N 

EARLY SKELETONS 

FROM 

TRANQUILLITY, 

CALIFORNIA 

By J. Lawrence Angel 

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Smithsonian Contributions 

•^f^^> to Anthropology 

VOLUME 2, NUMBER 1 

SMITHSONLIN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY 

VOLUME 2, Number 1 

Early Skeletons from 

Tranquillity, California 

J. Lawrence Angel 

SMITHSONIAN PRESS 

Washington : 1966 
A Publication of the 

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 

United States National Museum 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CARD 65-62172 

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1966 

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office 

Washington, D.C. 20402 Price 30 cents 
Contents 

INTRODUCTION I 

ECOLOGY AND HEALT H 2 

SKELETAL REMAINS 4 

Descriptions 4 

Synthesis 12 

Comparisons 13 

CONCLUSIONS 16 

SUMMARY 16 

LITERATURE CITED 17 

Illustrations 

PLATES 

1. Skeletal remains from the Tranquillity site. 

2. Skeletal remains from the Tranquillity site. 

3. Palaeamerican skulls from California, Texas, and Kentucky. 

4. Paleolithic skulls from Choukoutien, North China. 

Tables 

1. Measurements and indices of individual crania from the Tranquillity site 6 

2. Measurements and indices of postcranial skeletal parts 8 

3. Mea n measurements of skulls from Tranquillity compared with male samples from other 

areas 14 

m 

Early Skeletons from Tranquillity, California 

By J. Lawrence Angel 

Introduction 

New World discoveries of human remains associated 

with those of extinct animals have been disappointing 

in two ways: First, contemporaneity of men and 

Pleistocene mammals has had to be inferred rather 

than stratigraphically proved; second, the human remains have been within the wide range of recent 

American Indian physical types. The Midland 

woman (Wendorf, Krieger, Albritton, and Stewart, 

1955) forms an exception to the first half of this rule 

and the Tranquillity material forms a partial exception since close similarity in fluorine, carbon, nitrogen, and water content between Camelops, Equus, 

Bison, and the human bones (Heizer and Cook, 1952) 

makes the inference of contemporaneity a strong one. 

All the human bone from Tranquillity turned over 

to me for study is heavy, partly mineralized, and 

purple-brown to black in color. Hewes (1946) notes 

that ".. . almost all bone, including artifacts of this 

material, has remarkably increased density, increased 

hardness, and a purplish-gray to nearly bluish-black 

color; mineralogically the replacement is collophane, 

a form of calcium phosphate." 

Tranquillity, Calif., is in the Central San Joaquin 

Valley about 24 miles west of Fresno (between Kerman and Mendota). The Tranquillity site is 2/^ 

miles northeast of the town, in the floor of the valley 

in a zone where changes of drainage between the 

Kings and San Joaquin Rivers systems have formed 

long sloughs. A bypass canal for the main slough 

formed a small slough, about 50 x 500 feet in size, 

through erosion caused when a levee was added on 

the north side of the canal in 1937-38. This erosion 

exposed and partly disturbed occupation remains and 

burials on a soil level slightly above the Fresno hardpan, on the hardpan, and lower (burial and one pit). 

Gordon W. Hewes and William C. Massey and their 

wives discovered and excavated the site in 1939^2 

for the University of California, and Linton Satterthwaite and Malcolm Lloyd excavated further in 

1944 for the University Museum of the University of 

Pennsylvania. Except for materials with the burials, 

the floodwater which exposed the site also moved 

practically all of the artifacts found, even fragments 

of mortars and metates (Hewes, 1943, 1946). Chester 

Stock and R. A. Stirton identified the animal bones, 

including the extinct species. 

The skeletons were carefully excavated under 

difficult soil conditions by Gordon Hewes (1943, 1946) 

and by Linton Satterthwaite. This care has preserved 

every discoverable fragment derived from over 30 

individuals, of whom 3 male and 4 female adults are 

usably complete. I had the chance to study all the 

skeletal material in 1944 through the kindness of Dr. 

G. C. Vaillant and Dr. L. Satterthwaite, of the 

University Museum in Philadelphia, and of Dr. A. L. 

Kroeber, Dr. T. D. McCown, E. W. Gifford, and 

G. W. Hewes, of the University of California Museum 

of Anthropology in Berkeley. The California group 

(UCMA) sent their material to the University 

Museum (UM) in Philadelphia for study. I am most 

grateful to these anthropologists for making the 

material available. For advice and criticism, I 

also thank Drs. T. D. Stewart, R. F. Heizer, and R.W. 

Newman in addition to Hewes and Satterthwaite. 

1 
SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 2 

Dr. Satterthwaite has postponed reporting his results 

until a carbon-14 or a geologic date is available since 

he feels that a break in the hardpan layer from recent 

erosion in the slough at Tranquillity prevents perfect 

proof of contemporaneity of Camelops with human 

bones on opposite sides of this recent break. My 

report was to have been appended to Satterthwaite's. 

I am publishing it now separately for two reasons: 

first, I think that contemporaneity of the extinct 

mammal and human bones has been virtually proved 

by Heizer and Cook (1952) and I note that Wormington (1957), Beals and Hoijer (1959), and others, 

accept this as highly probable; second, it seems to me 

that contemporaneity is the simplest explanation 

according to Hewes' (1946) report. I hope that 

publication will stimulate interest in obtaining absolute datings, preferably by carbon-14 on newly 

excavated charcoal, for this and other California sites 

which culturally seem to antedate the Early horizon 

as defined by Kroeber (1938), Heizer (1949), Wedel 

(1941), and others. 

The Early cultural horizon lasts at least until 2,000 

B.C. (Heizer and Baumhoff", 1956) but its beginning 

is less certain, although Heizer's guess of 5,000 B.C. 

based on (Californian) Olivella shell beads in the 

Leonard rock shelter site in west central Nevada 

seems now much more probable than Sauer's guess 

of 13,000 B.C. (Kroeber, 1938). Heizer (1952) notes 

further that the Tranquillity site presumably antedates this and may belong to the transitional warming-up period after the "end" of the Wiirm-Wisconsin 

glaciation's final (Mankato) phase, in spite of his 

observation that some (unspecified) Tranquillity artifacts resemble those of the Middle horizon. I cannot 

follow this latter part of his argument, since comparison of published descriptions by Hewes (1946) and 

Heizer (1949) suggests that the Tranquillity artifacts 

(flaked projectile points, knives, bone points, mano 

and metate, mortar and pestle, blades, drills, scrapers, 

charmstone, quartz crystal, Olivella beads, asphalt, 

bone daggers and spatulae, evidence for stick and 

tule shelters) represent a somewhat substandard version of those of the Early horizon and that the only 

major difference is in Tranquillity's semiflexed rather 

than extended and prone burial position. Tranquillity culture is certainly interpretable as an earlier 

version of the Early horizon as established 50 to 100 

miles to the north, and in the south at Buena Vista 

Lake (Wedel, 1941). Tranquillity should, in this 

case, long antedate the wet phase of high lake levels 

and it is possible that later (i.e.. Early and Middle 

horizon) sites lie beneath the southern San Joaquin 

Valley silt. Certainly Heizer's (1952) suggestion of 

an early or pre-Anathermal date for Tranquillity and 

for early man in California fits the results of recent 

excavations of the University of Wisconsin in the 

Aleutian region which give Laughlin (1963) a date 

of 6,000 B.C. for the microlith producing site on 

Anangula and 9,000 B.C. for the last phases of the 

Bering platform which would have served as a dry 

migration route. Hester's (1960) synthesis of carbon14 dates for the extinction of Pleistocene mammals 

likewise suggests a late Pleistocene to earliest postglacial date for the Tranquillity site; during the dry 

postglacial phase of climate the San Joaquin Valley 

could have served as a refuge area for such herd 

mammals as camel, horse, and extinct bison before 

and perhaps even after 6,000 B.C. when they became 

extinct on the Plains. 

Ecology and Health 

At present the annual rainfall is only 6 inches 

(Hewes, 1946), with a salt desert shrub vegetation 

around the water courses and sloughs, where willows 

and cottonwoods (but no oaks) grow sparsely. In 

the postglacial dry phase the climate would have 

been comparable to this, with the water in the tule 

swamps serving as a supply for herds of Plains ungulates and other fauna. 

The Tranquillity hunters plausibly ate flesh of 

game stalked in and around the tule swamps and 

killed with spears having obsidian, chert, or bone 

points and thrown with the atlatl. Besides camel, 

horse, and bison, Hewes (1946) lists tule elk, antelope, 

coyote, fox, badger, jackrabbit, mole, and gopher, 

noting that the larger mammals were probably 

brought as a result of hunting activities, and that the 

paucity of birdbones is surprising. The Camelops 

remains include two mandibles, an astragalus, and 

tooth fragments; the horse remains are teeth only; 

and the Bison remains include teeth and an orbital 

fragment. These (heads and feet) may represent 

food and flint-flaking tools carried home, since 

long bones would be left at the site of butchering. 

These remains of extinct mammals antedate some of 

the human burials—one Camelops jaw was cemented 

to the Fresno hardpan as it formed, while burials 
NUMBER 1 ANGEL: TRANQUILLITY SKELETONS 

were cut through hardpan or down to the equivalent 

level and hence made from a level at or above hardpan, and tools occurred directly on the hardpan. 

However, the simplest explanation of all the bones of 

large mammals is that hunters brought them to this 

site which may have been occupied over a considerable 

period. 

Numerous oval manos and some metate fragments 

suggest that vegetable food (seeds ?) was an important 

part of the diet. Mortars and pestles point in the 

same direction, perhaps indicating preparation of 

roots or other softer food; this is outside the presumable acorn area. 

There are no actual remains of baskets, though 

impressions in burned clay of tule leaves and fibers 

suggest matting. Hewes (1946) notes impressions 

of sticks and poles as suggesting structures, and a pit 

which probably contained hearth ashes. The whole 

picture is of a small village whose occupants lived 

both by hunting and food gathering in a tule marsh 

oasis variably rich in game and plant food. 

There is plenty of evidence that they led strenuous 

lives. All four preserved vertebral columns show fully 

developed hypertrophic arthritis in cervical and 

lumbar regions and one shows a healed fracture at 

waist level plus herniation of the disk nucleus into the 

body of the fourth lumbar vertebra. This degree of 

wear and tear of the disks and ligaments at the age of 

25-40 is typical of hardworking populations (Gejvall, 

1960, ch. vin; Nathan, 1962; Stewart, 1958) and one 

or two decades ahead of our vertebral column aging. 

There is no arthritis of hip, knee, or ankle (n=10). 

There is one arthritic foot, two slighUy arthritic 

shoulder joints (n=8), and one arthritic hand (n = 7) 

as well as a well-healed wrist fracture. But 6 of 13 

people have arthritis in the elbow joint (pi. 2), 

usually including eburnation after friction removal of 

cartilage over the capitulum. This is the "ball" 

against which the concave upper surface of the head 

of the radius rubs both during flexion and extension 

of the elbow and pronation and supination of the hand 

and forearm. What repeated and stressful action 

combines those movements? One thinks at once of a 

baseball pitcher or javelin thrower, except that this 

equally strains the shoulder and clavicular joints. 

Dr. Henry Collins (personal communication) has 

pointed out that use of the atlatl by Eskimo or Aleut 

allows the hunter to throw without extending and 

abducting the shoulder: the extra lever arm gives a 

strong throw from elbow extension alone (plus a 

forearm twist) and such a throw is considerably 

quicker. A hunter in a kayak or stalking an animal 

through tall rushes must shoot the second he sees his 

quarry and he can do so with the spear thrower (or 

bow or rifle), but not with a shoulder-action spear 

throw. The spear thrower, of course, puts extra stress 

on the arm muscles and elbow. Hence it seems logical 

to describe this special pathological change as "adatl 

elbow." Laughlin (1963), Stewart, Merbs, and others 

have noted it among the Alaskan Eskimo and Aleut. 

It is less frequent in female skeletons. But it does 

occur in two out of four Tranquillity females even 

though the arthritic lipping is slight. Possibly seedgrinding has some effect. It is equally likely that a 

genetic weakness or avascularity of the joint plays a 

part in small and isolated populations. This is given 

point by the frequency of a similar elbow avascular 

necrosis in baseball playing Japanese, as opposed to 

Westerners (Nagura, 1960). 

The Tranquillity people show other postural specializations in the frequency of flexion facets at the 

ankle (80 percent) and in retroversion of the tibia in 

two out of four cases. Together with the marked 

femoral pilaster and platymeria, these suggest active 

running in rough terrain. In five out of nine cases 

the olecranon fossa floor is perforated, a condition 

supposedly linked with elbow hyperextensibility. As 

expected, four of these five cases are female. This 

may relate to the general "economy of bone" which 

the Tranquillity skeletons show: the shafts of all 

long bones are flattened about to the degree seen in 

Old World Paleolithic and other hunting populations 

and often show a sinuosity and extra sharpness of 

muscle attachments which approach the bowing of 

sabre tibia seen in actual malnutrition. The suprasacral fossae seen in 80 percent of ilia may also reflect 

bone economy or, more likely, an inherited postural 

specialization. It is not possible to tell if the teeth 

show growth arrests in the enamel because of extreme 

wear. This tooth wear apparendy amounted to 0.25-

0.30 mm. per year loss of crown height in permanent 

teeth and is definitely greater than the 0.20 mm. 

annual rate seen in the Hotu late Upper Paleolithic 

skulls (Angel, 1952). Milk teeth wore faster (pi. 2), 

and lower teeth outlasted upper teeth. This wear 

points to a diet bulky in animgil fibrous tissue and 

vegetable fiber, little softened by cooking and probably not rich, agreeing with the indication on economy of bone. Yet growth was by no means stunted, 

since the estimated male stature (170.5 cm.) is tall, 

exceeding that of modern California Indians in general. 

Tooth wear of the degree just described tends to 

exceed the rate at which secondary dentine can be 

laid down and hence allows carious lesions to penetrate the pulp and root canal, giving rise to periapical abscesses and subsequent loss of affected teeth. 

There is also much chewing stress on roots and high 

incidence of paradontal disease. This was present 

in all Tranquillity mouths and likewise led to abscess 

formation. In the seven mouths available for study, 
SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 2 

11.4 teeth per mouth were lost in life, 5.0 were 

abscessed, and 2.0 were carious. Th e caries rate is 

artificially lowered by loss of 13.3 teeth per mouth 

after death, leaving 7.3 teeth on which caries or 

wear can be judged. In making these calculations, 

the data from one palate (6073 UCMA ) and two 

isolated mandibles (6075 a UCM A and 6334 plus 

B-31) have been doubled. Thus 16.4 teeth (over 50 

percent) were diseased in each mouth, a rate almost 

as high as in our own population, though for very 

different reasons. Apparently no third molars were 

suppressed in this small sample. Except for the 

Burial 5 female with a medium overbite, an edge 

bite was the norm. These dentitions are much 

poorer than those of most groups and suggest that 

loss of chewing ability may have set an upper limit 

to lifespan in this group: those with the toughest 

teeth would have an advantage in longevity. 

O n e male and one female show skull depressions 

from blows, and the male from Burial 6 (B-181-184) 

shows a skull perforation which might have occurred 

at the time of death. 

T h e average adult lifespan was 31.5 years (34 in 

males, 29 in females). Ther e are about 16 adult 

males and 9 adult females and 8 children and early 

adolescents. Skull fragments of one young infant, 

plus a child of 1 year (U M B-12) give little clue to the 

proportion of infant deaths. If these amounted to 

2.5 X the child deaths, we could expect about 20 

infant deaths. Th e adult deaths would be about 

40 percent of the total, as expected in a population 

of this sort which might be healthier than early 

farming populations. This would imply three dead 

and two living children per woman, about the numbe r 

expected over the 12-15 years of chUdbearing available before death at 29-30. Since there is much 

variation in lifespan we can assume that a minority 

of longer-lived women produced most of the children 

and that selection operated effectively here where food 

supply was just adequat e for small hunting groups. 

Skeletal Remains 

DESCRIPTIONS 

Time-consuming matching of fragments, careful repair of skulls and long bones, and minute study of 

all small fragments has allowed extraction of far more 

information than seemed possible at first; only Burials 

4 and 5 were at all well preserved. Alvar served as 

adhesive. Measuring technique and observation 

standards are basically those of the "Harvar d school" 

led by Dr. E. A. Hooton. Measurements follow 

Martin (1928) and the average modern northwest 

European male is the elusive standard for morphology. 

BURIAL 1 (UCMA 6071) is the skeleton of a male, perhaps 

35-45 years old, with parts of two other adults. The partial 

calva includes the upper part of the frontal bone showing 

a sloping and probably low forehead, imperceptible bosses, 

and an incipient median crest which rises into the pronounced sagittal elevation which is the only noteworthy 

feature of scanty parietal fragments. There is a small sharp 

depression (scar) on the left side of the forehead. Minimum 

and maximum frontal diameters are estimated at 93 and 

108 mm., respectively. 

The incomplete postcranial skeleton includes the lower 

end of a right humerus and lower halves of both radii. 

These show weak bowing, oval shaft sections, and barely 

medium interosseous crests, A right ulna indicates a stature of 173.8 cm. by Trotter's 1958 Mongoloid formula. A 

right femoral shaft with some upper flattening (platymeria) 

and very deep midshaft or prominent pilaster has prismatic 

cross section and medium rugosity for insertion of deep 

fibres of the lower gluteus maximus. Fragmentary innominates (one right, three left) have narrow sciatic notches. 

One pair of them shows deep and smoothly depressed concavities extending medially from the iliac fossa immediately 

anterior and superior to the auricular surface in an area 

normally relatively flat (pi. 2, lower). Anterior and posterior heights of centra for lumbar vertebrae 2, 3, and 4 

are 26 and 32, 27 and 29, and 29 and 24 mm., respectively, 

suggesting a vertical lumbar index of 100 or over. These 

centra are rimmed by medium "arthritic" exostoses, the 

usual wear-and-tear result of strain by centrifugal pressure 

of intervertebral disks during hard use. Marked arthritis 

with exostoses occurs in the whole right elbow joint. 

BURIAL 2 (UCMA 6072) is the skeleton of a robust male 

about 40 years of age whose heavy calvaria lacks much of 

the right side and frontal (pi. 1, upper left). Estimated 

measurements in table 1 give general proportions which 

are useful for descriptive purposes though statistically 

invalid. The medium-sized vault is long and strikingly 

high, ellipsoid (almost byrsoid) from above and rounded 

hausform from behind. A constricted, low, and strongly 

sloping forehead leads back to parietals with marked 

sagittal elevation (the actual sagittal suture is neatly 

depressed), bosses perceptible only in rear view, and high 

though faintly marked temporal lines (41 mm. from midline 

at their highest point and about 115 mm. above porion). 

The occiput is projecting and the centrally massive torus, 

into which inion wrinkles down, is traceable as a thin ridge 

laterally into large mastoid processes. The occiput in front 
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NUMBER 1 ANGEL: TRANQUILLITY SKELETONS 

of the sub-torus concavity, although broken, suggests a deep 

cerebellar region. Sutures are below average in complexity 

and medium advanced in occlusion. A round auditory 

meatus and medium glenoid fossa lie beneath a truly massive 

supramastoid crest swinging out into strong zygoma and 

laterally flaring cheekbone attached to strong fronto-malar 

angle. The orbits were probably low and somewhat 

sloping (rhomboid ?). 

Right and left humeri have oblong and prismatic sections 

with rather flat and robust shafts. Radii show oval shaft 

sections, medium bowing, just medium interosseous 

crests. The forearms are relatively long and the clavicles 

are rather stubby. Femora show strongly flattened 

shafts, pronounced gluteal crests, slight fossae and third 

trochanters, slight bowing and oval shaft sections. Tibial 

shafts are Hrdlicka's type III (lateral concavity) and 

mesocnemic. A broken right ilium shows narrow sciatic 

notch and slight bony outgrowths; the upper section of a 

sacrum is hyperbasal. Anterior and posterior centra 

heights of vertebrae T 12 to L 1-4 are 16 and 24, 15 and 

26, (22) and 27, 25 and 26, (22) and 25 mm., suggesting 

a (deformed) vertical lumbar index of over 110. Pathology includes anterior "wedge" compression fracture of 

the body of L 7 and probably T 12 and L 2; a deep pit 

in the cranial surface of the body of L 4, apparently from 

a Schmorl herniation of nucleus pulposus; and arthritis of 

elbow and wrist joints. As shown in the lower central 

part of plate 2, the elbow arthritis involves marked exostoses rimming the joint capsule attachment and eburnation in the radio-humeral joint; there is additional 

lipping also at the radio-carpal joint. The left calcaneus 

has a vertical tuberosity with medium Achilles tendon 

area and separate talar facets. The right talus lacks 

squatting facets and is average in other traits. Stature 

reconstruction of 166 cm. is the shortest of the males. 

BURIAL 3 (UCMA 6073) includes scanty remnants of 

an early middle-aged (?) adult female. As seen in plate 1, 

upper row, the left "half' of the calvaria includes the 

midline only at the ophryon-nasion region, and is small, 

high, not broad, clearly byrsoid and hausform, with well 

defined muscle markings and brow ridges. The low and 

pinched forehead slopes little; the temporal region has 

average bulge from above though almost flat from the rear; 

an oval depression (scar) lies at just about the highest 

part of the temporal line; the earhole is oval; and the 

glenoid fossa is deep. Nasion is barely depressed; nasal 

root is meditim-wide and medium-low; a maxillary fragment shows medium-large nasal spine with incipient 

subnasal grooves, slight alveolar prognathism, at least 

five teeth lost in life, four periapical abscesses of medium 

size, medium paradontal disease, at least one caries, 

extreme teeth wear (two teeth left), and probable edge 

bite. 

Left ulna fragments show slight arthritic lipping at the 

elbow. The left femur shows platymeria, marked gluteal 

crest and no fossa, slight third trochanter, slightly bowed 

shaft of planoconvex section, and probably more than 

average torsion. The right tibia, lacking the upper third, 

and the left tibia, lacking the lower epiphysis, have diamond 

section (type IV) slightly concave laterally, slight retro208-965—66 2 

version of the head, and barely perceptible ankle flexion 

facets. These tibiae are mesocnemic and seem relatively 

long. The right innominate fragment indicates wide 

sciatic notch, slight iliac flare, and small sciatic spine. 

BURIAL 4 (UCMA 6464) is the complete and fairly well 

preserved skeleton of an adult female, not quite middleaged (ca. 31-34). The cranium is heavy, fairly muscular, 

large, and indeterminate in sex characters (pi. 1, middle). 

The ovoid (almost byrsoid) vault is just dolichocrane with 

narrow forehead, relatively very high, and well filled enough 

to be more arched than gabled in rear view. Divided and 

sharply defined brow ridges lie below a constricted and 

narrow but otherwise average forehead whose bosses tend 

to merge in the midline. Postcoronal and obelion-lambdoid 

flattenings stress a posteriorly placed and high vertex. The 

occiput is long and deep (cerebellar portion) rather than 

prominent. The occipital torus is a massive mound filling 

in the space between superior and supreme nuchal lines. 

Temporal planes of average fullness with slightly bulging 

frontal segments set off deep sphenoid depressions. Sutures 

average submedium in complexity with beginning occlusion, and with eight small lambdoid Wormian bones, three 

sagittal, several temporo-occipital, and epipteric bones on 

each side. Prominence of occipital condyles and basion is 

scarcely above average (within medium range) in contrast 

to opisthion: foramen magnum tilt is 11 degrees with 

Frankfort plane. The foramen magnum measures 29X35 

mm. The pharyngeal tubercle is large, the auditory meatus 

is elliptical, and the glenoid fossa is shallow with gentle 

articular eminence slope. 

The broad face is hexagonal and was probably mesoprosopic with low upper face (before loss of teeth). Square 

and scarcely tilted orbits are rimmed below by vertically 

shallow cheekbones which contribute to facial flatness without more than medium lateral prominence and lead down 

to average suborbital fossae. Beneath the slight nasion depression, concave and corset-shaped nasal bones mark an 

incipiently low and pinched nasal root and a wide bridge 

of average height though of less than average salience: 

nasalia profile angle is 63°. Dull nasal sills and average 

spine bound the chaemerrhine nose below, and a hint of 

prognathism is hidden by marked alveolar absorption following loss in life of all upper teeth. The mandible retains 

all 16 teeth, which show extreme wear, no caries, and only 

one small abscess. The narrow and deep lower jaw has 

wide, triangular, and medium prominent chin, compressed 

and square angles at junction of squat ramus with thick 

corpus, large sharp genial tubercles, and a large mandibular 

torus most pronounced in the premolar root area. 

Right and left humeral shafts are prismatic and irregular 

in section; the floor of the left olecranon fossa is perforated. 

Radii are average in bowing and crest, oval in section. 

The right scapula has an oblique upper border lacking any 

notch for the suprascapular nerve, possibly a convex vertebral border, an average rugose area for teres origin, and 

an oval glenoid cavity with slight lipping. The left scapula 

shows the acromion to be intermediate in shape with unlipped clavicular facet and with a slight age plaque on its 

lower surface. Pleating is slight. The sternum is broken 

but suggests that it had facets for seven sternal ribs. Slender 
SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS T O ANTHROPOLOGY 

TABLE 1.—MEASUREMENTS AND INDICES OF INDIVIDUAL CRANIA FROM THE TRANQUO-LITY srrE ' 

VOLUME 2 

Character 

Horizontal circuinference... 

Sagittal arc 

Frontal arc 

Parietal arc 

Occipital arc 

Transverse arc 

Maximum length 

Maximum breadth 

Basion-bregma height 

Auricular-vertex height. . . . 

Minimum frontal breadth. . 

Maximum frontal breadth.. 

Biasterion breadth 

Biauricular breadth 

Left parietal thickness 

Basion-nasion 

Basion-prosthion 

Frontal angle (Frank, plane) 

Facial angle 

Mandibula r angle 

Bizygomatic breadth 

Bigonial breadth 

Face height 

Upper face height 

Chin height 

Nose height 

Nose breadth 

Upper nasalia breadth 

Left orbital height 

Right orbital height 

Left orbital breadth 

Right orbital breadth 

Interorbital breadth 

Biorbital breadth 

Burial 2 

UCM A 

6072 

(520) 

(370) 

(125) 

124 

(121) 

(318) 

(189) 

(133) 

(142) 

126 

(93) 

(118) 

111 

(117) 

5.2 

(48) 

(145) 

(33) 

(42) 

See footnotes at end of table. 

Burial 3 

UCM A 

6073 

(480) 

(121) 

(290) 

Burial 4 

UCM A 

6464 

(170) 

(134) 

(112) 

(90) 

(118) 

4 . 0 

(133) 

(65) 

(48) 

(25) 

12 

(38) 

22? 

(100) 

516 

388 

123 

132 

133 

313 

185 

138 

140 

122 

89 

115 

121 

122 

5.7 

99 

(93) 

Burial 5 

U M 

533 

401 

131 

123?? 

147?? 

303 

52 

(83) 

118 

133 

88 

(117) 

(65) 

37 

48 

27 

13 

34 

34 

38 

39 

23 

98 

192 

134 

130 

117 

96 

116 

116? 

120 

5 .0 

92 

90 

Burial 6 

U M 

531 

402?? 

135 

139 

128?? 

330 

54 

84 

120 

128? 

93 

92? 

57 

27 

44 

27 

11 

33 

31 

38? 

38? 

23? 

95 

194 

140 

(145) 

132 

91 

119 

107 

121 

5.7 

(109) 

(102) 

53 

(90) 

120 

140? 

108? 

(130) 

(75) 

37 

56? 

27? 

13 

34 

40 

27 

104 

Miscellaneous 

UCM A 

6075 

482 

350 

120 

123 

107 

295?? 

175 

123 

136?? 

114 

94 

(105) 

103 

117 

6.6 

100? 

97? 

53 

85?? 

114 

129?? 

93 

115? 

69? 

34? 

52? 

27? 

11? 

35? 

36? 

(38) 

40? 

22? 

98? 

Summary 

Large 

Large 

Large 

Medium 

Large 

Large 

Medium 

Martin 2 

High 

118.0 

Medium 

Low?? 

Medium? 

Low?? 

Large 

Medium 

Medium 

23 a 

25 

26 

27 

28 

24 

1 

8 

17 

(21) 

9 

10 

12 

11 

5 

40 

32 (la ) 

72 

79 

45 

66 

47 

48 

69 

55 

54 

57(2 ) 

52 

52 

51 a 

51 a 

49 a 

44 

Biometric ^ 

U 

s 

Si 

S2 

S3 

Q 

L 

B 

H ' 

(OH) 

B' 

B " 

B- a 

LB 

(GL) 

m Z 

J 

W2 

G H 

G ' H 

h ' 

N H 

NB 

O2 

O2 

Oi 

Oi 

D C 

(lOW) 

femora have pronounced cristae, slight fossae and third 

trochanters, definite platymeria, average torsion and bowing, and oval section. Tibiae have smooth diamond-shape 

section (type IV), slight head retroversion, and slight 

"squatting" (flexion) facets. Though external pelvic diameters are small, the broad oval gynecoid inlet equals the 

average White female in size and proportions; the subpubic 

angle is wide with unconstricted but markedly lipped rami; 

the sacro-sciatic notch is wide; the preauricular sulcus is 

extensive; and the ilium is flaring. The left pubic symphyseal surface shows late Phase VI metamorphosis (Todd), 

together with slight exostoses, suggesting death just before 

age 35. The five-segment, homobasal, and sharply curved 

sacrum is very short, with incipient simian notch and spinal 

canal closure starting with S 3. Lumbar curvature is well 

marked. Right calcaneus shows slight lateral tilt, extensive 

Achilles tendon area, strong lateral process, and partly 

fused talar facets. Tali have average flexion facets and 

marked obliquity of the external facet (indicating medial 

torsion relative to the calcaneus). Vertebral bodies are 

rimmed by arthritic exostoses of slight degree in the upper 

three-fourths of the thoracic column, medium in lower 

thoracic, upper lumbar, sacral, and upper cervical regions, 

and pronounced in lower lumbar and lower cervical regions: 

these are the regions of most marked anterior convexities 

and greatest anterior ligament tensions. Stature is reconstructed at 159 cm, and proportions are average by White 

(rather than Indian) standards. 

BURIAL 5 (UM) is the fairly complete skeleton of a 

young adult female, perhaps almost 30 (pi, 1, lower). 

The coronal is the only suture of the heavy cranium where 

closure is starting. The large, long, medium high, and 
NUMBER 1 ANGEL: TRANQUILLITY SKELETONS 

TABLE 1.—MEASUREMENTS AND INDICES OF INDIVIDUAL CRANIA FROM THE TRANQUILLITY SITEI—Conrinued 

Character 

External palate length 

External palate breadth... . 

Condylo-symph. length jaw. 

Bimental breadth 

Corpus thickness (Mi) 

Minimum ramus breadth . . 

Length-height index 

Length-auricular height... . 

Breadth-height index 

Breadth-auricular height. . . 

Cranio-facial index 

Zygo-frontal index 

Fronto-gonial index 

Uppe r facial index 

External palatal index 

Burial 2 

UCM A 

6072 

— 

(70.4) 

(66.7) 

(94.7) 

(69.9) 

— 

— 

Male 

Burial 3 

UCM A 

6073 

(57) 

(78.8) 

(65.9) 

(83.6) 

(67.2) 

— 

(52.1) 

Female 

Burial 4 

UCM A 

6464 

(51) 

(59) 

105 

117 

42 

15 

53? 

34 

74.6 

75.7 

65.9 

101.4 

88.4 

64.5 

96.4 

66.9 

98.9 

66.2 

(88.0) 

(48.9) 

56.2 

89.5 

(115.7) 

Female 

Burial 5 

U M 

48 

60 

94 

(120) 

41 

14 

52 

29 

69.8 

67.7 

60.9 

97.0 

87.3 

71.6 

95.5? 

75.0? 

96.9 

72.7? 

71.2? 

44.5? 

61.4 

86.8 

125.0 

Female 

Burial 6 

U M 

(56) 

72? 

112?? 

(135) 

49 

16? 

62? 

34 

72.2 

(74.7) 

68.0 

(103.6) 

94.3 

65.0 

100.0? 

65.0? 

118.7? 

77.1? 

(92.9) 

(53.6) 

48.2?? 

85.0 

(128.6) 

Male 

Miscellaneous 

UCM A 

6075 

55? 

60?? 

101 

113 

45 

16 

60 

35 

70.3 

77.7?? 

65.1 

110.6?? 

92.7 

76.4 

104.5? 

72.9? 

98.9 

72.1? 

89.1? 

53.5? 

51.9? 

90.0 rt. 

(109.1) 

Male? 

Summary 

Low 

72.5 

74.0 

65.0 

103.5 

90.5 

69.0 

99.0 

69.5 

103.0? 

72.0 

(85.0) 

50.0? 

54.0 

87.0 

Wide 

Martin ' 

60 

61 

68(1 ) 

65 

67 

70 

71 a 

8x100/1 

17x100/1 

(21)xlOO/l 

17x100/8 

(21)xl00/8 

9x100/8 

45x100/8 

9x100/45 

66x100/9 

66x100/45 

47x100/45 

48x100/45 

54x100/55 

52x100/51 a 

61x100/61 

Biometric * 

Gi' 

EB 

ml 

Wi 

rl 

r b ' 

— 

— 

— 

— 

1 Measurements in parentheses are estimates made where the cranium is incomplete. They have no statistical value. Measurements with 

question marks are doubtful because of reconstruction. Although this is as accurate as possible, the queried measurements have restricted statistical worth. Th e data in the Summary column are judged by American Indian rather than European morphological norms. 

2 Definitions of measurements according to Martin (1928) and the Biometric School are listed by number or by key letters. Auricular 

height uses the highest point (vertex) and not the sagittal suture point above porion (apex) as its terminus. 

narrow vault has relatively wide frontal and base, and is 

pentagonoid and rounded hausform. Small divided brow 

ridges bound a broad, low, and bulging forehead whose 

clear-cut bosses blend with a perceptible median crest 

along the open metopic suture. Large postcoronal depression, long obelion-lambda plane, large parietal bosses, 

and prominent upper occiput show vault angularity. 

The medium-to-small mound-shaped occipital torus is 

set in relief by a slight concavity between it and the long 

and deep cerebellar region. Temporal planes have 

slight fullness and are partly concave in rear view. About 

19 Wormian bones complicate the lambdoid suture, and 

pteria are of K form. In contrast with opisthion the 

basal region does not protrude, giving a 16° tilt to the 

foramen magnum (dimensions 26 X 38). The earhole 

is round, and the glenoid fossa shallow with gentle eminence slope. Even adding 4 mm. to the face height of 88 

to allow for teeth wear does not mitigate the excessive 

facial lowness. The outline is almost square, with slight 

taper inferiorly. Small shallow cheekbones with marked 

anterior but average lateral thrust bound level oblong 

orbits and blend into deep suborbital fossae. Nasalia, now 

broken, were not salient (nasalia angle estimated 70°-75°) 

and led from a very broad and almost flat nose root to a 

wide bridge of medium height. The wide pyriform aperture 

contributes to a hyperchaemerrhine index and is characterized by slight subnasal grooves and medium spine 

which points downward. Medium facial and alveolar 

prognathism and medium projection of the shallow pointed 

chin give a concave facial profile. The parabolic palate 

is wide and low-arched. Marked paradontal disease and 

nine periapical abscesses (six upper, three lower) of medium 

size or larger help to explain loss of six teeth in life: all 

six carious teeth observed have perforated crowns which 

would allow infection to spread through the root canal. 

This and the extreme teeth wear wherever occlusion was 

maintained explain loss of the lateral roots of both upper 

first molars whose crowns are completely eroded. As in 
SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 2 

TABLE 2.—MEASUREMENTS AND INDICES 

Character 

Burial 1 

UCMA 6071 

male 

Right Left 

Burial 2 

UCMA 6072 

male 

Right Left 

Burial 3 

UCMA 6073 

female 

Right Left 

Burial 4 

UCMA 6464 

female 

Right Left 

Burial 5 

UM 

female 

Right Left 

Humerus: Maximum length 

Maximum head diameter.... 

Maximum middle diameter. . 

Minimum middle diameter... 

Radius: Maximum length 

Ulna: Maximum length 

Clavicle: Maximum length 

Femur: Maximum length 

Bicondylar length 

Maximum head diameter.. . . , 

Subtroch.: ant.-posterior 

transverse , 

Midshaft: ant.-posterior 

transverse 

Tibia: Diagonal length 

Nutrient ant.-posterior 

Foramen transverse 

Calcaneus: Length 

Breadth 

Talus: Length 

Breadth 

Projective height 

Pelvis: Innominate height 

Innominate breadth 

Biiliac breadth 

Inlet breadth 

Inlet antero-posterior 

Interspinous 

Biischiatic 

Sacrum: Height 

Breadth 

Lumbar: Centra anterior 

Heights posterior 

Body build: Reconstructed stature 

Indices: Brachial index 

Claviculo-humeral 

Humero-femoral 

Crural 

Femur robusticity 

Calcaneus length-breadth 

Talus length-height 

Vertical lumbar 

Humeral flatness 

Platymeric 

Pilastric 

Cnemic 

(305) 

(43+ ) 

277 

26 

32 

32 

24 

173.8 

(100+) 

81.25 

133.33 

25 

18 

241 

256? 

130 

(410) 

(405) 

22 

37 

24 

25 

52 

40 

29 

23 

16 

137 

46 

37 

25 

77 

41 

166.0 

I 

(79.0) 

(43.8) 

53.25 

55.77 

(100+) 

72.0 

59.46 

96.00 

69.6 

67.54 

— 

(400) 

41 

23 

32 

26 

24 

(343) 

33 

22 

(156.5) 

71.88 

108.33 

66.67 

297 

42 

20 

15 

222 

242 

141 

420 

416 

42 

21 

28 

25 

23 

344 

30 

20 

74 

40 

48 

38 

27 

(194) 

(150) 

293 

41 

19 

14 

222 

240? 

141 

426 

419 

42 

21 

29 

25 

24 

342 

29 

19 

48 

37 

28 

(194) 

(150) 

260 

133 

111 

(104) 

152 

89? 

112 

124 

118 

159.2 

74.7 

47.5 

71.4 

82.7 

11.4 

54.1 

56.2 

95 

75.0 

75.0 

108.7 

66.7 

75.8 

48.1 

69.1 

81.6 

11.5 

58.3 

73.7 

72,4 

104.2 

65.5 

262 

(39) 

18 

13 

194 

219 

384 

383 

42 

23 

28 

24 

24 

309 

30 

18 

50? 

41 

27? 

(265) 

17 

14 

198 

218 

384 

382 

41 

22 

27 

23 

24 

308 

31 

21 

68 

43 

49 

41 

28 

(145) 

179? 

(260) 

(122) 

(96) 

(90) 

(100) 

125 

123 

148.2 

74.1 

68.4 

80.7 

12.5 

54.0? 

98 

72.2 

82.1 

100.0 

60.0 

80,6 

12.3 

63.2 

57.1 

82.3 

81.5 

95.8 

67.7 
NUMBER 1 

OF POSTCRANIAL SKELETAL PARTS 

ANGEL: TRANQUILLITY SKELETONS 

Burial 6 

U M B181-184 

male 

Right 

— 

— 

— 

~ 

261 

278 

— 

445 

440 

48 

28 

33 

32 

27 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

Left 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

1 

171.-3 

— 

— 

— 

13.41 

— 

— 

— 

84.85 

118.52 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

_ 

— 

— 

UCM A 6075a 

female 

Right 

— 

21 

16 

232 

— 

— 

(389) 

(387) 

41 

20 

30 

25 

24 

340? 

33 

23 

(67) 

36 

47 

39 

27 

15 

— 

— 

— 

.— 

— 

— 

57. 5 

76.2 

75.0 

104.2 

69.7 

Left 

290 

40 

21 

16 

231 

(247) 

(136) 

394 

383 

41 

22 

31 

26 

24 

336? 

32 

22 

— 

— 

— 

— 

(203) 

(148) 

7.5 

79.7 

(46.9) 

75.7 

87. 7 

13.1 

— 

— 

76.2 

71.0 

108.3 

68.8 

UCM A 6334 

mixed 

Right 

— 

Female 

— 

— 

— 

Male 

— 

— 

— 

— 

Left 

— 

20 

14 

— 

— 

141 

— 

— 

— 

— 

UCMA 6075 

— 

— 

32 

25 

UCMA 6075] 

Adolesc. 

— 

33 

23 

UCMA 6334 

Female? 

— 

— 

— 

72 

39 

46 

39 

27 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

54.2 

58.9 

700 

— 

128.0 

69.7 

UCM A 6465 

mixed 

Right Left 

Male 

44 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

Male 

34 

27 

— 

— 

— 

Male 

51 

45 

(29) 

— 

21 

17 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

Female 

46 

35 

26 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

125.93 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

56.5 

81. 0 

— 

— 

UCM A 6531-2 

m ] 

Right 

UM 

B-86 

21 

16 

— 

— 

UCMA 

6532 

46 

UCMA 

6531 

24 

21 

— 

— 

— 

UCMA 

6532 

49 

40 

28 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

57,1 

76.2 

— 

114.29 

xed 

Left 

UM 

B-82 

19 

15 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

~ 

78.9 

— 

— 

U M B83-177 

male 

Right Left 

B-83-177 

— 

— 

— 

— 

B-142 

22 

17 

B-106 

243 

— 

B-81 

(483) 

— 

— 

29 

37 

34 

29 

— 

— 

— 

UCMA 

6532 

56 

40 

— 

— 

— 

30 

38 

35 

29 

B-113 

42 

36 

— 

— 

— 

168.0 radius 

(176.4) femur 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

78.4 

117.2 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

77.3 

79.0 

120.7 

61.9 

Summary 

Average 

— 

Large 

Average 

Average 

— 

Average 

— 

— 

Small 

Large 

Large 

Average 

Average 

Average 

Small 

—. 

Average 

Average 

Low 

169.8 male 

155.3 female 

77.0 

(46.6) 

71.6 

83.5 

12.3 female (robust) 

56.2 (short) 

57.2 (low) 

«100 ) (average) 

75.8 (si. flattening) 

75.6 (flat) 

114.0 (very salient) 

66.4 (si. flattening) 
10 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 2 

Burial 4, the lower teeth appear to outlast the uppers. 

A medium overbite has worn the remaining upper incisor 

too far to see how deeply it was grooved labially (i.e., 

shovel shape). As a whole the jaw is delicate, with compressed angles and average muscular attachments but 

medium mandibular torus. 

There are nine small flat exostoses (osteomata) on the 

vertex region of the right parietal bone. There are slight 

indications of healed osteoporosis cranii (porotic 

hyperostosis) in the finepitting observed in the upper occipital 

and lateral parietal regions. 

Though small, the postcranial bones in no other way 

confirm the hint of achondroplasia perceptible in short 

cranio-facial base, tilted foramen magnum, concave face, 

and bulging forehead. Right and left humeral shafts are 

irregular and prismatic in section, and the left olecranon 

fossa is perforated. Right and left radii have prismatic 

and oval sections with slight bowing and medium crests. 

Elliptical scapular glenoid surfaces are slightly lipped like 

the clavicular facet on an acromion of possibly triangular 

shape. Teres origins are average. Femora show pronounced crista, medium fossa, medium torsion (pronounced 

on left), slight Poirier's facet, definite facet for medial gastrocnemius origin near the adductor tubercle, slight bowing, 

oval shaft section, and slight platymeria. Tibiae show 

marked head retroversion, no "squatting" facets, and 

oblique (type II) shaft section with only incipient platycnemia. The much broken pelvis seems to have had a 

broad oval brim of gynecoid-platypelloid form, rather small 

innominates with deep concavities anterosuperior to the 

auricular surfaces, wide subpubic angle with marked lipping 

of rami, wide sciatic notch with extremely marked preauricular sulcus, average iliac flare, and left pubic symphysis 

probably phase V. The short five-segment sacrum is 

sharply curved, starting at S 2, is hyperbasal with extensive 

articulation between left ala and expanded transverse 

process of L 5 (right broken away). The sacrum shows 

spinal closure at S 4. Though there are 5 lumbar vertebrae and 7 cervicals, there are 13 thoracic vertebrae. 

Stewart (1941) notes the same variation in Buena Vista 

No. 372292; a recessive gene may determine this (Kiihne, 

1932). Since the last lumbar is partly sacralized the sacral 

region is not moved caudad as far as the lumbar region. 

The lumbar curve is intermediate. The right calcaneus 

has vertical tuberosity, average Achilles tendon area, 

marked lateral process, and fused talar facets. Tali have 

slight flexion or "squatting" facets and only slight inward 

torsion of the head ("advanced"). Stature reconstruction 

of 148 cm. is short; arms are short relative to legs, and 

distal limb segments short relative to proximal as expected 

with stature reduction. Though very slight lipping serrates 

the upper centra rims of L 3 and 4, cervical centra show 

marked exostoses. Slight pathology of the right radius appears to be a very well-healed Colles' fracture 15 mm. 

above the styloid process. 

BURIAL 6 (UM B-181-184) is the broken calvaria 

(pi. 2, upper) and stream moved but attributable face, jaw, 

femur, rib, vertebra, and forearm fragments of a powerful 

middle-aged male, probably over 40. Medium closure of 

sagittal and coronal sutures and beginning closure of 

lambdoid do not hide their simple, medium, and pronounced degrees of serration, respectively. The large, 

notably high, and broad-based vault is byrsoid and gothicarched hausform. Very massive continuous brow ridges set 

off a low, markedly sloping, pinched forehead with median 

keel leading smoothly back into the parietal sagittal ridge. 

Vertex is smooth and far back with slight and relatively 

vertical lambdoid flattening above deep but not prominent 

occiput. The torus is an average mound capped by a 

thin rugous line, Lineae supremae form a small separate 

mound at a higher level, Inion is imperceptible. A 

single small lambdoid Wormian bone occurs. Pterion is 

in K. Temporal planes are virtually average in fullness 

next to deep sphenoid depressions. Mastoids and supramastoid crests are large; glenoid fossae are average with 

thick postglenoid processes, and elliptical auditory meati. 

The massive face was probably leptoprosopic. Robust, 

rather than salient, cheekbones enclose square orbits 

above nonflat suborbital fossae. Despite lack of definite 

contact points for the whole palate, the large nasal height 

seems fairly certain. Nasion depression is slight with 

broad and low nose root. Sills and spine are average with 

bare suggestion of subnasal grooves. The palate shows a 

small ridge torus. A deep and bilateral chin with small 

projection suits the heavy jaw notable for breadth at 

condyles and angles in spite of only slight jowl eversion. 

A strong mylo-hyoid ridge delimits a small irregular liomp 

torus in the premolar root area. Twenty-two teeth were 

lost in life; paradontal disease is present, and four out of 

five medium abscesses are periapical at teeth with carious 

crowns following extreme wear. Five of the seven teeth 

left are carious. 

A small round perforation 80 mm. above and 45 mm. 

behind the left porion is surrounded by radiating cracks in 

the outer table and shows a flatly conical expansion to a 

large gape in the inner table. The broken fragments were 

found inside the vault. The damage is equivalent to fracture of glass after a sharp blow. This injury apparently 

occurred when the head was intact and might have caused 

death. One of the radiating cracks crosses the sagittal 

suture. 

The right radius has prismatic section, average bowing, 

and marked crest. The robust right femur with very massive gluteal crest lacks both fossa and third trochanter, 

shows medium torsion, above average bowing, plano-convex 

section, and large head diameter. The shaft is not platymeric but has a high pilastric index. Reconstructed stature 

is 171 cm. 

UCMA 6074 comprises the incomplete mandible and 

long bone shafts of a child 5 or 6 years of age. With chin 

height 22 and bimental 38, the jaw has a bilateral chin 

with neutral projection. The first permanent molar is 

starting to erupt, and its cusps show the Dryopithecine 

pattern. Milk tooth wear is below medium, A noteworthy 

skeletal feature is excavation of the iliac fossa immediately 

anterosuperior to the auricular surface together with a 

sharp flange which overlapped the articular cartilage. 

UCMA 6075 is a cranium (pi. 2, middle) elicited from 

among fragments of 10 skulls. This is the only skull of 

this group at all complete. Beginning occlusion of coronal 
NUMBER 1 ANGEL: TRANQUILLITY SKELETONS 11 

and sagittal sutures suggest young adult age (25-35) and 

the skull looks male (?) rather than female, in spite of 

small size, because of muscularity and size of face and of 

foramen magnum. The ill-filled vault is strikingly narrow 

and high, ellipsoid, and hausform. Above medium browridges and low forehead, the frontal shows definite constriction and median crest. Parietals show average postcoronal depression, gabled roof with parietal bosses reinforced by the temporal lijies, and slight obelion-lambda 

flattening above medium occiput and average mound 

torus. A large temporal muscle area relative to cranial 

capacity is clear in high temporal lines (39 mm. from the 

sagittal suture at their highest point), and on the frontal 

bone where the least breadth between temporal lines 

diminishes from 96 to 92 mm. at 20 and 60 mm. above 

nasion. Temporal planes show slight fullness with rear 

view concavity above large supramastoid crests. The 

skull base projects more than usual, the auditory meati 

are elliptical, and glenoid fossae shallow with gentle 

eminence slope. The face is intermediate in proportions 

and medium in absolute but not relative size, with an 

oval front view. Orbits are high and square. Cheekbones 

are large and prominent laterally and especially anteriorly, 

though with average suborbital fossae. The nose is 

unexpectedly wide, but in slight nasion depression, probable root characters, and unimpressive sills and spine, the 

nose resembles Burial 6. Alveolar prognathism is medium 

but total facial projection only slight. The palate is low, 

and triangular chin neutral in projection. More striking 

is the square-angled stubby ascending ramus, though the 

gonia are actually inverted. Six teeth were lost in life, 

paradontal disease is present, the two abscesses are large, 

and one of five remaining teeth is carious. An edge bite 

accompanies down-to-gum teeth wear for which 5 mm. 

have been added to the measurable face height of 110 ?? 

mm. Scarcely perceptible pitting on occipital squama 

and upper posterior parietals may be osteoporosis. 

There are three narrow-notched male innominates, much 

broken, assignable to two or three individuals, and showing 

depressions anterosuperior to the auricular surface as in 

plate 2, lower right. The midshaft region of a robust left 

femur is prismatic and very deep from front to back, with 

medium bowing. A left calcaneus has vertical tuberosity, 

average tendon area, small lateral process, separate talar 

facets. These and the upper segment of a hypobasal sacrum 

are the only apparently male skeletal parts, hence assigned 

to skull 6075 or to one of the male skull fragments. 

UCMA 6075 a is the back and base of a female skull, 

probably middle aged (40-50). Breadth is 127 mm., biasterion 102 ? mm., biauricular (107 mm.), and occipital 

arc and chord about (120 mm.) and (103 mm.), respectively. 

Temporo-occipital and squamous sutures are both obliterated though lambdoid closure is only medium. The occiput 

is deep, with medium curve, weak torus, and small "thumbprint" depression at inion. Temporal fullness is average, 

temporal lines reach the lambdoid suture joining big supramastoid crests, mastoids and glenoid fossa are average, and 

auditory meatus oval. The total impression is a high, 

narrow, and probably hausform vault. The anterior segment of an almost edentulous mandible may belong. The 

median chin shows average projection and depth of 30 mm, 

(without teeth), bimental 48 mm., and thickness 13 ? mm. 

With marked pyorrhea and 3 small abscesses, 10 teeth 

were lost in life. The central alveolar border of a left 

maxilla also shows a small abscess, marked wear on two 

teeth, and medium alveolar prognathism. 

Humeral shafts are irregular in section and both olecranon 

fossae are perforated. Gracile radii have prismatic shafts. 

Scapulae have oval glenoid surface with slight lipping, 

medium teres origin, triangular acromion with unlipped 

clavicular facet and slight age plaque. Femora show traces 

of third trochanter, massive gluteal crest, slight fossa, 

slight Poirier's facet, medium torsion and bowing, and 

prismatic and planoconvex right and left shaft sections. 

They are robust with clear platymeria. Tibiae show 

medium head retroversion, laterally concave (type III) 

shafts, and imperceptible flexion facets. A left innominate 

with medium sciatic notch, small preauricular sulcus, but 

probably diverging ischium shows the previously noted 

concavity next the auricular surface. A broken right 

calcaneus has separate talar facets, A left talus with 

slight flexion facets shows strong head divergence and 

torsion from the vertical axis. Some arthritic lipping 

occurs on tarsals and elbow joints. Reconstructed stature 

of 157.5 cm, goes with relatively long distal limb segments, 

and relatively long humerus compared to femur. All 

bones show a peculiar slender ruggedness conceivably 

connected with an "economy" of bone during the growth 

period. Humeri show marked deltoid flange, and ulnae 

are sinuous. Femora show a lateral flange in the upper 

quarter of the shaft and perceptible lateral concavity in 

the lower third, and are so divergent in "natural" position 

as to suggest knock-knees. Tibiae are incipiently sabre 

form with anteromedial convexity and lateral shaft concavity combined with marked outward torsion of the 

distal ends. 

UCMA 6075 b, c, and d are parietal fragments of three 

apparently male crania with marked sagittal crests showing 

tendency for a central small groove along the suture line 

(as in Burial 2), especially posteriorly. 

UCMA 6075 e and/ar e an occipital fragment with mound 

torus, and a male left temporal bone with notably long 

mastoid, thick and flaring zygoma, shallow glenoid fossa, 

oval meatus, 

UCMA 6075 ^ is a female glabella region (bone less 

mineralized). 

UCMA 6075 h is the left half of a mandible of a 10-yearold child with length (90 mm.), bicondylar (106 mm.), 

chin height 26 mm., thickness 15 mm., ramus height and 

least breadth 42 mm. and 29 mm, and angle 124°, The 

median chin shows slight projection. Since the second 

milk molar is still in place next to the first permanent 

molar the jaw gives instructive data on teeth wear as seen 

in plate 2, lower: the milk molar's wear is extreme after 

about 8 years in the mouth and the permanent molar 

shows medium wear after 4 years. Even allowing for 

greater enamel toughness of permanent teeth, it is clear 

that on the Tranquillity food-gathering diet these would 

have been extremely worn by the late twenties or early 

thirties. The wear is of the usual prefarming bevel type. 
12 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 2 

UCMA 6075 i is the right ramus of a small jaw with 

29 mm. minimum breadth. 

UCMA 6075 j includes upper ends of heavy adolescent 

tibiae showing active epiphyseal union. Left nutrient 

foramen level diameters 33 X 23 mm, give a mesocnemic 

index of 69.70. 

UCMA 6333 comprises the broken skeleton of a child 3-4 

years old, with femur length of 180 mm., platymeric 

index of 100.0. 

UCMA 6334 includes the right elbow region of a robust 

male(?) with olecranon perforation and slight lipping. 

A large left clavicle is markedly rugose. The right chin 

region of a jaw fits fragment B-31 from Dr. Satterthwaite's 

excavation. Chin height of 36 ? mm., bimental of 44 mm., 

and bilateral chin with slight projection mark this specimen. 

A gracile left humerus, perhaps female, has planoconvex 

shaft section. A left talus lacks flexion facets and has 

pronounced diversion angle and external facet obliquity. 

UCMA 6465 includes part of a thick right parietal 

comparable to Burial 6, a jaw fragment, a right humeral 

head, lower left humerus with prismatic section, left 

scapula fragment, central shaft of right femur with deep 

oval section, and left talus with almost vertical axis of the 

head. These all appear to be male (?). A smaller right 

talus also shows only slight tilt of head axis. Adult 5th 

metacarpal and phalanges, adolescent upper right humerus 

and ischium, and infant right humerus and left femur 

also occur in this numbered lot. 

UCMA 6466 includes a rather flat child frontal with 

very marked median crest, and infant skull fragments. 

UCMA 6531 includes thick left frontal fragments with 

medium bosses and imperceptible median crest, right 

femur shaft with oval section, and other fragments. 

UCMA 6532 includes right femoral head of 46 mm., 

lower right tibia, and broken right talus with medium 

flexion facets and slight head diversion, all male (?). 

The right ankle of a female (?) shows a modal talus. Parietal fragments indicate a thick small vault gabled but not 

flat sided. 

UM B-12 is the slightly warped broken calva of an infant 6-12 months old (pi. 1, upper right). Length (143 mm.), 

breadth 109 mm., frontal arc (95 mm.), parietal arc 

91 mm., maximum frontal 92 mm., indicate mesocrany, 

and the morphology does not clearly anticipate the adults 

described. 

UM B-106, a left radius 243 mm. long, is less mineralized 

than others and fits a stature of 168 cm. 

UM B-82 and 86 are left and right lower humerus shafts 

planoconvex and prismatic in section, respectively, 

UM B-83 plus B-177 is a lower left humerus shaft, 

planoconvex, 22 X 17 mm. (index 77.27), articulating 

with UM B-124, the upper ends of radius and ulna showing 

slight lipping at the elbow joint. 

UM B-142 and 81 are paired rugged femoral shafts with 

massive cristae, slight fossae, no third trochanters, average 

bowing, prismatic sections, probable large maximum 

length, and considerable shaft flattening. 

UM B-113 is a diamond (type IV) tibial shaft section 

42 X 26 mm., platycnemic with index 61,90. 

UM B-107 is a broken male right temporal with large 

rounded mastoid, elliptical meatus, and thick tympanic 

plate. Possibly B-83, -177, -81 , -142, -113, and -107 all 

belong to a single tall male (176 cm. based on a femur 

length estimate of 483 mm. with head lacking). 

Thus, beside 6 definite burials of adults (8 if UCMA 6075 

is added), there are fragments of about 22 adults, 5 adolescents and children, and 3 infants. These are minimal 

figures and suggest that a fairly extensive cemetery and 

dwelling site may await excavation in an uneroded part 

of the area. 

SYNTHESI S 

T h e Tranquillity skulls are large, long, and extremely high, thick-walled, mildly byrsoid and phaenozygous in top view, and rounded hausform in back 

view. Th e forehead is not metrically narrow but is 

constricted behind and above lateral angles of heavy 

brow ridges, is low, sloping, and shows a perceptible 

median ridge running into the slightly grooved blunt 

parietal gable after interruption just before bregma. 

High temporal lines help define average parietal 

bosses, with temporal planes flat in rear view but 

fairly full from above. Th e occiput is deep with 

mound torus and clear-cut muscle insertion marks, but 

is not projecting despite a break in the profile curve 

near lambda . Muscularity is stressed in mastoid and 

zygomatic zones, and there are tendencies for elliptical 

auditory meatus and shallow glenoid fossae with 

gentle eminence slopes. Th e face is big and broad 

relative to braincase and especially relative to forehead. It is impossible to be sure of striking depth of 

the lower face because of teeth loss. Thoug h cheekbones are strong anteriorly and orbits square, the 

orbits are not high and the suborbital region not flat. 

Nasion is only slightly depressed beneath a relatively 

flat downward extension of the strong glabella, and 

the nose root is low and smooth in a wide interorbital 

region. Th e nose itself is broad and probably not 

salient and has sills without gutters. Probable 

alveolar protrusion and broad palate are indefinite 

because of teeth loss which is clearly the end of a 

sequence of extreme down-to-gum teeth wear, crown 

caries leading to periapical abscesses, and paradontal 

disease. Th e sequence must have begun with food 

full of abrasive material, from man o and metate 

probably as well as meat, since teeth wear exceeds 

our expectation even for California. Th e jaw is solid, 

with strong chin by Indian standards (slight projection), incipient mandibula r torus, square and compressed angles, and squat ramus. 

Postcranial bones suggest statures of 169-172 cm. 

and 150-153 cm. for males and females (Trotter's 

Mongoloid formulae) exceeding recent San Joaqui n 
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NUMBER 1 ANGEL: TRANQUILLITY SKELETONS 13 

(Stewart, 1941) and modern Yokuts (Gifford, 1926) 

standards without exaggeratedly Indian limb proportions. The brachial index is 77 (4) and the crural 

index 83.5 (3). With index of 75.8 (9), the humerus 

is less flattened than expected (Hrdlicka, 1916; Rivet, 

1909). A platymeric index of 75.6 (8) falls between 

much flattened East Algonquian femora (Hrdlicka, 

1916) and the Lower Californian Pericues (Rivet, 

1909). Pilastric saliency is extremely marked with 

114.0 (11) index, as in most American Indian and 

hunting groups. Low mesocnemic index of 66.4 (7) 

shows more tibial flattening than Pericues but less 

than Algonquians. With height index 57.2 (7) the 

talus is low, and calcaneal index of 56.2 (4) short. 

The femur robusticity index averages 12.3 for three 

females and is 13.4 in one male, indicating heavy 

bones. Body build is robust and similar to other 

California groups, Kentucky shell-midden gatherers 

(Snow, 1948), and other archaic groups. The similarity to Newman's (1957) Sacramento Valley samples, 

especially the Early horizon group, is closest except 

for the complete and very surprising lack of platymeria 

among these groups. 

COMPARISONS 

Small sample size makes comparison subjective. 

The Tranquillity group might be expected to resemble 

the early Palaeamerican groups or their survivors, 

except that these are themselves quite diverse, agreeing 

in little more than linearity of skull vault and lack of 

extreme Mongoloid features (cf. Stewart in Wendorf, 

1955; R. W. Newman 1957; Neumann 1952). 

Nearby, a resemblance to Rivet's (1909) Pericues of 

Lower California is not surprising, even to the teeth 

wear, the long bone flattening and muscle ridges and 

the olecranon fossa perforation. The Pericues, however, are cranially too low and too narrow and 

facially too prognathous and too strong-jowled to be 

unchanged descendants of the Tranquillity people. 

Inhabitants of Santa Catalina and San Clemente 

Islands (Gifford, 1926, after Hooton) differ similarly 

as seen in table 3. 

Locally, in the Central Valley of California and on 

the Santa Barbara coast (Kroeber, 1938; Heizer, 1939; 

Rogers, 1929, Newman, 1957), there is a clearcut 

microevolutionary change from Early to Late culture 

levels over the past 5,000 years or more of about the 

same order as recorded for Greece (Angel, 1951) or 

Egypt (Morant, 1925), and less sharp than noted by 

Hrdhcka and by Laughlin (1963) for the Aleutian 

area. In the Sacramento Valley specifically, Newman 

(1957) shows the Early population to be bigger in 

size (though still not tall) with bigger, more robust 

and muscular, more linear and flatter-sided skull 

vault and much stronger-jawed face with less prognathism than the later populations. One might expect 

a similar sequence in the San Joaquin Valley, with the 

corollary that an extrapolation backwards in time of 

the trend established by Newman and observed by 

Heizer, by Kroeber, and by Stewart (1941), should 

approximate the Tranquillity sample. Although this 

is in general true in comparison with the late period 

Buena Vista sample (Stewart, 1941) from the hills 

near Tranquillity and with Gifford's (1926) San 

Joaquin sample, it does not work in detail. The 

Tranquillity vault is more linear than the Early 

Period group and equally robust and non-Mongoloid; 

but the face is less high, much wider-nosed, and has 

a jaw less strong in jowls and chin than expected by 

the suggested extrapolation. This face resembles 

Newman's (1957) small broad-faced type. If one 

considers this smaller, wider-nosed, and less rugged 

Tranquillity face as a small group variation, then local 

continuity seems a little stronger than the resemblance 

to Pericues or to Coastal Califomians. On the basis 

of morphological similarities, the Tranquillity population closely approaches Gifford's (1926) samples and 

photographs of living Northern Hill Yokuts, Southern 

Miwok (less closely), and Western Mono. These are 

located around the Southern San Joaquin area and 

belong to Penutian and Shoshonean linguistic groups, 

which may well have been much more ancient in 

California and the Great Basin culture areas than 

other language stocks except Hokan (Kroeber, 1923; 

Klimek, 1935). 

Actually the primary point is the long continuity 

in refuge areas of many Palaeamerican physical 

features (long high head, rugged brow ridges, deep 

jaw with square but not everted angles, relatively low 

face, and rather short broad nose) and not the possible 

associated antiquity of particular languages or culture 

patterns. I must stress, too, that this is continuity of 

physical traits and not of a type. The Western Mono, 

for example, are a low-headed version of this relatively 

non-Mongoloid trend, comparable to the Santa 

Catalina islanders. 

In a broader geographic frame of reference one 

might expect similarity with other groups fitting what 

Neumann (1952) calls Otamid, and an approach to 

his Iswanid and Ashiwid groups although it is at once 

obvious that these latter variants in the southeast and 

southwest areas of the United States (cf. table 3) are 

much smaller in size. The early Texas coast series 

(Woodbury, 1937; Stewart, 1935; Hooton, 1933) is 

as close to the Tranquillity people as are the Pericues, 

differing only in having a longer and lower skull vault. 

On the other hand, the early Indian Knoll Kentucky 
14 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 2 

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NUMBER 1 ANGEL: TRANQUILLITY SKELETONS 15 

(Snow, 1948), Alabama (Newman and Snow, 1942) 

and Illinois shell-mound (Neumann, 1952) groups do 

differ in having relatively a shorter and higher and 

smoother vault, more flaring jowls, narrower noses, 

and flatter canine fossae. Southwest basketmakers 

differ even more (Seltzer, 1944), although Coahuila 

cave skulls, Tarahumare, and living Pima and Papago 

(Hrdlicka, 1908) are apparently somewhat closer to 

the Tranquillity, Early California and "Otamid" 

norms (cf. pi. 3). 

Stewart (I960) has pointed out that the Tzuyang 

skull from Southwest China and the Liukiang skull 

from South China both could be lost in samples of 

American Indian skulls, though these Upper Pleistocene crania are not closely similar and the Liukiang 

skull in low vault, brow ridges, nose, and palate shows 

features which are "Australoid" or perhaps represent 

Birdsell's (1951) hypothetical Amurian (or Ainoid) 

population. Neumann (Stewart, 1960) says essentially the same thing about the somewhat later Upper 

Cave skulls (pi. 4) from Choukoutien (Weidenreich, 

1939). In the other direction, Hooton, Count, 

Hrdlicka and many others {quoted in Stewart, 1960; 

Birdsell, 1951) have identified Paleo-Amerind individuals or even "types" which approximate Australoid or archaic White, and Negritoid or Melanesoid 

modes in East and Southeast Asia. These latter comparisons never apply closely to more than single 

morphologic complexes, for example, the low face, 

broad nose, and prognathism in some Tranquillity and 

California skulls. Hence the population labels are 

misleading, as Birdsell and Stewart both point out, 

since a single functional or genetic trait complex may 

appear characteristicaUy in several different breeding 

populations or subraces. For example, the Liukiang 

South Chinese Paleolithic male skull, some Shang 

dynasty Chinese skulls (H-m. Yang, personal communication) and the female from Burial 5 at Tranquillity have low and broad noses, shallow malars, 

short faces and alveolar protrusion: a Negritoid (or 

Australoid ?) trait complex if one uses the usual type 

labels. The complex needs validation functionally 

(big incisor-canine crowns and growth restriction of 

anterior skull base ?) and geneticaUy (analysis of data 

in family orthodontic research projects) and a reasonable code number (40001) or label (Squat IC). One 

could then plot the existence and frequency of such 

trait complexes as well as of single traits in time and 

space by populations and could avoid the absurdities 

found when a limited and purely metric comparison 

shows Palaeamericans from Alabama closer to a 

Northwest European isolate than to a Kentucky 

shell-mound group. 

I run a different risk of absurdity in table 3 in 

comparing with Tranquillity and others an early 

Eastern Asia series, since this is an artificial average 

based on Niah (Brothwell, 1960), Pho-Binh-Gia 

(Verneau, 1909), Tzuyang (Chang, 1962; Woo, 

1958), Liukiang (Chang, 1962; Woo, 1959), and 

the Upper Cave at Choukoutien (Weidenreich, 

1939), with female measurements increased by 6 

percent in order to approximate male averages. 

According to this sample the pool of peoples from 

which Palaeamericans may have come had big, long, 

and strikingly high skull vaults, rugged, scaphoid or 

hausform, without much Mongoloid constriction of 

forehead. They had short faces, broad throughout, 

with the expected wide noses and low orbits, perceptible prognathism and at the same time more 

facial flatness than in a White or Negroid population 

sample. This eastern Asiatic proto-Mongoloid norm 

does indeed show long-range resemblances to eastern 

Upper Paleolithics (Angel, 1952) and to Australoids 

(or Amurians and Negritoids), as well as to Palaeamericans. The Tranquillity sample differs in being 

more linear, with more pinched forehead and jaws 

and slightly higher lower face and orbits: changes in a 

Mongoloid direction. Other Palaeamerican samples, 

as shown in table 3, have bigger and slightly flatter 

faces and more pinched foreheads, as the fronto-malar 

angle shifts forward over the mass vie dentition. There 

is also a trend toward shorter heads and much variation in head height and in Mongoloid morphology 
16 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 2 

Conclusions 

From these speculations one can draw three conclusions, differing in certainty. 

The most certain one is that the first invaders from 

Asia, the Palaeamericans, migrating southward over a 

timespan of 5-10,000 years after the height of the last 

glaciation (Willey, 1961), split up into many slightly 

differing breeding isolates, whose divergences occurred 

more through sampling accidents (drift) than through 

selection. The kind of variability of the Tranquillity 

sample, especially the extreme in Burial 5, supports 

this picture. 

The least certain conclusion concerns evolutionary 

selective pressures resulting from a tough meat diet 

and hard living conditions leading to a short lifespan. 

These pressures would put a high premium on the 

fertility of a few women, especially those having 

massive teeth to resist wear (cf. Brace, 1962). Possibly Mongoloid features are a result of such pressures. 

The source for this extra tooth and face size not yet 

fully developed in late Pleistocene East Asia might be a 

recombination of genes from a tropical Negritoid 

population (contributing canine plus incisor breadth 

and prognathism) with genes from Sinanthropus 

descendants like Mapa (Woo, 1959 b ; Coon, 1962) 

contributing shovel incisors and face massiveness, and 

perhaps also with Upper Paleolithic "White" genes. 

Evolution from such a proto-Mongoloid blend in a 

Mongoloid direction would have occurred in both 

Asia and America after 20,000 B.C. Apparently this 

evolution went much further in Asia. 

The third conclusion concerns this difference in 

speeds of microevolution. The Tranquillity group in 

particular is still proto-Mongoloid and modem Hill 

Yokuts, Southern Miwok, and Western Mono appear 

to have changed little from it. Until very recently the 

tule-swamp character of the region had changed very 

little, except for the gradual (and late ?) extinction of 

most larger game mammals other than deer, and the 

ensuing wet phase. Regions of climatic and ecologic 

stability during the retreat of the last glaciation would 

probably be influenced by maritime climate and 

separated from the North or Plains areas. 

In contrast to this, Northeast Asia, the Bering 

Strait region, and northern North America underwent 

a series of climatic and sea level changes comparable 

to those of Europe and the Mediterranean. Here 

there took place an evolutionary change to a big-faced, 

large-headed fully Mongoloid norm, equivalent to 

the Upper Paleolithic to Alpine and Mediterranean 

change in Europe and the Near East. A little of this 

Mongoloid change was plausibly injected into America 

in early Mesolithic times, and again to form the 

Aleut-Eskimo people (Laughlin, 1963) before 6,000 

B.C. Until we have more data on frequencies of key 

traits and complexes, it is hard to guess whether the 

American Indian in general has absorbed Asiatic 

genes to any extent in post-Pleistocene times: the 

probable relation of Diego blood type to a Palaeamerican distribution and the lack of type B in the 

New World suggest that there was littie addition from 

Asia after the end of the Pleistocene. In that case we 

are faced with an interesting parallelism in evolution 

in a Mongoloid direction, with the slower rate of 

change in America partly explained by relative 

climatic stability of southern coastal, island, mountain, 

jungle, and woodland ecologic zones as opposed to 

northern coastal, plateau, and plains areas, even 

though the variety of American ecologic zones is w^ide 

Summary 

1. Skeletons or bony fragments from at least 25 

adults, 8 children, and 2 infants show a degree of 

chemical change ("mineralization") like that of bones 

of extinct Camelops, Equus, and Bison at the Tranquillity site near Tranquillity, Calif., as determined 

by Heizer and Cook. The human bones appear to be 

"paleontologically" Pleistocene in date. 

2. Adult lifespan averaged 32 years in this band of 

hunters and gatherers of vegetable food. Although 

stature was tall (1704- cm. male estimate and 155 cm. 

female estimate), as estimated from nine skeletons, 

and the build muscular, the long bone shafts were 

flattened and show the "economy" of bone typical in 

hunting groups (Upper Paleolithic, Pericues, Algonquians) with just adequate diets. 

3. Peculiar arthritis of the elbow, mostly in males, 

may reflect vigorous use of the atiati. Vertebral 

arthritis developed early, with wedge fracture in one 

case. Olecranon septum perforation occurs in half 

the females and one male. The elbow peculiarities, 
NUMBER 1 ANGEL: TRANQUILLITY SKELETONS 17 

suprasacral iliac depressions, and occurence of an 

extra vertebra in Burial 5 may have genetic importance in a relatively isolated group. 

4. Teeth wear was extreme, especially on incisors 

and upper teeth, exceeding the rate of wear in some 

Uppe r Paleolithic groups and producing periapical 

abscesses and early tooth loss which may have limited 

lifespan and thereby favored fertility of women with 

tough teeth. 

5. Th e robust skulls are long and extremely high, 

with somewhat pinched foreheads and broad and 

strong-jawed faces having low-rooted broad noses. 

The y differ littie from the East Asiatic Pleistocene 

proto-Mongoloid norm so far established or from 

modern groups in the southern San Joaquin Valley. 

T h e Tranquillity skulls differ more from other 

California groups and from other Palaeamerican 

series as would be expected if microevolution in 

America over the past 20,000 years has involved 

sampling accident (drift) as well as isolation and 

selection. 

6. American populations, except in the north, 

evolved much more slowly in a Mongoloid direction 

than Asiatic ones perhaps because of more stable, 

more varied, and less stringent dietary and climatic 

selective pressures. 

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