A Report on a Collection of Crania and Bones from Sorrel 
Bayou, Iberville Parish, Louisiana. 
By Dr. A. HRpD.LIcKA. 
Curator, Division of Physical Anthropology, U. S. National Museum. 
The collection received in the spring of 1913 from Mr. Clarence B. Moore 
comprises 17 skulls and parts of one skeleton. Of this material, 16 skulls and a 
few bones come from a mound on Sorrel Bayou, Iberville Parish, Louisiana, 
while one skull is from a mound near Wherry Landing in Bradley Co., Arkansas. 
The latter specimen is a moderately brachycephalic cranium of an adult female, 
with just a trace of fronto-occipital deformation, and represents a type which 
was previously described in these reports by the writer and need not here be 
further considered. 
The Sorrel Bayou material was found, according to Mr. Moore, with one 
exception, in deposits of skulls and bones where the specimens lay in complete 
confusion. Тһе exception was one skeleton lying in a closely flexed position 
and on its left side. From this subject it was possible to save afew bones besides 
the skull. 
The 16 crania include 8 males and 8 females, all adults, and ranging between 
approximately 35 and 60 years of age. They differ in color from pale dirty 
yellowish white, to obscure black-splotched brown. This is a somewhat re- 
markable variety of shade from one burial-place, but it can probably be explained 
by the assumption that the mound was a secondary place of interment and that 
before transfer the individual subjects lay in soil of different composition. All 
the specimens are of good consistency and present no fossilization, but also no 
traces of greenness. 
None of the crania present any recent or large wounds, or any disease or 
pathological deformity. On the contrary they are uncommonly normal and well 
developed. 
The skulls in particular show a good development in size, with strong facial 
parts and other features, giving the impression that they belonged to people of 
more than average stature and musculature. 
Regrettably, all of the skulls are artificially deformed, presenting more or 
less marked fronto-occipital compression. This diminishes the value of their 
measurements and increases the difficulties of their correct anthropological 
classification. Fortunately, with three or four exceptions, the deformation is 
moderate enough to permit a visual appreciation of the true type of the specimens. 
1 Bee this Journal, XIII, 1908, pp. 558-563; XIV, 1909, pp. 173-240; and XIV, 1912, pp. 639-640. 
95 
7 JOURN. ACAD. NAT. SCI. PHILA., VOL. XVI. 
