CANADIAN RE VIEW OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOG Y REVUE CANADIENNE D 'ANTHROPOLOGIE PHYSIQUE VOLUME 2 NUMBERS 1-2 anadian Associahon for Physical Anhropolog~ lAssociahon pour Mnthropologie Phpique au Unada Managing Editor William D. Wade Department of Anthropology University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2 Editorial Board Braxton Alfred Susan Pfeiffer University of British Columbia University of Guelph Linda M. Fedigan Dwight A. Rokala University of Alberta University of Manitoba Francis Forest Shelley R. Saunders Universite de Montreal University of Toronto Christopher Meiklejohn Mark F. Skinner University of Winnipeg Simon Fraser University Editorial Assistant Louis Allaire University of Manitoba The Reviewl~evueis published by the Canadian Association for Physical Anthro- pology/l'Association pour lYAnthropologiePhysique au Canada. Articles, letters, book reviews and other materials relevant to physical anthropology and its allied disciplines are invited. These may be submitted in either French or English, but articles must include an abstract in both languages. Material submitted for publi- cation must follow the Wistar Institute Guide for Authors, which appears in the first issue of each year of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Membership inquiries, advertising copy and address corrections should be sent to the Secretary-Treasurer, Dr. N. S. Ossenberg, Department of Anatom3, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6. 44.>. ISSN 0225-9958 The Skeletal Remains from the Taber Child Site, Taber, Alberta ROBERT I. SUNDICK Department of Anthropology, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49008 KEY WORDS Early Man North America ABSTRACT An analysis of a four to nine month old human infant with a possible date of at least 40,000 years, from Taber, Alberta, is presented. The specimen was found by A. MacS. Stalker in 1961 and has been reconstructed by the present author. The skeletal material derives primarily from the left side of the skull and face and, based on the degree of mineralization of the bone and the density of the matrix in which the material was embedded, it appears likely that the specimen is as old as has been suggested. The fact that only one side of the skull and face is present would indicate that erosion of the missing right side occurred before the specimen was embedded in the matrix. Loss of the right side after mineralization would have been unlikely because of the density of the matrix. RESUME L'Ctude d'un enfant humain 2gC entre quatre et neuf mois, associC A une date possible de 40,000 ans, provenant de Taber, Alberta, fait l'objet de cette communication. Le specimen fut dCcouvert par A. MacS. Stalker en 196 1 et a 6tC reconstituk par l'auteur. Les parties du squelette appartiennent principalement au c6te gauche du criine et de la face. Sur la base du degrC de minkralisation de 1'0s et de la densite de la matrice lors de sa dkcouverte, il semble possible que le sujet soit aussi ancien qu'on le sugghre. Le fait qu'un cbtC seulement du cr2ne et de la face ait 6tC prCservC semble indiquer que 1'6rosion de la partie droite manquante a eu lieu antkrieurement A l'ensevelissement du specimen dans la matrice de sa dkcouverte. La perte du c6tC droit apr6s minkralisation aurait CtC peu probable en raison de la densite de la matrice. The bones to be discussed herein are those and hence we have available for study only a which were discovered by A. MacS. Stalker and very small sample of fragmentary infant skel- his field staff from the Geological Survey of etal remains. The bones were first sent to Mr. Canada on July 1 1, 196 1, near Taber, Alberta. H. L. Shearman, of the National Museum of Their find was made accidentally while Stalker Canada who removed some of the surrounding and his colleagues were mapping surficial matrix from the bone, but left all of the pieces deposits in the area. At the time of the dis- together within the matrix. This lump of matrix covery Stalker was not aware that the small, with bone fragments extending from it was fragmentary bones which were almost entirely studied by Langston and Oschinsky ('63). Late embedded in a dense matrix were from Homo in the 1960's the material was given to the sapiens (Stalker '69). If this were known present author by Dr. David Hughes, of the Stalker admits that a more diligent search of the University of Toronto, for further study. I, in area for additional bones would have been turn, brought the material to Dr. A. Gordon undertaken (Stalker '69)' but this was not done Edmund of the Royal Ontario Museum, CAN. REV. PHYS. ANTHROP. 2:l-6 1 ROBERT I. SUNDICK Toronto, Ontario, who very generously re- molars. The bones recovered are primarily from moved the entire skeleton from the matrix in the skull and are described below: which it was still embedded. Once the bone was removed from its matrix it was possible to Parietals reconstruct parts of the cranial vault and to The left parietal (fig. 1) is virtually com- identify additional parts of the skeleton which plete, missing only the lateral anterior corner were included in the matrix. which articulates with the greater wing of the This report is a review of the evidence for sphenoid. The bone measures 104 mm. along the antiquity of the material and a description the sagittal suture and 92 mm. along the lamb- of the skeletal material itself, based on the most doidal suture. It is 2 mm. thick at lambda and complete reconstruction which has been under- 1 mm. at bregma. There is a good deal of boss- taken to date. The material now resides in the ing at the parietal tuberosity, which would be National Museum of Man, National Museums expected in an individual of this age. The articu- of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario (Catalog No. lation between the two parietals and the occipi- xv-C5). tal indicate that the posterior fontanelle is The site which yielded the material is closed. This should occur in the first few located approximately 3 miles north of Taber, months after birth. The inner surface (fig. 2) Alberta on the east bank of the Oldman River. shows grooves for the frontal branch of the More specifically it came from a cliff referred to middle meningeal vessels, which are identical to as the Woodpecker Island Bluff (Stalker '69). those seen in modern day man. Stalker has recently presented a number of The right parietal (fig. 3), less complete than arguments detailing the reasons why he believes the left parietal, consists of an 80 mm. section in the great antiquity of this specimen (Stalker along the sagittal suture extending from lambda '69, '77), and concludes the following: anteriorly. It ex tends laterally to the parietal "The Taber child is the most direct evidence for tuberosity. the presence of man on the Canadian prairies before retreat of the last Wisconsin glacier. It Occipital consists of the skull and some other bones from The squamous part (fig. 4) of the occipital a four-month-old child, found in alluvial sand some 60 feet below prairie level at a fresh bone is fairly complete. The superior median exposure along the Oldman River just north of fissure is fused. The mendosal suture or the line Taber, Alberta. Because the sand beds lie of union between the upper and lower parts of beneath a classical Wisconsin till, the child is at the squama cannot be observed on either side. least 18,000 years old. Further, the bones com- Grooves on the inner surface for the superior pare in mineralization and preservation with sagittal venous sinus and the transverse sinuses mid, or perhaps classical, Wisconsin bones re- are deep and easily discernible. The superior covered from near Medicine Hat to the east. sagittal venous sinus turns into the right trans- Elsewhere the unit that contained them has yielded radiocarbon dates on wood of > verse venous sinus to drain eventually into the 32,000 and > 49,000 years. The best estimate right sigmoid venous sinus of the temporal. A of their age is about 40,000 years." (Stalker small portion of the right exoccipital including '77: 135). the posterior two-thirds of the occipital condyle is present. There is no posterior condy- THE SKELETAL MATERIAL lar canal. The skeletal remains are those of an im- Temporal mature individual aged somewhere between four and possibly nine months of age. The early The left temporal (fig. 5) is intact except for age is assigned on the basis of the fact that the a portion of the squamous part anterior to the two halves of the mandible at the symphysis squamomastoid suture and posterior to the menti are not yet fused together. This is gener- zygomatic process. Maximum length of the ally thought to take place by six months of age. bone in the sagittal plane is 56 mm. The pos- The older age is based on the degree of calcifica- terior limb of the tympanic ring is fused to the tion of the lower, first and second deciduous petrous part through its entire length, while TABER SITE SKELETAL REMAINS 3 only the most superior part of the anterior limb based on X-rays of contemporary Boston chil- is fused to the squamous part. There is a small dren and the applicability of the standard to growth of bone extending down from the most this specimen is questionable. superior part of the anterior limb toward the posterior limb, forming a foramen of Huschke. Vertebrae This stage of development corresponds to The left lateral mass of the atlas and two stage 4 in Anderson's ('62) report on the devel- neural arch halves from the cervical or thoracic opment of the tympanic plate.