Death and Disability in a Younge Phase Community

Roffelsen is an early Younge phase mortuary component in southwestern Ontario. The single burial feature is a pit containing the articulated skeletons of seven successively buried individuals, ranging in age from a few months to late middle age. All had been stripped of soft tissues, except for the connecting tissues that maintained their articulation. Most also had a disk cut from the cranium and a hole drilled near bregma. All but the infant display various forms of developmental failure of the outer and middle ear and the petrous portion of the temporal bone. The pit was apparently the burial facility for an extended family with significant hearing impairments. This disability may have limited their interaction with neighboring communities, perhaps even playing a role in their eventual disappearance as a separate community.