woodland period moundbuilders of the bluegrass - Kentucky ...

Most Adena people had cavities in their teeth, which they nevertreated. Often, this led to abscesses and tooth loss. The chewing surfacesof their teeth were heavily worn from grit in their food, unlike our teethtoday. Grooves and pits on their teeth - places where the tooth enamelis poorly formed - show that, as children, Adena people experiencedtimes of malnutrition and infection. It is very likely that these conditionsoccurred at the same time.Because most broken bones healed, archaeologists infer that injuredpeople were well-taken care of. This was also true for people whohad birth defects: a man who lived into adulthood with a congenitallydeformed leg was buried in one Boone County mound.Many diseases leave behind traces on bones, so we know that Adenapeople suffered from arthritis and anemia. The former was undoubtedlyrelated to their active lives. Anemia would have resulted from a poor dietor excessive, chronic blood loss, perhaps caused by intestinal parasites.Other bone changes show that these people also suffered from infections.Bloodborne infections affected many parts of the skeleton all at once.Localized infections affected specific bones, like those that occurredbecause of overlying soft tissue infections or from a kick in the shin.RITUAL SITESEach time a relative or friend dies, modern Kentuckians must facemany issues: practical, personal, social, economic, and spiritual. Deathsets in motion a host of events. The body must be taken care of, andceremonies of memorial and mourning must be planned. Relatives andfriends of the deceased visit with one another and share food at formaland informal gatherings. Death requires us to make decisions. Whatshould we do with her belongings? Who will take over his jobs andresponsibilities? Death gives the living an opportunity to think abouttheir own place in the world and to remember others who have passedaway.Adena peoples faced these same issues when someone died. The factthat they dealt with these issues makes them similar to us today, but theways in which they dealt with them make them Adena. These peopleleft behind ample evidence of their mortuary rituals that we are onlybeginning to understand. Archaeologists have identified three differentkinds of Adena ritual sites: circular paired-post enclosures, burialmounds, and geometric earthworks. No two are the same. Each site22