Hoyme and Bass] SKELETAL REMAINS 373 



cultural differences make the evidence nearly impossible to interpret. 

 One would expect differences both in the incidence of arthritis, and 

 in the sites of these degenerative changes; but the practice at Clarks- 

 ville of scraping the bones has in many cases damaged the anterior 

 surfaces of the cervical and lumbar vertebral bodies, removing much 

 of the evidence of lipping or damage to the intervertebral disks. 

 Because of the small size of the two series, comparisons of arthritic 

 changes in other joints can lead to no useful conclusions as to dif- 

 ferences in habitual muscular stresses. One can say only that while 

 arthritic changes were observed in both populations, the increase at 

 the Clarksville site by no means paralleled the marked increase in 

 dental decay in that population.^^ 



Since the Tollifero people followed a hunting and gathering 

 economy, and were probably seminomadic, one would expect that 

 fractures occurred more frequently than in the agricultural, and more 

 sedentary, Clarksville people. Yet this very factor could influence 

 the number of cases found, for an injured member of the group 

 might be abandoned to care for himself as best he could, and his 

 skeleton would not be among those found by the archeologist. Never- 

 theless, the Tollifero skeletons included one man whose fractured 

 ankle had healed, albeit with deformity, and another individual whose 

 humerus may have been fractured and healed. Of the fractures 

 noted in the Clarksville skeltons — a thumb, wrist and hip — only the 

 latter would have caused serious disability. From the nature of 

 the osseous changes in this skeleton (USNM 380850), it is difficult 

 to decide whether the trauma was a fracture or penetrating wound, 

 or both, followed by inflammation and suppuration into the acetabu- 

 lum. Four cases of separation of the lamina of the fifth lumbar 

 vertebra (cf. Stewart, 1953) were noted, one at the Tollifero site 

 (USNM 380901) and three at the Clarksville site (USNM 380856, 

 -871, and -878) . Again, the small size of the series and the few cases 

 observed do not justify conjectures about differences in stresses causing 

 these fractures. 



Minor anomalie.s occurred at both sites, although somewhat more 

 frequently at the Clarksville site. These included a child about 8 

 years old (USNM 380845) in which the posterior arch of the atlas 

 was incomplete, and the anterior arch had failed to fuse in the 

 midline, and whose 7th cervical vertebra bore a rib; a second child 

 about 8 (USNM 380860), in which the anterior arch of the atlas 

 was unfused in the midline; a man with a lumbar rib (USNM 

 380855) ; a man with a forked rib (USNM 380858), and a young 



^1 Slgerlst (1951, p. 51), for example, refers to the current belief that "many cases of 

 arthritis develop from a primary Infectious focus, following a tonsillitis or a dental in- 

 fection. . . ." 



