Osteobiography of the Sauratown Woman with a focus on osteologic abnormalities. (2015)

Undergraduate: Kelly White

Faculty Advisor: Dale Hutchinson
Department: Anthropology

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In 1972 Archaeologists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill identified the Upper Sauratown at a site on the Dan River in Stokes County, North Carolina. The site is associated with the Sauratown Indians which were a part of the larger tribe know as the Cheraw, a medium sized group with a strong military. The first burial they recovered was a female, aged to late teen and early twenties, with elaborate grave goods such as copper jewelry, game pieces, a silver spoon, silver bells, clothing, and a glass bead headpiece. The quality and quantity of the grave goods along with the presence of occipital cranial deformation lead us to believe she was a woman of higher status. This individual came to be known as the Sauratown woman. Skeletal analysis shows some unusual findings such as retention of deciduous teeth, cervical abnormalities such as the malformation of articular processes and evidence for primary or secondary spondylolysis of the axis (un-fused axial body). The presence of various skeletal abnormalities leads us to believe that this individual may have had a genetic osteochondrodysplasia.