REVISITING THE DEAD AT HELENA CROSSING, ARKANSAS

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a bioarchaeological reanalysis of the skeletal remains interred in the Middle Woodland burial mounds at the Helena Crossing site (3PH11). Based on current bioarchaeological methods, our reanalysis offers summaries of the sex and age estimates, pathologies, and trauma of the burials from Helena Crossing that are useful for their subsequent interpretation. We also document previously unrecognized evidence of postmortem processing in specific burials as evidenced by cut and chop marks that are associated with defleshing, disarticulating, and possibly mutilating particular corpses. We note the special attention paid to detaching and processing the mandibles and/or maxillas of several burials that indicates, along with evidence from other sites, that the mouth was an important symbolically charged orifice during the Middle Woodland period in the Eastern Woodlands.