LAUREL CULTURE HUMAN REMAINS FROM SMITH MOUNDS 3 AND 4

Analysis of the human remains from Smith Mounds Three and Four in nort hern Minnesota suggests the mounds were built around 95 BC by people o f the Laurel Culture. Each episode of burial seemed to have contained the dead from a one-year interval of time. Women and subadults under t he age of three were underrepresented in the mound and were presumably interred elsewhere at times. Evidence of mortuary practices includes skulls with occipitals removed, punctured long bones, cut marks, and r ed ocher. Pathological changes in the bones suggest infection produced significant morbidity. Other pathology resulted from trauma, degenera tive joint disease, and congenital abnormalities.