This study of ancient osteopathology began at the University of South
Dakota's William H. Over Museum during the early 1960s. It was a project to locate a
specific disease, otosclerosis, in prehistoric or historic temporal bones. This is a
common problem today in which an auditory ossicle becomes fixed, causing a conductive type
hearing loss. At the time this project began, otosclerosis was recognized as having racial
and sex patterns and possibly a relationship to middle ear infections. If this abnormality
was present in ancient skulls it would indicate three things: 1) this disease existed in
the past and evidence of it survived long interment, 2) the individual with fixed stapes
had a hearing loss in the affected ear during life, and 3) it occurred
in regional aborigines.
During this research stapes fixation was not found. The first instance of this disease reported in the paleopathology literature was discovered later in an 18th century Tucson Spaniard's temporal bone, by Walter Birkby (47). Birkby's finding demonstrated that this abnormality withstands long interment, and indicates the antiquity of this disease, at least in Whites.
Subsequently, this investigation for paleopathology was enlarged to
include the entire Upper Missouri River Basin. Many skeletons from this region have been
evaluated for diseases, anomalies, and abnormalities indicating health problems during the
individual's life, and for the cause of death. These studies have included specimens from
private collections, several
Museum collections, skeletons recovered during salvage archeology along the Missouri
River, and the Crow Creek massacre remains. In total data have been collected relating to
over 4,000 skeletons.
Information from this project gives insight into previous common health problems in this region, and also has provided evidence of unusual abnormalities in people who lived here in the past. Comparison of the dry bone findings with information about the health of today's regional Native Americans makes it possible to examine epidemiological patterns longitudionally. In South Dakota many health problems are different today in the Native Americans than in the general population. Comparison of past and present may help explain some of the differences.
Reports containing limited information about our findings have appeared in scientific journals. An organized paleopathology course was taught at the University of Tennessee for eleven years, the pedagogy enhanced by research data from this region. We present here a compendium of our data and experiences during the past two and one half decades, so information collected will be available to others in the future.
JBG
PSG
During twenty-six years many individuals, organizations and institutions helped directly
or indirectly with the Dry Bones project. Without this support, encouragement, advice, and
thoughtful criticism, this study wouldn't have been possible. Our thanks for assistance
when it was needed goes to:
Doctors Robert & Lynn Alex, Marvin Allison, Lawrence Angel, Arthur Aufderheide,
William Bass, Jaime Benitez, Hugh Berryman, Walter Birkby, Lawrence Bradley, Jay Brandon,
Thomas Eyres, Harold Haley, Adrian Hannus, Walter Hard, Wesley Hurt, Vincent Hyams, Lent
Johnson, Walter Klippel, Tim Nowak, Paul Parmalee, Pierre Provost, James Steele, Robert
Stephenson, T. Dale Stewart, Harold Schuknecht, Patrick Willey, John Williams, and Larry
Zimmerman, Mssrs. and Mmes. Sister M. Blondine, Verne Erickson, Helen Ferwerda, Gerald
Gaulde, Robert Gant, Michele Gregg, John Gregg, Ann Holzhueter, Karl Miller, Norm Paulson,
Mark Swegle, Anthropology and Archaeology Students, Universities of South Dakota and
Tennessee and Augustana College, Sioux Falls, SD .
The independent North Dakota and South Dakota archeologists and
collectors.
The William H. Over Museum of the University of South Dakota.
The Museum of the Historical Society of North Dakota.
The Department of Social Behavior and Archaeology Laboratory, University of South Dakota.
The Archaeology Laboratory, Augustana College, Sioux Falls, SD.
The Anthropology Department, University of Kansas.
The Anthropology Department, University of North Dakota.
The Anthropology Department, Smithsonian Institution.
The Anthropology Department, University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
The Otolaryngic and Orthopedic Pathology Branches, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.
The X Ray Department, St. Mary's Hospital, Pierre, SD.
The X Ray Department, McKennen Hospital, Sioux Falls, SD.
The X Ray Department, Lawrence, Kansas Hospital.
The X Ray Department, Sacred Heart Hospital, Yankton, SD.
To the Eastman Kodak Company, thanks for film and technical assistance.
The Dean Walter Hard Research Fund and The Grant Review Committee, School of Medicine,
University of South Dakota supplied funding important to this project.
The Crow Creek material was recovered under contract by the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, Omaha District, purchase order DACW45-78-C-0018.
To all these people and organizations we
are deeply grateful.
JBG
PSG
Web markup by Larry J. Zimmerman, 4/20/98