392 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 182 



pair. Fortunately the Occaneechi bones had not been thorouglily 

 cleaned when they were examined, and the presence of dirt in some 

 of the deeper holes was reassurance, in some cases, that the cuts had 

 not been made during excavation. Unfortunately, where breaks 

 were associated with the cuts, the bones had been repaired, so that 

 it could not be learned whether the breaks had occurred at the time 

 of burial, or at some time after excavation. The color of the un- 

 cleaned, broken surfaces, might have given some indication. And 

 it would have been easier to see cortical changes in the pathological 

 bones. Taking apart repaired bones, or making fresh breaks is to be 

 avoided if possible. 



It would be unrealistic to expect that in every case cooperation of 

 tliis sort would produce fruitful results. Nevertheless, there is so 

 much yet to be learned, of mutual interest to ethnologist, archeologist, 

 physical anthropologist, and historian, that it would seem unwise 

 not to allow the anthropologist every opportunity to extract from the 

 bones as much information as he can. It is even possible that, in 

 time, the skeletal appendix may come to be more than a dull list of 

 ages and sexes, buttressed with lengthy tables of cranial comparisons. 



EESUME AND CONCLUSIONS 



Although metric differences in the skeletal remains from the Oc- 

 caneechi Island area do not reflect many clear differences between the 

 early people of the Tollif ero site and the late people of the Clarksville 

 site, other evidence from the bones shows fairly clear differences in 

 their ways of life. Some of these differences are correlated with the 

 cultural evidence already pointed out by the archeologist; others are 

 revealed only by an examination of the bones. 



The physical differences separating the populations are slight. 

 There is some difference in head form, with the earlier peoples more 

 dolichocephalic than the later, but long to medimn skulls appear in 

 both populations. The males of the later population are slightly 

 taller than the earlier males, but the females of the two groups are of 

 about the same height. Wliereas the change in skull vault form may 

 be evolutionai-y in nature, and thus correspond to the analogous 

 changes which have been observed elsewhere in the Americas, the in- 

 crease in height may be associated with change in diet following the 

 introduction of agriculture. When the series are divided by age and 

 sex, and the damaged specimens are eliminated, the resulting series 

 are too small to give statistically significant answers to the usual 

 questions that arise: The differences between the groups are neither 

 small enough to rule out admixture, evolution, or population replace- 

 ment as agencies of change, nor great enough to rule out population 

 continuity. The problem is complicated by lack of adequately docu- 



