Population structure and skeletal variation in the Late Woodland of west‐central Illinois

Abstract

This paper analyzes nonmetric trait variation in 11 late Late Woodland (ca. AD 700-1000) and one Mississippian (AD 1000-1300) skeletal samples from west-central Illinois from a population-structure perspective. Most of the sites are of the Bluff phase of Late Woodland in the lower Illinois River valley; others are from a nearby, contemporary archaeological phase. Late Woodland as a whole era (ca. AD 250-1000) was a period of marked population growth and expansion into new regional environments, trends that accompanied horticultural intensification in the area. Overall variation between sites was low, but males, females, and the total sample exhibited a significant geographic component to variation due to interregional morphological differences. The Bluff sites tended to group together relative to the non-Bluff sites. However, there was no significant geographic component to variation among the Bluff sites. The results are only partially consistent with archaeological data suggesting population growth and expansion through fissioning. Previous studies have demonstrated significant heterogeneity for nonmetric trait frequencies among Middle Woodland (ca. 100 BC to AD 250) sites, suggesting a Middle to Late Woodland change in population structure that lowered levels of morphological variation. This supports a model of increased intra- and interregional interaction from Middle to Late Woodland times developed from ceramic data by Braun and by Braun and Plog.

Changes in long bone diaphyseal strength with horticultural intensification in west-central Illinois

“…Nonetheless, it is possible to sort Late Woodland societies into earlier and later subsamples. A review of calibrated radiocarbon dates (Conner, 1984) from the sites in question reaffirms that the majority of the Late Woodland at the Pete Klunk Mounds comes from the earlier part of this period (between AD 600 -800). The Koster Mounds Late Woodland dates largely overlap this period, falling between the late 600s and late 800s.…”

“…Middle Woodland sites include Pete Klunk, Gibson, and L'Orient (Buikstra, 1976;Perino, 1968). Late Woodland remains also come from Pete Klunk, as well as Koster, Schild, Yokem, Ledders, Hacker, and Kuhlmann (Atwell and Conner, 1991;Conner, 1984;Perino, 1971aPerino, , 1973a. The large Mississippian cemetery at the Schild site is the single source for burials of that period (Perino, 1971b).…”

Temporal aspects of biological distance: Serial correlation and trend in a prehistoric skeletal lineage

“…11) except that the osition of the ones and zeros is reversed R ere so that the matrix will be a distance matrix. (Farnsworth and Asch, 1986); the Late Woodland period lasted approximately 750 years (250 AD to 1000 AD) (Conner, 1984). Skeletal material from addiskeletal materia P was recovered from five tional mounds at the site containing few individuals was not included in this study because of small sam le sizes.…”

The utility of hand and foot bones for the determination of sex and the estimation of stature in a prehistoric population from west-central Illinois

“…The individuals interred in these mounds represent a single population, spanning the Middle Woodland to Mississippian periods (AD 1-1100). They have been determined by other researchers to be a demographically representative sample of the population in which they lived [10,12,[25][26][27]. Individuals were chosen that were adults, had pelvic remains sufficient for sex determination, at least one intact femur, and at least one of the hand or foot bones sufficiently intact for measurement.…”