A variety of mortuary practices have been noted but predominantly are associated with the Iroquoians after European contact (Engelbrecht 2003:59-60). Jesuits recounted that the Huron and Iroquoians of southern Ontario used ossuaries, in which individuals were interred together in secondary graves (Sagard 1636:205-210). Sagard (1636:205-212) described the Huron burial ritual where individuals, once deceased, were wrapped in a shroud and placed on a scaffold with burial items such as tomahawks, kettles, and other personal belongings. Every 10 years there was a re-burial ceremony in which the bones of the deceased were removed from scaffolds and placed in a collective ossuary in a ceremony known as the Feast of the Dead (Sagard 1636: 211-212). There were ossuaries in southern Ontario, such as the Fairty site, that pre-date contact, so it is unlikely that this phenomenon resulted from the arrival of Europeans (Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve 1994). There was very little evidence for burial for the New York state Iroquois prior to the late 16th century, and it is likely that individuals were buried far away from village sites in
individual contexts prior to this period (Engelbrecht 2003:67). Most of the data regarding New York Iroquoian burial practices came from Seneca cemeteries, in which men, women, and children were placed in either multiple or single graves in a flexed position, with the exception of infants who were buried in the extended position (Wray et al. 1987).
Grave goods were common in Iroquoian burials among the New York State Iroquoians, but were not found in high frequencies in pre-contact ossuaries in Ontario and western New York (Cannon 2005; Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve 1994; Wray et al. 1987, 1991). Among the Seneca, males were more likely to be buried with grave goods than females (Wray et al. 1987: 175). Adult males were most frequently associated with pipes and tools such as awls, knives, axes, stone celts, and whetstones (Wray et al. 1987). Males were associated with fewer ornamental objects than women; the ornamental objects in male burials tended to be brass or shell beads. Very few males were associated with high numbers of shell artifacts, and it was suggested by Wray et al. (1987, 1991) that these individuals had high status as shell was considered to be a prestige item. Female graves were associated with high frequencies of items or personal ornamentation such as shell beads, antler combs, and after contact, glass beads (Wray et al. 1987: 178; Wray et al. 1991: 175). The graves of children and adolescents contained large quantities of glass/shell beads, brass spirals, shell pendants, and pottery (Wray et al. 1987: 176). The pattern of female burials with fewer and less varied grave goods than male burials among the Seneca was interpreted by Sempowski (1987) as evidence that women were not given as high a status in Iroquoian societies. It was noted by Ritchie (1954) that the function of grave goods in Iroquoian burials was not to mark status or importance of an individual, but these items played an important role in dream guessing rituals associated with mortuary ceremonies. This hypothesis was supported by Sagard’s (1636: 172) accounts in which he observed that grave goods accompanying the dead among the Huron were viewed as having a spiritual essence in which the items served the dead in the afterlife.
3.4.1.4 Population Health
Social information was also deduced from skeletal analyses from Iroquoian sites, particularly in relation to violent trauma and the spread of conflict prior to the formation of the League of the Iroquois (Engelbrecht 2003). Several males from Owasco sites had arrow points embedded in bone, linking trends with widespread conflict with the period in which population aggregation and village coalitions began to occur in southern Ontario (Birch 2012; Engelbrecht 2003: 39). Historic period Iroquoians favored scalping, and human skull trophies were discovered in Seneca burial sites (Wray et al. 1987:45-46). Evidence of cannibalism was present in post-contact Seneca burials, though was not noted in earlier periods (Wray et al. 1987: 28-33; 186-191; Wray et al. 1991: 207-209). Few cases of trauma were indicated for late 16th century Seneca burial sites though fibular dislocation, healed cranial depression
fractures, healed parry fractures, comminuted fractures of the radius and clavicle, and hematomas were identified (Wray et al. 1987: 28-33, 186-191). Rates of trauma in pre-contact ossuaries are also low, with evidence of accidental injury rather than violent trauma. For example, at the Fairty site 11 healed limb fractures were identified from 295 individuals, with no injuries attributable to interpersonal conflict (Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve 1994: 54). This pattern does
not mean that violent injury did not occur as differential preservation from secondary ossuary burials may play a role in observed rates of trauma.
Dental pathologies have been reported in detail for Ontario ossuaries (Patterson 1984; Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve 1994). It has been suggested that dental caries increased with time and this increase was associated with the adoption of maize into the diet (Patterson 1984; Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve 1994). For example, at the pre-contact ossuaries of Glen Williams and Fairty, the percentage of teeth affected by caries was 22.4% and 28% respectively (Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve 1994:56). Abscesses were not observed to increase after the adoption of maize in Ontario ossuaries; at Glen Williams 8.4% of teeth were affected (Patterson 1984; Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve 1994:57). At Seneca burial sites, rates of caries were extremely high; for example, the individual caries frequency at the Adams site was 84.2% (Wray et al. 1987:28). Advanced periodontal disease, correlated with antemortem tooth loss, was recorded for the Adams and Culbertson sites (Wray et al. 1987).
Along with dental pathologies, non-specific stress lesions were observed in both Ontario ossuaries and Seneca cemeteries, with cribra orbitalia more prevalent in subadults; this lesion was recorded for 38% of Fairty’s subadults, with an overall prevalence of 19.6% of individuals (Pfeiffer and Fairgreive 1994:55; Wray et al. 1987: 186- 191). Enamel hypoplasias were recorded in high frequencies in both ossuaries and Seneca cemeteries, such as at the Glen Williams ossuary where 57.7% of teeth were affected (Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve 1994: 57; Wray et al. 1987:30). Five cases of spinal osteoarthritis were observed at the Seneca Culbertson cemetery (Wray et al. 1987:189)
Periostitis was the most frequently reported infectious disease response recorded for Iroquoians (Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve 1994:53). Adults in pre-contact ossuaries had extremely high frequencies of periostitis, such as at the Fairty site where 100% of adults show periosteal bone reaction of the right tibia (Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve 1994: 53). Severe inflammatory processes, predominantly on the tibia, were noted by Wray et al (1987:30) for the late 16th
century sites of Adams and Culbertson, and the authors suggested that these could have resulted from periostitis, treponemal infections, or osteomyelitis. Inflammatory responses on the tibia, known as “saber shin” deformity, were associated with treponemal infections, notably syphilis (Baker 2005). Evidence of treponemal disease was reported by Baker (2005) for pre-Iroquoian and Iroquoian pre-contact sites in Ontario and New York, with at least four probable cases recorded for Seneca burial sites (Baker 2005: 64-68, 70-71; Wray et al. 1987:28-31; Wray et al. 1991:28-32). These lesions included periosteal reactions of the limb bones as well as cranial cavitations (Baker 2005: 71). All cases were confined to adults and there are no definitive lesions for congenital syphilis recorded in the Northeast prior to European contact (Baker 2005). Tuberculosis was recorded in Iroquoian collections dating to after 1400AD (Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve 1994:53). Cases of Pott’s deformity, a lesion associated with vertebral tuberculosis, were observed in skeletal collections from pre-contact Fairty and Glen Williams and periosteal rib lesions were also noted on remains from Glen Williams (Pfeiffer 1991; Pfeiffer and Fairgrieve 1994:53). Tuberculosis lesions were not recorded among the Seneca burial sites evaluated by Wray et al. (1987, 1991).
Samples from northeastern North America were evaluated for maxillary sinusitis, which was considered to be a general indicator of respiratory disease caused by pathogens or poor air quality (Merrett and Pfeiffer 2000;
Roberts 2007). Several samples from northeastern North America were evaluated for this lesion, including the 15th
century Uxbridge ossuary from Ontario (Merrett and Pfeiffer 2000), as well as sites such as the pre-contact Moatfield ossuary from Ontario (Roberts 2007:796). Merrett and Pfeiffer (2000:307-311) noted that 49.8% of Uxbridge maxillae observed (MNI = 207, 114 adults, 22 adolescents, 38 children, 33 infants) had lesions consistent with maxillary sinusitis, with increasing cases with age. Maxillary remodeling was more common in adolescents and children, though cases of sinusitis in adults were often observed in conjunction with alveolar abscessing, especially in adults in the 50+ age category (Merrett and Pfeiffer 2000:311). The authors concluded that crowded conditions in longhouses with long exposure to wood-smoke had an adverse effect on the general quality of life and respiratory health, which may have increased susceptibility to respiratory pathogens such as tuberculosis. This conclusion was supported by the presence of tuberculosis lesions of the spine and ribs in the Uxbridge sample (Merrett and Pfeiffer 2000: 315).
Roberts (2007:797) observed similar rates of sinusitis among the Moatfield group. She (2007:799) concluded that populations who practiced a hunter-gatherer lifestyle had significantly lower rates of sinusitis than agricultural populations. Across nearly all sites examined, the rates of sinusitis were higher for females than males, for example at the Moatfield ossuary in Ontario, 92.9% of females and 62.5% of males had maxillary sinusitis lesions (Roberts 2007: 799). Roberts (2007:802 – 804) concluded that populations such as the Iroquoians and Fort Ancient people of the Late Prehistoric period in North American lived in crowded conditions in villages and were exposed to poorer air quality and more contaminants than earlier hunter-gatherer groups. She (2007:802 – 804) argued that the higher rates females likely spent more time indoors exposed to wood smoke than males or performing agricultural activities associated with poor air quality.