Malnutrition in Fourteenth-Century South Dakota: Osteopathological Manifestations

Abstract

Analysis of mutilated skeletons representing people massacred at the fourteenth-century Crow Creek village on the Missouri River bluffs in central proto-South Dakota provided information implicating metabolic deficiencies as significant factors in the catastrophe. Prominent findings were: lines in long bones indicating metabolic stress during growth; superior orbital plate, skull surface, and long bone changes attributable to iron deficiency anemia; decreased bone cortex density and marrow space modifications suggesting the effect of anemia or malnutrition; surface markings near juvenile long bones' growth plates from ongoing protein-calorie depletion or scurvy; focal changes suggesting previous scurvy complicated by hemorrhages at bones' surfaces; and bone surface markings commensurate with recent hemorrhages, implying active scurvy. Osseous alterations unusual in iron deficiency anemia, “hair standing on end” changes and poorly developed paranasal sinuses, were in a few skull radiographs. All these findings strengthen the hypothesis that the villagers had undergone periodic deprivation of foodstuff during their lives, and were in a marginal state of nutrition at the time of death.