Hoyme and Bass] 



SKELETAL REMAINS 351 



ing small plots for raising com and beans would not greatly affect 

 the number of mammals, birds, fish, and shellfish available for food, 

 but would materially increase the carbohydrate content of the diet. In 

 contrast to the more generous diet of the Clarksville people, the 

 gathering of nuts, seeds, and roots probably provided the Tollifero 

 people with a minimal supply of carbohydrates at best; and the re- 

 mainder of their caloric requirements would have had to come from 

 animal protein. Although such a diet was obviously adequate for 

 subsistence and survival, it would not necessarily have provided an 

 extra margin for optimal growth. And there may well have been 

 seasonal shortages. 



Before seeking genetic explanations for physical differences be- 

 tween the Tollifero and Clarksville populations, it is desirable to 

 explore the possibility that the improved diet available to the latter 

 is a major cause of change. To do this, it will be necessary first to 

 demonstrate that there was indeed a significant difference in the food 

 of the two peoples. Once this has been established we will be in a posi- 

 tion to ask whether the metric differences in the skulls and postcranial 

 bones can be attributed to the dietary difference or whether some other 

 explanation need be sought. Diet is also a convenient indicator of the 

 economic well-being of a population; and prosperity may well have 

 had an effect on the incidence of disease, the length of life, and severity 

 of age changes. 



Customs other than those related to diet also change, and may leave 

 their mark on the skeletons. As mentioned in the individual descrip- 

 tions, there is evidence for cultural differences in scalping, burial prac- 

 tices, cranial deformity, and the like. A consideration of these may 

 add to the picture details not directly available to the archeologist. 



DENTITION AND DIET 



The pattern of tooth wear ° and dental pathology seen in the Tolli- 

 fero crania differs considerably from that seen in the Clarksville 

 crania (tables 1 and 2). At the Tollifero site, a preagricultural or 

 early agricultural site, the coarse diet produced rapid wear of teeth. 

 By 35 years of age, most of the individuals showed at least second- 



« Wear of te€th has been graded as follows : 1, exposure of the dentine of the cusps ; 

 2, obliteration of the cusps, leaving Islands of enamel at the bottom of the grooves ; 3, 

 Bhortening of the crown to near Its neck ; 4, exposure of the pulp and beyond Ccf. Leigh, 

 1934, pp. 23 ff.) 



Damage to the face often made It difficult to describe the condition of the dentition 

 adequately. Complete or partial healing of the alveolus was taken as evidence of the loss 

 of a tooth during life ; absence of signs of alveolar resorption as evidence of loss of the 

 tooth after death. When teeth were lost postmortem, caries could often be inferred from 

 the presence of inflammatory changes In the alveolus. Because of the extensive post- 

 mortem damage and loss, it seemed wisest to record simply that carles was absent or 

 present in the dentition, or that teeth had or had not been lost, although it would have 

 been preferable to state the number of teeth affected. 



568192—62 24 



