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Cremated Human Remains from Point of Pines, Arizona: A New Approach*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Charles F. Merbs
Charles F. Merbs*
Affiliation:
University of Chicago, Chicago
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Abstract

The traditional approaches of comparative human osteology have proven largely unsatisfactory in attempts to determine biological relationships among human populations which cremated their dead. However, one category of information, that of discrete traits or skeletal anomalies, has been largely ignored. Cremations from Point of Pines, Arizona, were analyzed to determine if this kind of information, along with that usually sought from skeletal material, could be obtained in sufficient quantity to make comparative biological studies feasible. The results were encouraging, but they indicate that extraordinary care will be required in the future excavation and storage of cremated material.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , October 1967 , pp. 498 - 506
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1967

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Footnotes

*

Contribution to Point of Pines Archaeology, No. 23.

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