As already stated, the collection from the Museum of the American Indian consists of 57 Indian skeletons, which range from nearly complete to such as are represented by only a few bones. Notwithstanding the fact that the condition of the material leaves much to be desired, many of the bones are sufficiently well preserved to afford fairly good data for study. The bones show neither vestiges of greenness nor traces of mineralization. There is no post-mortem deformation, except in a few detached bones of the skulls of infants. The color of the bones is predominantly brownish yellow, shading in some specimens to light dirty yellowish and in others to a darker brownish hue.
Of the 57 individuals, 34 were adults and 23 (40 per cent) were adolescents or children. Among the adults the estimated ages of the individuals range from 24 to 70 years, and nearly half were 50 years or more. Young infants (first year) and fetuses are absent, having either been buried separately, or, more likely, had turned to dust, while the older, more substantial bones resisted disintegration. The cemetery was obviously one that served during a limited period as the communal burial place of a sedentary group of moderate population. The determination of the sex was facilitated by the good development of the sexual characteristics in the skulls, and by the presence of the pelvic and other bones of the skeleton. The results show that the 34 adults were divided equally between the sexes, as might be expected in the case of the remains of adults in the cemetery of a peaceful population.[10]
A fact of considerable interest is the presence of artificial deformation in more than half of all the skulls preserved. In the majority of cases this appears to be a simple occipital, cradle-board flattening, but there are three or four instances in which there are plain traces of bilateral frontal compression, which indicates intentional deformation and suggests that all the posteriorly flattened skulls may possibly be of this variety, though the applied pressure failed in most cases to leave a distinct mark on the frontal bone.[11] The result of no such practice has been observed in any other part of the northern or middle Atlantic States, but deformation of exactly this type was common in Arkansas and Louisiana, as well as in the area to the northeastward.[12] Among the crania of the earlier and somewhat more easterly Lenape reported by the writer[13] to the number of 25, only two (both females) showed slight occipital flattening. These facts are significant and point either to some difference in derivation between the Munsee and other Lenape and eastern Algonquian tribes, or, if of common derivation, to a connection between the Munsee and some people from the Trans-Appalachian region to the southwestward. It is in this connection that the historic accession to the Munsee of some Shawnee is suggestive, for the latter, or a part of them, lived in Kentucky and Tennessee, where the practice of fronto-occipital deformation was not uncommon, and in some parts of that area, indeed, was quite general.
The bones in the collection are exceptionally free from the effects of injury and disease. The skulls exhibit no scars or injuries, and no disease, with the exception of a case of perforating mastoiditis in one of the children (no. 285,348). There is, however, as will be shown later, a considerable proportion of dental caries, with some indications of pyorrhea alveolaris.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 62 PLATE 3
PLAN OF THE MUNSEE BURIAL SITE SHOWING LOCATION AND
POSITION OF THE BURIALS
In the remaining bones of the skeletons the only marks of injury or disease are as follow:
A summary of the above details shows that there are only six, possibly seven, instances of more noteworthy injury, and of these three pertain to ribs (two in one person) and two to the wrist. These are very moderate proportions of traumatism, and show plainly that the people represented by the remains led unusually peaceful lives.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 62 PLATE 4
TWO TYPICAL MUNSEE BURIALS IN
MODERATELY CONTRACTED POSITION
As to disease, there is evidence of only four conditions, namely: Periostitis, osteoperiostitis, arthritis, and arthritis deformans; and of these four the first two and again the last two are closely related, being really only degrees or varieties of the same processes. It is quite possible that all four conditions are merely differing manifestations of arthritis. There is no well-founded suspicion of the existence of syphilis in the tribe, and there is no trace of either rachitis, tuberculosis, or tumors of the bones. (Dental caries will be referred to under Teeth.)
We may now approach the more strictly anthropological observations.