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Paleopathology At The Shady Grove Site (22qu525): A Study Of Health In The Upper Yazoo Basin During The Middle Mississippian Period, Christopher Brady Davis

Master's Theses

The Mississippian Period (AD 1000-1539) is characterized by increasingly sedentary populations, mound building, ranked societies, and intensified agriculture. As agriculture spread throughout the Eastern Woodlands, it led to widespread health consequences, including poor nutrition and increased levels of infection. Also, environmental shifts during the Mississippian Period (AD 1000-1539) caused drier conditions, potentially leading to crop failures further exacerbating nutritional problems.

This thesis focuses on the health of the Shady Grove site in the Upper Yazoo Basin, a Middle to Late Mississippian medium sized mound center where an ossuary containing up to 100 individuals was excavated in 2010. Focusing only on …

A Paleopathological Analysis Of The Moran French Colonial Cemetery, Jennifer Lynn Funkhouser

Master's Theses

This research examines the health experiences of early eighteenth-century European immigrants to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Most were low-status individuals forcibly expulsed from France and brought to Biloxi to colonize Louisiana. Historical records report the immigration effort was poorly provisioned and that large numbers died from malnutrition and disease soon after arrival. The remains of 30 adults, presumably colonists from this period based on collagen dating and grave goods, have been recovered at the Moran site (22HR511). DNA analysis (n = 8) suggests all are European. Most are males, and only one lived past age 40. Estimated mean height is …