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Variation among early North American crania
1Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-0720, USA. jantz@utkux.utk.edu
American Journal of Physical Anthropology
|February 15, 2001
Summary
Ancient American crania show significant variability, not a single group. Early populations differed morphologically from recent Native Americans, suggesting diverse origins and recent cranial variation patterns.
Area of Science:
- Physical anthropology
- Paleoanthropology
- Bioarchaeology
Background:
- Previous morphometric studies treated early American crania as a homogenous group.
- Limited research has explored the variability within ancient American skeletal remains.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate significant morphometric variability among early to mid-Holocene American crania.
- To determine if ancient American crania represent a single, uniform population.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of 22 cranial measurements from 11 early to mid-Holocene North American crania.
- Calculation of Mahalanobis distances to assess relationships between crania.
- Comparison of fossil crania to a worldwide recent sample, including additional American Indian groups.
Main Results:
- Cranial data suggest at least three distinct groups among early American crania.
- Most fossil crania showed greater similarity to European, Polynesian, or East Asian populations than to recent Native Americans.
- Distinctive cranial morphologies were observed in Browns Valley, Pelican Rapids, and Lime Creek specimens.
Conclusions:
- Early American crania exhibit significant heterogeneity, precluding their treatment as a single group for morphometric analysis.
- The observed cranial variation challenges ancestor-descendent relationship hypotheses between early and late Holocene American populations.
- Cranial variation patterns in the Plains region appear to be of recent origin.
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