Skeletal Remains from the Bank at Bonasila
The skeletal material from the bank at Bonasila consists now of portions of three adult skulls, one male and two females, and of 13 bones of the male skeleton. All the specimens are more or less stained by manganese and iron and all are distinctly heavier than normal, showing some grade of fossilization. They closely resemble in all these respects the numerous animal bones from the bank and in all differ from the later surface burials of the place.
THE CRANIA
The male skull, No. 332513, is represented by the frontal bone united with a larger part of the face, a separated left temporal, and the right half of the lower jaw. A large Inca bone, recovered from the beach a year later, may also belong to the same specimen. The missing parts are probably still somewhere in the sands of the beach where there is going on a very instructive scattering and redeposition on a 4 to 6 feet lower level of the contents of the old bank.
The skull is that of a male of somewhat over 50 years of age, judging from the moderate to marked wear of the remaining teeth. It is a normal undeformed specimen, and the same applies to the bones of the skeleton.
Notes and measurements.—The frontal shows a medium development, no slope. The supraorbital ridges are rather weakly developed for a male, leaving the upper borders of the orbits rather sharp.
| Cm. | |
|---|---|
| Diameter frontal minimum | 9.75 |
| Diameter frontal maximum | 11.8 |
| Diameter nasion-bregma | 11.5 |
The skull as a whole was evidently mesocephalic, and neither low nor very high. The thickness of the frontal is about medium for an Indian.
The face is of medium proportions and strength, with rather large orbits, good interorbital breadth, medium malars, medium broad nose, and but moderate alveolar prognathism. The nasal bridge is not high, nasal bones fairly broad, spine moderate, lower borders well defined though not sharp. The sub-malar (canine) fossae are shallow.
| Alveolar point-nasion height | cm | 7.8 |
| Facial breadth about medium for an Indian. | ||
| Nose: | ||
| Height | cm | 5.5 |
| Breadth, near | cm | 2.75 |
| Index | 50 | |
| Left orbit: | ||
| Height | cm | 3.75 |
| Breadth | cm | 4 |
| Index | 93.7 | |
| Minimum interorbital distance | cm | 2.6 |
| Upper dental arch: | ||
| Length, approximately | cm | 5.6 |
| Breadth, approximately | cm | 7 |
| Index, approximately | 80 | |
| Lower jaw: | ||
| Height at symphysis approximately | cm | 4.1 |
| Thickness at M2 (with the tooth held midway between branches of compass) | cm | 1.5 |
| Height of asc. ramus | cm | 6.9 |
| Breadth minimum of asc. ramus | cm | 3.7 |
The condyloid process of the lower jaw is high, mandibular notch deep. The whole jaw is strong but not thick or massive. It is Indianlike, not Eskimoid, in all its features. The teeth are of good medium size.
Skull No. 333383.—Of this skull I brought the right parietal with about one-third of the frontal; Mr. Krieger, a year later, the remainder of the frontal. Other parts are missing.
The specimen was evidently, a good-size female skull, normal, undeformed, probably mesocephalic in form, and moderately high. The thickness of the bones is not above moderate.
| Cm. | |
|---|---|
| Diameter frontal minimum | 9.7 |
| Diameter frontal maximum | 12.5 |
| Diameter nasion-bregma | 11.1 |
Skull No. 333950.—Of the third skull, recovered from the sands of the beach at low water in 1927 by Mr. Lawrence, there are only the two parietals. The specimen is that of a young adult female. The bones, rather submedium in thickness, indicate a skull of slightly smaller size and slightly shorter than the preceding but of much the same general type.
The skeletal parts of male No. 332513.—Humeri: The long bones all give the impression of straightness, length, and of a certain gracility of form combined with strength, but without massiveness. The right humerus presents a small but distinct supracondylar process, a rarity among Indians. The fossae are not perforated. Measurements:
| Length, maximum: | ||
| Right | cm | 35.8 |
| Left | cm | 35.3 |
| Major diameter at middle: | ||
| Right | cm | 2.5 |
| Left | cm | 2.4 |
| Minor diameter at middle: | ||
| Right | cm | 1.65 |
| Left | cm | 1.6 |
| Index at middle: | ||
| Right | 66 | |
| Left | 66.7 | |
| Type of shaft at middle, prismatic: | ||
| Right | cm | 1 |
| Left | cm | 1 |
| Right radius: | ||
| Length, maximum, near | cm | 27 |
| Radio-humeral index, approximately | 75.5 |
The shaft approaches type IV (quadrilateral). There is but small curvature.
Right ulna: Lacks the olecranon; shaft prismatic, with anterior and posterior surfaces fluted; but a moderate curvature backward upper third.
| Femora: | ||
| Length, bicondylar, right | cm | 48.2 |
| Humero-femoral index | 74.3 | |
| Diameter antero-posterior maximum at middle— | ||
| Right | cm | 3.05 |
| Left | cm | 3.2 |
| Diameter lateral maximum at middle— | ||
| Right | cm | 2.5 |
| Left | cm | 2.65 |
| Index at middle— | ||
| Right | 82 | |
| Left | 82.8 | |
| Diameter maximum at upper flattening— | ||
| Right | cm | 3.5 |
| Left | cm | 3.7 |
| Diameter minimum at upper flattening— | ||
| Right | cm | 2.1 |
| Left | cm | 2.25 |
| Index at upper flattening— | ||
| Right | 60 | |
| Left | 60.8 | |
| Type shaft at middle— | ||
| Right | 1 | |
| Left, near | 1 |
The bones, especially the right, are remarkable for their graceful form and approach to straightness. The linea aspera is high but not massive or rough.
Right tibia: Length (?), extremities wanting. A moderate physiological curvature forward, middle third.
| Diameter antero-posterior at middle, right | cm | 3.25 |
| Diameter lateral at middle | cm | 1.95 |
| Index at middle | 60 |
The bone is distinctly platycnaemic, as the femora are platymeric and the humeri platybrachic, a harmony of characters which is often met with in the continental Indian.
ADDITIONAL PARTS
These include four ribs, the atlas and two lumbar vertebræ. The first rib approaches the semicircular in type and is rather large, indicating a spacious chest. Otherwise there is nothing special.
A comparison of the long bones of this interesting skeleton with those of the later Indians from the same and near-by localities as well as with those of the western Eskimo (see table, p. [160]) shows a number of striking conditions. The length of the bones of the skeleton is far above the mean of both those of Indians and the Eskimo, indicating a stature of at least 10 centimeters (4 inches) higher. In none of their characteristics are the bones near to those of the Eskimo, making it doubly certain that the subject was not of that affiliation. Compared with those of the later Indians of the same territory, the bones show in one line remarkable differences, in another remarkable likenesses. The differences concern all the relative proportions of the shafts—the bones of the old skeleton give without exception indices that are markedly lower; they are distinctly more platybrachic, platymeric, and platycnaemic. But the more basic humero-femoral and radio-humeral indices are practically the same; showing fundamental identity. The humero-femoral index is especially important in this case. It is exceptionally high in the Yukon Indians, due to a relatively long humerus, and the same condition is seen in the old skeleton. It seems safe, therefore, to conclude that the owner of the old skeleton was not only an Indian but an Indian of the same physical stock from which were derived the later Indians of the Yukon; but he was evidently of an earlier and different tribe or of a purer derivation than those who followed. To more fully establish and then trace this type, both as to its derivation and extension, will be tasks of future importance.
| Paired bones | Yukon Indians | Miscellaneous North American Indians | Western Eskimos | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Older skeleton at Bonasila | From Russian times | |||
| Humerus: | (2) | (10) | [40](378) | [41](76) |
| Mean length | 35.55 | 31.17 | 31.8 | 30.88 |
| At middle— | ||||
| Diameter, major | 2.45 | 2.38 | 2.22 | 2.42 |
| Diameter, minor | 1.68 | 1.67 | 1.63 | 1.82 |
| Index | 66.4 | 70 | 73.1 | 75.2 |
| Radius: | (1) | (10) | (378) | (76) |
| Mean length | n. 27 | 23.61 | 24.7 | 22.85 |
| Radio-humeral index | n. 75.5 | 75.7 | 77.7 | 74 |
| Femur: | (2) | (14) | [40](902) | (84) |
| Mean length (bycondylar) | 48.2 | 41.92 | 42.7 | 42.70 |
| Humero-femoral index | 74.3 | 74.5 | n. 72.5 | n. -72 |
| At middle— | ||||
| Diameter, antero-posterior, maximum | 3.12 | 2.96 | 2.95 | 3.03 |
| Diameter, lateral | 2.57 | 2.58 | 2.58 | 2.71 |
| Index | 82.4 | 87.1 | 87.3 | 89.5 |
| At upper flattening— | ||||
| Diameter, maximum | 3.60 | 3.25 | 3.27 | 3.37 |
| Diameter, minimum | 2.18 | 2.30 | 2.42 | 2.48 |
| Index | 60.4 | 70.7 | 74 | 73.5 |
| Tibia: | (1) | (14) | (324) | (84) |
| Mean length | 34.19 | 36.9 | 33.61 | |
| Tibio-femoral index | 81.5 | 84.4 | 78.7 | |
| At middle— | ||||
| Diameter, antero-posterior, maximum | 3.25 | 3.04 | 3.28 | 3.10 |
| Diameter, lateral | 1.95 | 2. | 2.16 | 2.12 |
| Index | 60 | 66 | 65.8 | 68.5 |