Biological Affinities among Ohio and Great Lakes Archaic Amerindians: a Multivariate Analysis Based on Cranial Morphology

Discontinuous traits of the cranium are used in a comparison of six Archaic skeletal samples from the Great Lakes region and six northern Ohio Late Archaic (Glacial Kame) skeletal samples. The Smith-Grewal measure of divergence with the Freeman-Tukey transformation is used to establish biologic distances among the populations represented by the samples. Principal coordinates analysis is used as a clustering method. This study proposes a provisional hypothesis concerning the biologic relationships of these populations. The Ohio Late Archaic samples and the Great Lakes Archaic samples demonstrate short relative intra-regional biologic distance, and the Ohio Late Archaic samples show affinity to two Great Lakes Archaic samples, Port au Choix and Cole Gravel Pit. Lack of temporal and spatial continuity between these two major clusters suggest limited genetic exchange and a possible ancestor-descendant relationship. In addition, significant biologic variation exists at a local level for each cluster, thus these data do not support the establishment of a "physical type" for either the Ohio or Great Lakes samples.