• Strives to solve problem of lost data
• Sets guidelines for standardized data collection
• Standard forms and scoring information
• Recommended sexing and aging procedures
• Intended to represent the minimum amount of data
  collected
• Encourages further analysis according to
  individual anthropologist's specialty

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CA-YOL-117

• Goals of this project
• Apply Standards guidelines to this collection
• Create and accurate and up to date inventory
• Generate a burial report to add to the collection
  documentation

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CA-YOL-117

• Plow operators uncovered human remains during
  field preparation in Yolo County
• Four burials were recovered along with associated
  artifacts

• UC Davis Staff was called to excavate
• Due to rushed excavation field records are sparse
• Dated by artifacts to Late Horizon Period
• Currently culturally unidentifiable

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CA-YOL-117

• Burial 1
• Partly excavated by machine, partly by operators
• No skeletal material was recovered
• Burial 2
• Mostly complete adult male

• Burial 3
• Adult male
• Near 50 complete
• Burial 4
• Mostly complete adult male

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CA-YOL-117 Burial 2

• Mostly complete skeleton
• Likely primary interment
• Apparently in a prone position, lower legs curved
  slightly
• Some damage to bones, possibly by plow or shovel

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Burial 2 Sex

• Os Coxae Morphology
• Aspects of the pelvis are analyzed

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Burial 2 Sex

• Degree of ventral arcing
• Lack or presence of subpubic concavity
• Medial surface
• Primarily male characteristics for Burial 2

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Burial 2 Sex

• Cranial Morphology
• 1-5 coding system
• 1 more feminine
• 5 more masculine
• Primarily male characteristics

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Burial 2 Age

• Cranial Suture Closure
• Composite Vault Score

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Burial 2 Age

• Pubic Symphysis
• Todd- 3/4
• Suchey-Brooks- 3/2

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Burial 2 Stature

• Two estimates using long bones
• Trotter (1970)
• Ousley (1995)
• Both provide an estimate and standard error

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Stature Estimation Comparison Burial 2 (Ousley
vs. Trotter)
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Burial 2 Weight

• Weight can be estimated using measurements of the
  vertebrae (McHenry, 1992)
• Aterio-posterior and the transverse diameter of
  the superior surface
• L5, T12, Sacrum, C7
• Using 5th lumbar vertebra 70.62kg
• Wt. L51.1593
• 91.8

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Burial 2 Trauma

• Right Calcaneous
• Two cut marks
• Probably excavation damage
• Associated points
• Obsidian point in rib cage and foot area

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CA-YOL-117 Burial 2

• Male
• Young Adult (20-35)
• 5 3 to 5 7'
• Approx. 70.62 kg
• Good dental health
• Likely violent death
• Due to associated artifacts

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CA-YOL-117 Burial 3

• Partial skeleton
• Likely primary interment
• Extended on left side
• Excavation damage to some bones

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Burial 3 Sex

• Os Coxae Morphology
• Right side was missing
• Primarily male characteristics
• Cranial morphology
• Highly fragmented skull
• Only two traits were analyzed, both probable male

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Burial 3 Age

• Pubic Symphysis
• Todd- 7 35-40 yrs.
• Suchey-Brooks- 4 24-58 yrs.
• Aurricular surface
• Where the sacrum attaches to the illium
• Lovejoy (et. al 1985)- 3 30-35 yrs.
• Overlap is 30-40 years
• Young/middle adult

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Burial 3 Trauma

• Burned Bone
• Ribs 2-12 and Vertebrae T2-12 (most other bones
  of the right side are missing)
• Right side only
• Vertebra T9
• Point embedded in lamina
• Vertebra L1
• Cut mark on spinous process and right inferior
  articular process
• Obsidian lodged in cut bone

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Point in lamina of T9
Point lodged in L1
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Burial 3 Trauma

• Cutmarks
• Likely plow damage

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CA-YOL-117 Burial 3

• Male
• Young to Middle aged
• Approx. 5 2 to 5 8
• Good dental health
• Likely violent death

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CA-YOL-117 Burial 4

• Mostly present skeleton
• Tightly flexed body
• Laying on face

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Burial 4 Sex

• Os Coxae Morphology
• Probable male
• Some characteristics ambiguous
• Cranial Morphology
• Too fragmented for most indicators

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Burial 4 Age

• Pubic Symphysis
• Left pubic symphysis broken off
• Todd- 9 45-50 yrs.
• Suchey-Brooks-5 27-60 yrs.
• Aurricular Surface
• Lovejoy- 6 45-50 yrs.
• Probably later stage middle adult

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Burial 4 Dentition

• Abscesses in maxilla and mandible
• Multiple dental carries
• Molars worn down to root
• Supernumerary tooth in maxillary dental arcade

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Burial 4 Dentition
1 Two small abscesses
1
3
2 Corresponding dental carries
3 Larger abscess
4
2
4 Corresponding dental carries
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Burial 4 Trauma

• Vertebra T10
• Large cut mark in left side of vertebral body
• Obsidian fragment inside cut
• Vertebra L1
• Obsidian point tip lodged in posterior aspect of
  left inferior articular facet

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Point tip lodged in T10
Cut in vertebral body of L1
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CA-YOL-117 Burial 4

• Male
• Middle/old adult
• Severe dental wear
• Approx. 5 4 to 510
• Violent death

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Conclusions

• Late Horizon period
• Movement of the Patwin into present day Yolo
  County
• Displacement of an existing group
• Makes affiliation uncertain
• Often marked with violent encounters

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Acknowledgements

• Prof. Henry McHenry
• The McNair Scholars Program
• The UC Davis Department of Anthropology Museum
• Lisa Deitz
• Maria Dawson

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Burial Report of CA-YOL-117

• Casey Self
• UC Davis
• McNair Scholars Program
• Mentor Henry McHenry