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Three unidentified lead coffins were discovered at Historic St. Mary’s City during a remote sensing and archaeological excavation of a 1660s brick chapel. Their investigation led to a re-examination of two additional lead coffins from a nearby brick vault constructed in 1694 and believed to house the bodies of Maryland’s first royal governor and his wife. These five rare coffins and their contents, examined by an interdisciplinary team including nuclear physicists, engineers, a pollen specialist, geologist, archaeologists, and forensic anthropologists, provide information on seventeenth-century identities, colonial life, and behaviours lost over time. Previously unknown aspects of diet, health, and childcare are revealed through skeletal and chemical analyses. The information from these high-status individuals serves as a contrast and comparison to other, less affluent individuals buried at St. Mary’s and throughout the Chesapeake region.

Objectives Ancient DNA (aDNA) and standard osteological analyses applied to 11 skeletons at a late 17th to early 18th century farmstead site in Delaware to investigate the biological and social factors of settlement and slavery in colonial America. Materials and methods Osteological analysis and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequencing were conducted for all individuals and the resulting data contextualized with archaeological and documentary evidence. Results Individuals of European and African descent were spatially separated in this colonial cemetery. The skeletal remains exhibited differences in osteological features and maternal genetic ancestry. A specific mtDNA haplotype appeared in a subset of the European-descended individuals suggesting they were maternally related. Individuals of African descent were not maternally related, and instead showed a diversity of haplotypes affiliated with present-day Western, Central, and Eastern regions of Africa. Discussion Along with the bioarchaeological and documentary evidence, the aDNA findings contribute to our understanding of life on the colonial Delaware frontier. Evidence of maternal relatedness among European-descended individuals at the site demonstrates kin-based settlements in 17th century Delaware and provides preliminary identifications of individuals. The maternal genetic diversity of the individuals with African descent aligns with the routes of the trans-Atlantic slave trade but broadens our understanding of the ancestries of persons involved in it. Burial positioning, osteological pathology, and lack of maternal kinship among individuals of African descent provide tangible evidence for the emergence of racialized labor and society in Delaware during the late 17th century.

Side-notched arrowpoints, a knapping tool made of bone, perforated stone beads, Dentalium beads, a probable Olivella bead, and decorated and perforated mollusc shell pendants and scrap were found associated with a Late Precontact Period Native American skeleton. This individual, an adult male about 27–33 years old, had been interred in sand beneath a sandstone caprock near the top of a low ridge in a desiccated, open plains setting in Eastern Montana. The arrowpoints are of the Avonlea side-notched type. A detached 3rd maxillary molar from the weathered, fragmentary skeleton yielded an AMS radiocarbon age of 1,190 ± 40 B.P. The expertly crafted arrowpoints and knapping tool suggest that this individual's stone-tool production skills might have been highly valued by his compatriots. Contemporaneity among the arrowpoints is established by their association with this primary interment, and affords an opportunity to examine intra-assemblage morphology and variation among arrowpoints made by one or a few indiv...

Two prehistoric archeological sites in western Idaho, the Braden and DeMoss sites, have produced numerous human remains dating to the Middle Holocene. As part of this study, the authors analyzed stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen ( 13 C and 15 N) from collagen samples of these remains to reconstruct aspects of the diets of these individuals. Carbon isotope values (δ 13 C‰) from Braden range between − 14.47 and − 16.84; those from the DeMoss ranged between − 19.10 and − 19.13. Nitrogen values (δ 15 N‰) ranged between 13.7 and 18.1 Braden and between 9.13 and 9.44 at DeMoss. These results indicate that salmon played a vital dietary role for the peoples represented at Braden, whereas individuals living at DeMoss relied on a mixed terrestrial diet. Differences in these subsistence patterns are also suggested by analysis of dental calculus and pathology.