A Young Man with Developmental Delays at the Murphy Site, 12Po1: Can Grave Goods Shed Light on Social Identity?

An adolescent male from the Late Prehistoric Murphy site in southern Indiana, 12Po1, exhibits massive clinoid bridges associated with small regions of premature suture closure. Dental and skeletal development are discrepant; the third molar roots are nearly fully formed, whereas the sphenooccipital synchondrosis is open, as are the wrist epiphyses. Clinoid bridges are associated with several syndromes, but features characteristic of these are normal in Burial 1. Nevertheless, developmental delay suggests some abnormality. We compare his dentition, skeleton, and isotopic signatures to larger studies to ask whether he is an outlier. A necklace of trumpeter swan beads may indicate that this young man was still considered a child, suggesting some physical or cognitive deficit. We explore age and sex associations of bone beads from Mississippian and other Late Prehistoric sites. Bone beads are unusual to the northwest and south, and more commonly found with juveniles and adult males to the northeast.