Turin: a Middle Archaic Burial Site in Western Iowa

The following study is the first detailed report on the Turin site (13MN2). When the site was discovered in 1955, it received considerable notoriety because the human skeletal remains were thought to be of Late Wisconsinan age. Analysis of the depositional contexts of the finds, however, shows the burials to be of Holocene age. This interpretation is supported by floral and faunal evidence from the site as well as radiocarbon dates and the presently exposed geologic profile. Cultural traits associated with burials compare favorably with those for the Middle Archaic period. These include individual, flexed burials in shallow burial pits, the use of red ocher, and grave offerings consisting of Anculosa beads and a projectile point. The Turin skeletons, which appear to represent individuals from a single population, resemble other radiocarbon dated Archaic individuals from the eastern Plains. Comparisons made suggest the physical type occupying the eastern Plains north of Kansas during the Middle and Late Archaic periods was a genetically stable population that may be ancestral to later populations.