Society for American Archaeology

Soil pH, Bone Preservation, and Sampling Bias at Mortuary Sites Author(s): Claire C. Gordon and Jane E. Buikstra Source: American Antiquity, Vol. 46, No. 3 (Jul., 1981), pp. 566-571 Published by: Society for American Archaeology Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/280601 . Accessed: 10/03/2011 05:46
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SOIL pH, BONE PRESERVATION, AND SAMPLING BIAS AT MORTUARY SITES Claire C. Gordon and Jane E. Buikstra
Predictionof human skeletal preservation at mortuarysites is importantin archaeologicalresearch and in cultural resources management.In this study, correlationsbetween osseous deteriorationand soil acidity, as measured by pH, were found to be significant.Age-associatedpreservation biases were also evident. The use of multipleregressionis suggested as a techniquefor estimatingrecovery of humanosteologicalremainsin archaeological context.

Wise managementof archaeological resources frequently requires predictions of the quantity and quality of data which are recoverable from the archaeological record. This is true in the selection of sites suitable for specific research problems, and in long-termmanagement of the cultural resource base. Because cemeteries are an importantarchaeological resource, decisionmakingin reference to them should include careful consideration of prospects for bone recovery. In regions such as eastern North America, where inhumationseems to have been the dominant terminal mortuaryact, local soil conditionsappear to be particularlyimportantin skeletal preservation. This research will focus upon one aspect of soil chemistry and its effects on bone preservation: soil acidity as measured by pH. Although an empirically demonstrable relationship between human bone preservation and pH should surprise no one, few if any researchers have attempted to quantify this for predictive purposes. The strength of the pH-preserv ation ship will be reported and regression equations, which can be used to predict preservational status and thereby the richness of the archaeologically recoverable data base, will be presented. Thoughthe specific model developed here may not be directly applicable in regions remote from the study area, it has proved reliable in cultural resource management work at other locations in westcentral Illinois. It is therefore likely that the technique can be useful, if properlyadapted, in other contexts. MATERIALS The skeletons utilized for this study were excavated from seven Late Woodlandburial mounds, under the direction of the juniorauthor.Two of these moundsconstitute the Ledders site, located on eastern bluffs overlookingthe Mississippi River near Hamburg,Illinois. The remaining five mounds constitute a portion of the Helton site, which is located on eastern bluffs of the Illinois River Valley in WoodvilleTownship,Illinois.The location of the sites is indicated in Figure 1. The Ledders site was excavated in 1970-1971 (Pickeringand Buikstra 1974) and the Helton site is the subject of ongoing excavations.

NorthwesternUniversity,Evanston,IL ClaireC Gordonand Jane E. Buikstra,Departmentof Anthropology, 60201 Copyright? 1981 by the Society for American Archaeology
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Figure 1.

Mortuary sites in the Lower Illinois River Valley region.

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Radiocarbon dates for these mounds range between A.D. 830 and A.D. 1200 (Tainter 1975). Thus, the skeletons considered here have been buried no longer than 1,200 years and no less than

700 years. Three of the mounds lack radiocarbon dates (Hn20, Hn46, Hn47), but artifacts associated with the burial facilities suggest that they are contemporaneouswith those for which weathering both predating and postdating mortuary events. Prehistoric mound construction generally began by preparing a surface, into which pits were dug and upon which bodies were placed and subsequently covered by earth. Intermediate continuous mound surfaces were constructed of loaded earth, and the sequence was repeated. Moundfillin all cases appears to have been obtained from the local region, either from the mixing and reuse of soil from excavated and
re-excavated pits or from shallow borrow areas near the mounds. Thus the soil chemistry of any particular mound is largely governed by the extent of local soil development and the degree of soil mixing attendant to the interment episodes. Variations in weathering of the parent soil (loess) are assumed to be the results of differences C-14 dates exist. All mounds are constructed of silty loam (loess) which has undergone varying degrees of soil

in relief, vegetational cover, and water percolation (U.S. Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineering 1962; Basile 1971). The greater the intensity of mineral leaching, the
more developed the profile. Extensive leaching of minerals can create B-horizons of clay, a soil much more acidic than the parent loess. Several of the mounds (Ld2, Hn22, Hn46) were built in

areas of mature soil profiles which included well-developedB-clay horizons.The other moundsin this study were built largely from loess which had undergone minimal development. Bone associated with pits dug into and fill utilizingrelatively unmodifiedsoils are anticipated to be better preserved than those in features associated with soils where active mineral leaching had in-

creased soil acidity (decreased pH).

As previously mentioned, the dominant mortuary features in this study are primary interments.

However, cremation was a significant aspect of the burial program at three of the mounds.
Cremated remains were eliminated from this study because of the special preservational proper-

ties of burned bones (Merbs 1967; Buikstraand Goldstein1973). Evidence of pre-interment body processingsuch as defleshingand desiccation was also recovered.Because extendedpre-interment
treatment may also affect preservational potential of the bone, these cases were also eliminated from our current study. If and when larger sample sizes of cremated and processed individuals become available, it would be most informative to assess pH-preservation relationships in these

contexts. METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Soil samples were recovered from feature fill in direct association with bone for burials comprising 63 adults and 32 children. Each sample was mixed as one part soil to two parts distilled water, and the pH of this solutionwas determinedwith a Heath-Schlumberger portable pH meter. Each determinationcarried a ? .04 error factor, computedfrom the followingadditive sources of error:(1) inherent meter error;(2) variability of the buffer solution used to standardize the meter; and (3) within-samplevariation and investigator error in reading the meter scale. Skeletal remains of each burial were then scored for preservation according to the following six categories: Category 1, Strong CompleteBone: Skeletal elements are whole and undamaged. There is no evidence of postmortem destruction of osseous material which is not directly referable to local root, microorganism,or burrowingmammalactivity. For immatureindividuals, ossification centers are present and recoverable. All classes of skeletal data may be collected (n = 30 for this study). Category 2, Fragile Bone: Bony elements may be fragmented, but they are completely reconstructible. External surfaces may show some etching. Articular surfaces of long bones and surfaces of sternum, vertebrae, and other cubical bones show superficial destruction. Essentially all classes of standard osteological descriptive data can be collected; however, microstructurestudies could be severely limited. In immatureindividuals,epiphyseal ossification centers are eroded, but diaphyses are reconstructible (n = 29 for this study). Category 3, FragmentedBone:Skeletal elements are generally cracked and fragmented.Most units are identifiable and reconstructible with copious labor and skill. Bone surfaces are heavily etched and

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cracked. Articular ends of long bones, vertebrae, and other trabecular bone may not be reconstructible. The skull is reconstructibleto the point that most standard descriptive measures of the vault are possible; however, the face may not be observable. Data classes such as the length of long bones and many forms of pathology(e.g., degenerative jointdisease) are severely limited(n = 21 for this study). Category 4, ExtremelyFragmented Bone: Skeletal elements are severely fragmented and many may not be recognizable. One cannot consistently collect any osteometric data or observe pathological changes. Nonmetric variants may be scored, but the battery of observations is frequently incomplete. Determinationsof age at death and sex of adult skeletons may not always be possible (n = 9 for this study). Category 5, Bone Meal/Ghost:Bones are reduced to a powdery substance which will not hold shape without supportfromthe soil or chemical preservatives. Fragmentary tooth crowns may still be recoverable; however, even these are fragile. Bone outlines may be present as stains only. No forms of osteological data can be consistently collected (n = 6 for this study). Preservational scoring, as described above, ignored localized effects of roots and rodents. In addition, although preservation had been scored at convenient intervals, there is an underlying continuity to "preservation," and this variable will be treated as continuous for analytical purposes (Sokaland Rohlf 1969:12).Finally,these skeletal remains were also aged and scored in fiveyear interval age classes. Because previous experience had suggested that immaturebone is more susceptible to decay than mature bone, age of the remains at death was initially treated as a noise factor in the pHpreservation relationship. A two-way Analysis of Variance (Sokal and Rohlf 1969:299;Nie et al. totest for the significance of age-pH interactive effects on preservation. As 1975:405) was used to expected, the interactive sum of squares was significant:F = 5.542, p < .001. This suggested that in order to assess the true strength of the pH factor in determiningbone preservation,mature and immature bone must be analyzed separately. The strength of the pH-preservationrelationship was then tested using the SPSS subprogram "Scattergram"(Nie et al. 1975:293),which generates both correlation coefficients and regression correlation coefficients were tested for significance as were equations. Pearson product-moment the slopes and intercepts of the regression equations. AND DISCUSSION RESULTS The correlation between soil pH and bone preservationwas significant for the maturesample:r
= -.92, p < .00001, n = 63. Thus, as soil pH decreases, the destruction of osseous materials in-

creases. This relationship explains 84% (r2)of the variation in mature bone preservation for this sample. The regressions equation (see Table 1) was also significant;both slope and intercept had p < .00001. Soil pH was also significantly correlated with bone preservation in children: r = -.48, p < .005, n = 32. The pH alone, however, explained only 23% of the preservationalvariationin this immature bone sample. The relatively large amount of residual variation is not unexpected. It is probably the result of the large range of bone densities expressed in the age interval (0-14.99 years), which would also have a large range of preservational potentials at any given pH. Nevertheless, the simple regression equation for immaturebone (see Table 1) was also significant, p < .005 for the slope, and p < .002 for the intercept. It is evident fromthe steeper slope and larger intercept of the regression equation characterizing immature remains that preservation declines more rapidly with decreasing pH in juveniles than is the case for adults. It is clear from this analysis that soil pH can be a very strong predictor of preservational state. Bone maturity,however, is also an importantfactor. The differences in preservational potential at marginalpH ranges all or most by age present a particular problemfor the paleodemographer: of the infants and children may be systematically eliminated from the mortuarysample by preservational bias. Thus if pH is to be maximally useful in anticipating recovery potentials and sampling biases at mortuarysites, a regression formula must be generated which includes age. The SPSS subprogram"MultipleRegression"(Nie et al. 1975:328)was utilized for this purpose, with age coded as shown in Table 2. As expected, the multiple correlation coefficient was high, r = .87, with probabilityapproaching .00000. The joint effects of soil pH and age explained 76%

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Table 1. RegressionEquationsand Their Significances.

Adult's Simple Regression

PRESERVATION = -1.3pH + 12.5

Slope p < .00001, Intercept p < .00001 Children'sSimple Regression

PRESERVATION = - 1.5 pH + 14.9

Slope p < .005, Intercept p < .002 MultipleRegression

PRESERVATION = -1.3pH - .14AGE + 13.2 pH slope p - .00000, Age slope p - .00000, Intercept p - .00000

of the total preservational variation in this sample. The regression equation (see Table 1) was

highly significant, with the probabilities of both slopes and the intercept approaching .00000. If the younger age intervals were made even smaller, it is probable that much of the 24% residual
variation could also be explained by the joint effects of age and soil pH. Regionally appropriate regression equations such as this should be useful in several aspects of

archaeological decision-making.By systematically testing mortuary sites for soil pH, expected skeletal preservation can be calculated for any age group.These estimates could then be used in determining the excavation strategy which would allow recovery of the maximum amount of osteological data. In addition, researchers should be able to estimate the degree of bias in their samples due to imperfect preservation, which should be a useful complementto statistical techniques for evaluating bias offered by paleodemographers such as Weiss (1973). The pH-preservation regression may also be used to make informed site choices when complete

skeletal data are not of primary concern. Archaeologists who study the social dimensionsof mortuary behavior, for example, may require only age and sex estimates for the skeletons, while desiring detailed information concerning feature construction and seasonality inferences based upon pollen diagrams. For this research design, the archaeologist would select sites with relatively acidic soils, where soil features and pollen grains are better preserved, while limiting his levels of acceptable pH to those where age and sex of remains can still be estimated. This regression

technique should also be useful in the context of phased contracts which require budget estimates
for data analysis before extensive excavation has been conducted. Estimation of the preservational status of human remains at the site could aid the archaeologist in projecting the relative

amount of bone recoverable and the types of analysis possibilities for those remains. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS In an era of problem-orientedresearch and the selection of sites for protection due to their potential in future archaeological study, an ability to predict recovery of significant data sets is of crucial importance.The present study has presented evidence that the preservation of one prominent class of archaeologically recoverable materials-inhumed human bone-is quite strongly related to soil pH. It is suggested that regression equations such as those we have calculated
Table 2. Age Classes Used in MultipleRegression Coding(in years).
(1) 0-4.99

(2) (3) (4) (5)

5-9.99 10-14.99 15-19.99 20 +

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would be useful in other regions, and that the refinement of this technique should prove important in multiple aspects of archaeological decision-making.

GrantNo. Acknowledgments. This research has received the supportof the National Science Foundation, the Universityof ChicagoCommitteeof EvoluGS-41242;the Northwestern UniversityResearch Committee; tionary Biology;and the Northwestern UniversityArchaeologicalProgram. REFERENCESCITED Basile, RobertM. 1971 A geographyof soils. Wm. C. Brown, Dubuque,Iowa. Buikstra,Jane E., and LynneGoldstein 1973 The Perrins Ledge crematory.IllinoisState Museum,Reportsof InvestigationsNo. 28. Springfield, Illinois. Merbs, C. F. M. 1967 Crematedhuman remains from Point of Pines, Arizona. American Antiquity32:498-506. Nie, Norman H., C. H. Hull, J. G. Jenkins,K. Steinbrenner,and D. H. Bent New York. 1975 Statistical package for the social sciences. McGraw-Hill, Pickering,RobertB., and Jane E. Buikstra NorthwesternUniversity. 1974 The Ledders site report. Ms. on file, Departmentof Anthropology, Sokal, RobertR., and F. James Rohlf 1969 Biometry.Freeman, San Francisco. Tainter, JosephA. 1975 The archaeological study of social change: Woodlandsystems in west-central Illinois.Unpublished Northwestern University. Ph.D. dissertation, Departmentof Anthropology, U.S. Bureau of Plant Industry,Soils, and AgriculturalEngineering 1962 Soil survey manual. U.S. GovernmentPrintingOffice, Washington,D.C. Weiss, KennethM. 1973 Demographicmodels for anthropology.Memoirsof the Society for American Archaeology 27.

NEAREST NEIGHBORS, BOUNDARY EFFECT, AND THE OLD FLAG TRICK: A GENERAL SOLUTION Charles H. McNutt
Thispaper presents a methodfor quantifying"boundary effect" in square, rectangular,triangular,and circular study areas. It is based upon a very different, theoreticallyorientedmodificationof the classic computationmethods,is applicableto the variouslyshaped study areas described, and produces results which approximate simulationdata quite closely. In a recent issue of this journal, Pinder, Shimada, and Gregory (1979) raised certain questions

regarding the nearest neighbor statistic developed by Clarkand Evans (1954). Specifically, they were quite rightlyconcerned by an apparentlypredictable disparitybetween (1)values for the index which were calculated by the formula developed on a purely theoretical basis by Clarkand
CharlesH. McNutt,Departmentof Anthropology,MemphisState University,Memphis,TN 38152 Copyright? 1981 by the Society for American Archaeology
0002-7316/81/030571-22$2.70/1