Hoyme and Bass] SKELETAL REMAINS 393 



mented crania for comparison. The area is known to have been occu- 

 pied in the 1500's and later by groups of Eastern Siouan, Iroquoian, 

 and Algonquian stock; but no crania reliably assignable to any of 

 these groups are available for comparison with the Clarksville Series. 

 Therefore, unless one is willing to ignore geography — and the varia- 

 tions expectable with this factor — and to compare the Clarksville 

 crania with series far removed in time and space, one is loft with only 

 the few "late" cranial series from the Southeastern States. The 

 utility of the latter series, it must be noted, is diminished because of 

 the deformity so often present in them, but absent from the Clarks- 

 ville skulls. Series for comparison with the Tollifero crania are even 

 harder to select, for little is known of the tribal — or cultural — affini- 

 ties of the groups inhabiting the Southeast during the period 

 when this site was occupied. One's choice of comparative material, 

 and the conclusions arrived at, will probably depend upon one's 

 theories about the time and mamier of population of the Southeastern 

 United States. There is probably enough difference between the var- 

 ious "early" series to support a theory calling for successive migra- 

 tions of physically, linguistically, and culturally distinct peoples. 

 But, in all fairness, there is probably enough similarity to support a 

 contrary theory calling for a homogenous parent population which 

 differentiated in situ, by inbreeding, natural selection, or some other 

 agency. The vaiiability within the Tollifero and Clarksville Series is 

 about what one would expect in any series of comparable size. Thus 

 there is no evidence either for or against admixture with other 

 groups — particularly when there is no information as to how different 

 these other groups were physically. If there had been a few skulls of 

 markedly aberrant form at the Clarksville site, one could perhaps in- 

 terpret them as evidence for mixture with other groups. This in turn 

 could have been cited as evidence for a late date for the site, since in 

 1670, when Lederer visited them, the Occaneechi Indians living in the 

 vicinity were traders, who had absorbed members of other groups 

 (cf . Swanton, 1946, pp. 164, Y39) . 



The dentitions of the Tollifero and Clarksville people confirm the 

 conclusions of the archeologist as to the general type of culture. The 

 badly worn, relatively sound teeth of the Tollifero people indicate a 

 coarse diet such as that available to a hunting and gathering people ; 

 while the relatively unworn, badly decayed teeth of the Clarksville 

 people indicate a softer diet, high in carbohydrates, such as would be 

 available in an agricultural economy. The decay of the teeth may 

 have been increased by poor calcification, due to a reduction in the 

 calcium content of the diet, a strong possibility in view of the demin- 

 eralization of the long bones described in the section on bone pa- 

 thology. The diet suggested by the condition of the teeth of the 



