Population rediscovered: new insights on health, diet, place of origin, and chronology from the Late Mississippian Guy Smith cemetery, Jackson County, Illinois

The Guy Smith cemetery, located in Jackson County, Illinois, is significant for the presence of stone box graves and associated artifacts. Excavated by A. R. Kelly in the 1930s, the collection was subsequently dispersed across several institutions resulting in the loss of contextual information for the burial population and associated artifacts. Milner and Schroeder (1992) describe the stone box graves from Guy Smith in their discussion of the distribution of late prehistoric stone box graves in Illinois and Missouri. Unfortunately, at the time, most of the skeletal collection could not be located. The recent rediscovery of this important collection has allowed the authors to complete a thorough osteological analysis, stable isotope and strontium isotope analyses for diet and place of origin, and AMS dates from bone collagen. Preliminary results of these analyses will be presented and discussed within the context of late prehistoric diet, population movement, and mortuary behavior.