A rare probable chondroblastoma of the calcaneus in a pre-Columbian subadult from Illinois.

Discrete cystic or tumorous intraosseous lesions can arise from a variety of benign and malignant conditions as well as trauma and infection. They are clinically rarely observed in the calcaneus. A fourteen-to-seventeen-year-old subadult recovered from a Late Woodland (∼AD 800-1100) period mortuary context in the Mississippi River Valley of central Illinois presents with a single lytic intraosseous lesion on the posterior right calcaneus that bilaterally perforates the cortex. The lesion, although primarily anterior to the epiphyseal plate, does breach it. There is also a small perforation of the outer cortex of the epiphysis above the insertion of the Achilles' tendon. The lesion is well-defined with a primarily spongy cancellous interior margin. On the body of the calcaneus, there is periostosis and a slightly expansive endosteal reaction. Comparative radiographic assessments undertaken to differentially diagnose the lesion indicate that it was likely not malignant. Based on the posterior location, the radiographic signature, the bilateral cortical perforation and the breach of the epiphysis, the lesion is best interpreted as a chondroblastoma.

Linear enamel hypoplasia in Schroeder Mounds (11HE177): A Late Woodland period site in Illinois.

Adults and subadults recovered from the Late Woodland period (∼A.D. 800-1100) Schroeder Mounds site (11HE177) from west-central Illinois who preserve permanent incisors and/or canines (N=46) were examined for the presence of macroscopically visible linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) by case, by tooth type, number of hypoplastic defects by tooth type, and estimated developmental age of occurrence. The raw case frequency of LEH (16/46) is 34.8 percent. The Schroeder Mounds subadults (N=15) have a higher case frequency (i.e., 60 percent versus 22.6 percent), number of stress episodes per tooth, and a longer developmental age range of hypoplastic defects than the adults. With no subsistence or settlement context, the Schroeder Mounds sample was compared to published (solely) adult LEH data from eight western Illinois sites segregable as either Middle (∼50 B.C.-A.D. 400) and Late Woodland period semi-sedentary forager-horticulturalists or Mississippian period (∼A.D. 1150-1250) sedentary (i.e., large aggregated village) maize-intensive agriculturalists. The adult Schroeder Mounds LEH patterns align with the Woodland samples with minor differences inclining the Schroeder sample toward a forager-farmer subsistence/settlement strategy. The Schroeder Mounds subadult patterns and prevalence may reflect factors that contributed toward their early death. Whether these factors can be framed by the subsistence/settlement system will require comparative data.

Diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) in pre-Columbian North America: Evidence from the eastern Tennessee River Valley.

Diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH or Forestier's disease) is a pathological condition of unknown etiology characterized by the exuberant antero-lateral flowing ('dripping candle wax') ossification of the anterior spinal ligaments. Clinical data indicate it is a progressive male-predilected pathology manifested in middle age, which steeply rises in prevalence after aged 60. It has become paleopathologically relevant because it has been clinically associated with an affluent lifestyle. Archeological examination of the prevalence of DISH is often undertaken on European samples and frequently in monastic contexts. There are no prevalence data for pre-Columbian samples from North America. The present study establishes baseline information from four prehistoric Late Mississippian period (AD 1300-1600) samples (N=389) from the upper Tennessee River Valley. Two probable cases and one possible case of DISH (all male) are identified, reflecting less than one percent of the adult sample, and 1.2 percent (2/172) of males. The low prevalence compared to European monastic samples and non-New World cemetery contexts suggests socioeconomic or interpopulational genetic differences that may be tested with subsistence and community health-status controlled osteoarchaeological comparisons within and outside of North America.

Differential visibility of treponemal disease in pre-Columbian stratified societies: does rank matter?

Treponemal disease is known to be associated with the compromised community health of permanent village settlement. This association explains its high visibility in the village-based, arguably chiefdom level, agriculturalist societies of late prehistoric (AD 1300-1600) North America. Within chiefdom-level societies, health differences have often been demonstrated between mortuary-defined "elite" and "nonelite" individuals. This theoretically should predict status-based differences in treponemal disease visibility. The prediction is tested in a five-site osteological sample (N = 650) from the Dallas phase (AD 1300-1550), a simple mortuary-defined two-tiered presumptive chiefdom level maize agriculturalist socioeconomic context from lower east Tennessee. The Dallas phase results affirm a general pre-Colombian North American pattern of no sex differences and display comparable adult to subadult frequencies. The study also reveals that given a sufficient sample size, "elites" do indeed exhibit a significantly lower frequency of tertiary stage treponemal disease. This can be attributed to better baseline health, which has been previously demonstrated in this sample. It may also be affected by the mortuary inclusion of achieved status individuals whose good health may have facilitated sociopolitical advancement. Another pattern that emerged is an apparent young adult age bias in disease visibility. This suggests that tertiary treponemal disease morbidity may either directly or synergistically factor in early adult age at death. Future research will address the veracity of this association.

Anomalous double-crowned primary teeth from Pre-Columbian Tennessee: A meta-analysis of hunter-gatherer and agriculturalist samples.

Few cases of double-crowned deciduous teeth are reported in the paleopathological literature. Therefore, temporal and spatial patterns as well as research utility of this presumptive epigenetic trait are unknown. A ten site subadult sample (N=245) from Pre-Columbian Tennessee is canvassed for primary double teeth. No twinned (geminated) teeth but nine cases of fused adjacent deciduous teeth are identified. Consistent with clinical and population prevalence, all cases display mandibular fusions with one individual additionally exhibiting fusion of the maxillary central incisors. The frequency of bilaterality and which teeth fuse (i.e., Ldi1+Rdi1, di1+di2, di2+dc1) in this archaeological sample differs from world-wide clinical and population based studies. The uniqueness of the Amerindian pattern needs to be affirmed. The case prevalence of a Late Archaic Period (2500-1000 bc) hunter-gatherer subsistence sample (4/44, 9.1%) and a late prehistoric (ad 1300-1550) intensive agriculturalist sample (5/201, 2.5%) is not quite statistically significant (p=0.0576). Prevalence also does not unequivocally co-associate with subadult morbidity. However, dental fusion may link to the health of the reproductive age female. Future assessment should explore this and other avenues of community health as well as the genetic basis of tooth fusion by assessing the cranial and dental discrete traits in this Tennessee sample.

Treponemal disease in the middle Archaic to early Woodland periods of the western Tennessee River Valley.

The high frequency of late prehistoric New World treponemal disease is attributable to the demographic changes concomitant with the adoption of agriculture. However, these demographic changes in group mobility and site density episodically preceded intensive plant domestication, suggesting possible staggered temporal change in observed treponemal disease case frequency. Thirteen convincing and an additional two probable (N = 581) cases of treponemal disease were identified in an eight-site skeletal sample spanning the Middle (6,000-3,000 BCE) to Late (2,500-ca. 1,000 to 500 BCE) Archaic and Early Woodland (500 BCE-0 CE) periods from the western Tennessee River Valley. Treponemal disease cases are infrequent in both the Middle (3/115, 2.6%) and Late (2 to 4 cases,

Beyond palisades: The nature and frequency of late prehistoric deliberate violent trauma in the Chickamauga reservoir of east Tennessee.

Based on the presence of palisades and an iconography suggesting a warrior elite, warfare is presumed to be endemic in the Late Mississippian period (AD 1200-1600) of the southeastern United States. Warfare is theorized to play a vital role in the cycling of chiefdoms. However, apart from a few exemplary cases that display double-digit frequencies, very little direct (i.e., skeletal) evidence of violent trauma has dovetailed with the archaeological presumptions of warfare. Eight sites from the Chickamauga Reservoir of east Tennessee were examined for skeletal evidence of deliberate violent trauma. Violent trauma was anticipated because these sites are in close proximity and consist of two adjacent, sociopolitically distinct, and temporally overlapping phases: Dallas (AD 1300-1600) and Mouse Creek (AD 1400-1600). In addition to small, round, nonlethal ectocranial blunt-force trauma (BFT) on the frontal and upper parietal bones, inflicted projectile points and scalping were identified. The low total trauma frequency in the Dallas sample (3.86%, n = 259) is consistent with emerging evidence from east and west Tennessee Late Mississippian data, but significantly different from Mouse Creek (8.06%, n = 273). The proportion of nonlethal cranial BFT in the collective Chickamauga sample is large and at odds with the Tennessee River Valley comparative literature. Based on other bioarchaeological literature, this pattern suggests intragroup violence, but not face-to-face ritual contests. It is better explained as interpersonal conflict resolution along codified lines. This is consistent with southeastern ethnohistoric data and may explain the more frequent cranial BFT in the less stratified Mouse Creek phase, which likely would not have had an overarching civil authority.