REPORT ON SKELETAL MATERIAL FROM MISSOURI 
MOUNDS, COLLECTED IN 1906-7 BY MR. GERARD FOWKE 
By ALES HReucKa 
I. CONDITION OF THE MATERIAL 
The osteological specimens gathered by Mr. Fowke during the 
excavations described in the preceding pages were divided into two 
portions, one of which was sent to the Bureau of American Ethnology 
and thence transferred to the National Museum, while the other was 
received subsequently for examination. 
On the whole the material is very defective; there is not an entire 
skull, and there are only a few entire long bones. The specimens 
were damaged for the most part during excavation, as shown by 
fresh breaks, and in most cases important parts thus broken off were 
lost. More than nine-tenths of the bones of the skeletons are missing 
altogether. Moreover, the surfaces of some of the skulls were treated 
with a glue-like substance which has since begun to crack and scale 
off, doing further damage. 
It is very difficult to make a satisfactory study of, and to draw 
conclusions of value from, material in this condition. All that can 
be safely stated is embodied in the following pages. 
II. CRANIA 
Most of the crania are of the dolichocephalic, Indian type. Two 
or three of them are extreme forms in this respect, suggesting similar 
specimens recovered in New Jersey from the burials of the Delawares. 
A close general resemblance exists between the dolichocephalic 
Missouri skulls and those from the mounds along the Illinois river; 
both are representatives of the general type, examples of which were 
found on repeated occasions farther north along the Missouri, par- 
ticularly in the Gilder mound and vicinity, near Florence, Nebr., 
and also farther south. Several of these skulls (especially nos. 
249,679 and 249,681) are characterized by low foreheads® and none 
are above moderate in capacity. On the average they are rather 
@ See a special report on one of these skulls, in “‘New examples of American Indian skulls with low 
forehead,”’ Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XXXv, 171-175, 1908. 
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