Mixed Burials and CommingledHuman Remains Recovered fromthe Milwaukee County InstitutionGrounds Poor Farm Cemetery

Catherine R. JonesUniversity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, San Francisco, 15-19 April 2015.

Symposium: People that no one had use for, had nothing to give to, no place to offer: The Milwaukee County Institution Grounds Poor Farm Cemetery

Wisconsin Historical Society, Unknown, Frontispiece to Flower’s “History of Milwaukee,” (Chicago, 1881), Image 105345. Viewed online at http://tinyurl.com/nyqcwf.f

…the Superintendent shall immediately notify relatives

or friends of the deceased, if their residence be known;

if not, the supervisor of the ward of the town in which the

deceased was a resident shall be notified. If claimed by

friends or relatives, the body shall be delivered to them;

if not, the Superintendent shall cause the same to be

decently buried in the County Farm Cemetery, in a

grave not less than six feet in depth…”

-Rule 16, Rules and Regulations for theGovernment of City Poor Department, CountyHospital, County Alms House, County Wood Yard and District Physicians, Milwaukee Co., Wis.

1991/92 Excavation

2013 Excavation

Terminology forMixed Burial Analysis

Individual: a burial lot containing 50% or more of one human skeleton; these can be differentiated by Primary, Secondary, etc.

Commingled: a burial lot containing the remains of more than one individual and not more than 50% of any one Individual

Mixed burial: a single geographic deposit (i.e. a grave) containing the remains of more than one Individual or Commingled lot

10910

10733 10909&

Lots 10733 / 10909 / 10910are part of a Mixed burial

Lots 10733 and 10909are Individuals

Lot 10910Is Commingled remains

Mixed Burial Excavation Procedure

• Identify as Mixed

• Maintain all

articulations and

Individual

associations

• Pedestal remains

and photograph

• Remove in reverse

• Transport to lab

for analysis

Mixed Burial Excavation

Lots 10219 / 10515initial pedestaling

Lot 10219 after removal of Lot 10515

Analytical Methods Separate Individuals Sort miscellaneous bone Picture-match the remains Determine element

representation Refit fragments Pair-matching Articulation Osteometric Comparison Pathology

Identify Element Sets Inventory and biological

profile for Individual and Commingled lots

Determine MNI

Mixed 13 (14.9%) 61 (70%) 13 (14.9%)

Single 54 (18.4%) 198 (67%) 42 (14.3%)

Total: 67 259 55

Mixed 9 10 40 15 22

Single 256 32 131 66 65

Total: 284 42 171 81 87

Juvenile* Young Adult

Middle Adult

Old Adult Indt. Adult0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Age

*Juvenile total population of 284 includes 19 individuals from mixed juvenile contexts

Female Male Indeterminate0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Sex

Distribution of Mixed vs. Single Burials in the 2013 Excavation Sample

Osteoarchaeological Profilesof Post-mortem Intervention

Osteoarchaeological Profilesof Post-mortem Intervention

Craniotomy

Severing cuts to ribs

Oblique cuts to multiple concurrent vertebrae

Buried articulated in hexagonal coffins

Autopsy

Craniotomied skull of Lot 10657

Osteoarchaeological Profilesof Post-mortem Intervention

Cross-section cuts to the post-cranial skeleton, especially clavicles

Non-craniotomy cuts to the cranium

Buried informally in rectangular or hexagonal coffins

Cadaver

Cut clavicles and pelvis of Lot 11038

  Locations Lots

Autopsy 49 51

Cadaver 54 93

Both 3 6

  Locations Lots

Autopsy 49 51

Cadaver 54 93

Both 3 6

  Locations

Mixed Burials 65

Category Definition N1 Primary Individual + 1 Secondary Individual 132 Primary Individual + 2 Secondary Individuals 23 Primary Individual + 3 Secondary Individuals 04 Primary Individual + Commingled Remains 145 Primary Individual + 1 Secondary Individual + Commingled Remains 226 Primary Individual + 2 Secondary Individuals + Commingled Remains 27 Commingled Remains 12  TOTAL: 65

Lots 10097 / 10137 Lots 10664 / 11054

Category 4Individual +

Commingled Remains

Lots 10809 / 11031 / 11033

Category 1 Two Individuals

Category 5Two Individuals +

Commingled Remains

Lot 10812 Lot 10410

Category 7 Shoe sole, copper tool,

ceramic tiles, rubber brace, slate fragment, broken glass

Lot 10983

Category 7Perfume and supply bottles,

pipettes, rubber, broken glass, grease, cattle forearm

Category 7Metal chain, medicine bottles,

copper screw, pipette, bandage, wood shavings, glass fragments

Unexcavated area of cemetery continuesunder extant road of hospital complex

2013 MCIG Mixed BurialsCategory N # of Individuals MNI of Cm Lots

1 132 23 04 145 226 27 12

 TOTAL: 65

Mixed Burial Distribution

2013 MCIG Mixed BurialsCategory N # of Individuals MNI of Cm Lots

1 13 262 2 63 0 04 14 145 22 446 2 67 12 0

 TOTAL: 65 96

Mixed Burial Distribution

2013 MCIG Mixed BurialsCategory N # of Individuals MNI of Cm Lots

1 13 26 02 2 6 03 0 0 04 14 14 375 22 44 726 2 6 37 12 0 50

 TOTAL: 65 96 162

Mixed Burial Distribution

2013 MCIG Mixed BurialsCategory N # of Individuals MNI of Cm Lots

1 13 26 02 2 6 03 0 0 04 14 14 375 22 44 726 2 6 37 12 0 50

 TOTAL: 65 96 162

The MCIG 2013 Mixed Burials represent a minimum of258 Individuals in 65 coffins

Mixed Burial Distribution

The author would like to thank the following individuals:

Dr. Pat Richards

Shannon Freire

Adrienne Frie

Alexis Jordan

Brennan Kreiman

Daniella Marjanovich

Jessica Skinner

Dr. Katie Zejdlik

Tom Zych

…and the tireless excavation and laboratory crews of the 2013 MCIG excavation

REFERENCES CITED

Adams, Bradley J., and John E. Byrd2006  Resolution of small-scale commingling: A case report from the Vietnam War. Forensic Science International 156(1): 63–69. 

Barker, Caroline, Margaret Cox, Ambika Flavel, Joanna Laver, and Louise Loe2008  Mortuary procedures II - Skeletal analysis I: basic procedures and demographic assessment. In The Scientific Investigation of Mass Graves: Towards Protocols and Standard Operating Procedures, edited by Margaret Cox, Ambika Flavel, Ian Hanson, Joanna Laver, and Roland Wessling, pp. 295–382. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 

Baustian, Kathryn M, Anna J. Osterholtz, and Della Collins Cook2013  Taking Analyses of Commingled Remains into the Future: Challenges and Prospects. In Commingled and Disarticulated Human Remains, edited by Anna J. Osterholtz, Kathryn M Baustian, and Debra L. Martin, pp. 265–274. Springer, New York. 

Cheetham, Paul, Margaret Cox, Ambika Flavel, Ian Hanson, Tim Haynie, David Oxlee, and Roland Wessling2008  Search, location, excavation, and recovery. In The Scientific Investigation of Mass Graves: Towards Protocols and Standard Operating Procedures, edited by Margaret Cox, Ambika Flavel, Ian Hanson, Joanna Laver, and Roland Wessling, pp. 183–267. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 

Komar, Debra A., and Wendy E. Potter2007  Percentage of body recovered and its effect on identification rates and cause and manner of death determination. Journal of Forensic Sciences 52(3): 528–531. 

Milwaukee County (Wis.) Board of Supervisors1886  Rules and Regulations for the Government of City Poor Department, County Hospital, County Alms House, County Wood Yard and District Physicians, Milwaukee Co., Wis. USA.

Osterholtz, Anna J., Kathryn M Baustian, and Debra L. Martin2013  Introduction. In Commingled and Disarticulated Human Remains, edited by Anna J. Osterholtz, Kathryn M Baustian, and Debra L. Martin, pp. 1–13. Springer, New York. 

Richards, Patricia B.1997  Unknown man No. 198: The archaeology of the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.