“Men, Women, and Children Starving”: Archaeology of the Donner Family Camp

Abstract

<jats:p>In spring of 1846, the George and Jacob Donner families and some 80 traveling companions began their overland trek to California. When the party ascended the Sierra Nevada in late October, a snowstorm forced the group to bivouac. At this point, the train became separated into two contingents; the larger party camped near Donner Lake and the smaller group—including the Donner families—settled at Alder Creek. Though written accounts from the Lake site imply many resorted to cannibalism, no such records exist for Alder Creek. Here we present archaeological findings that support identification of the Alder Creek camp. We triangulate between historical context, archaeological traces of the camp, and osteological remains to examine the human condition amid the backdrops of starvation and cannibalism. A stepped analytical approach was developed to examine the site’s fragmentary bone assemblage (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic>= 16,204). Macroscopic and histological analyses indicate that the emigrants consumed domestic cattle and horse and procured wild game, including deer, rabbit, and rodent. Bladed tools were used to extensively process animal tissue. Moreover, bone was being reduced to small fragments; pot polish indicates these fragments were boiled to extract grease. It remains inconclusive, however, whether such processing, or the assemblage, includes human tissue.</jats:p>

Evidence for End‐stage Cannibalism on Sir John Franklin's Last Expedition to the Arctic, 1845

“…Pot polish is characterised by abrasion/polishing to projecting ends of bone because of contact with the walls of a cooking vessel (White, : 120‐124). Pot polish has been produced experimentally by heating bone fragments devoid of soft tissue in water in metal or ceramic vessels (White, : 121‐122; Dixon et al ., ; Kopp & Graham, ). Archaeologically, it has been observed in animal bones which have been processed to extract bone grease (Dixon et al ., ), and in human remains in suspected cases of cannibalism (White, ; Turner & Turner, ; Cáceres et al ., ).…”

“…Cannibalism in the Franklin Expedition or ceramic vessels (White, 1992: 121-122;Dixon et al, 2010;Kopp & Graham, 2011). Archaeologically, it has been observed in animal bones which have been processed to extract bone grease (Dixon et al, 2010), and in human remains in suspected cases of cannibalism (White, 1992;Turner & Turner, 1995;Cáceres et al, 2007). Pot polish has been most often reported on long-bone fragments, but has also been seen on other elements (White, 1992;Turner & Turner, 1999).…”

“…Pot polish has been most often reported on long-bone fragments, but has also been seen on other elements (White, 1992;Turner & Turner, 1999). Mechanical agitation of bone against the walls of the vessel is required to produce pot polish, so simply warming bones in water is insufficient (Billman et al, 2000); stirring or boiling is required (White, 1992;Dixon et al, 2010;Kopp & Graham, 2011). White (1992: 124) proposed that pot polish would exist along a continuum depending upon cooking time, the abrasive properties of the vessel wall and the amount of stirring, a prediction born out by later experiment (Dixon et al, 2010;Kopp & Graham, 2011).…”

Perimortem mutilation of human remains in an early village in the American Southwest: A case for ethnic violence

“…The well-known historic Alferd Packer case of murder and short-term survival cannibalism involved only five victims, for example (Rautman and Fenton 2005). And while the Donner Party tragedy involved the cannibalization of 21 individuals in total, these may be thought of as a series of discrete incidents involving a handful of individuals at a time and occurring in six separate locations-Alder Creek (n = 5), Camp of Death (n = 4), Sierra foothills (n = 3), Murphy Cabin (n = 2), Breen Cabin (n = 4), and Starved Camp (n = 3)-over a number of months (Dixon et al, 2010;Grayson, 1990;Hardesty, 1997).…”

Modelling of bone fracture and strength at different length scales: a review

“…From the mechanics point of view, modelling results demonstrated a significant impact of material properties of cement lines on microcrack-osteon interactions [74,99]. Quantitative analyses of cortical bone have also reported that the size and density of osteons vary with age [78,[100][101][102][103][104]. Because cement lines are prime sites for microcrack formation, an increase in the osteon density could lead to a higher microcrack density, which could reduce the crack-initiation toughness [32,34].…”