THIRTY-FIVE YEARS OF UPPER MISSOURI RIVER BASIN PALEOPATHOLOGY

Résumé 0

"Wet Bones project consisted of speech/hearing evaluations performed on the Native Americans. The Dry Bones project were studies conducted on bones recovered from the region. During 35 years we examined skeletal remnants representing several cultures who existed in Dakota Territory during two millennia. The study of paleopathology was enhanced by salvage archaeology projects conducted before closure of dams across the River in the Upper Missouri River Basin (UMRB). Climatic conditions were unfavorable to mummification, limiting the study to bones. We were stimulated by a symposium on paleopathology at National Science Foundation, chaired by S. Jarcho (Yale University) (1966). There emphasis was placed on demography and epidemiology. Additional motivation by T.A. Cockburn (Detroit) (1977), who questioned whether ear disease, mastoiditis, and its complications, existed in proto United States, focused our attention on the Dry Bones study. The results of the Dry Bones project are presented here"