Crania from the Warren Mounds and their Possible Significance to Northern Periphery Archaeology

Abstract

Archaeological investigation in the Northern Periphery, in its present status, has revealed and formulated many perplexing problems. Not the least of these is the problem of the ethnic prehistory of its Puebloid peoples.Apparently, because of the striking resemblances between the Northern Periphery cultures -and the San Juan Puebloan cultures, Judd, in his expeditions of 1915-1920, tacitly assumed Northern Periphery peoples to be Puebloan in physical characteristics. The crania found by him in the southern part of this area exhibit both occipital deformation and normality. This phenomenon was interpreted by Judd as the most significant observation to be made. He felt that it indicated the use of the Puebloan cradleboard when the trait was either in an incipient form or in a period of decline.1 Equally plausible, of course, is the possibility of two distinct periods, a pre-cradleboard period and a period after the introduction of the cradleboard.