comparative wealth of numbers of individuals and sites provides a much more meaningful demographic profile than those associated with other contexts, though the data regarding 23 individuals in a burial pit MCT provide information that is suggestive. Not surprisingly, the extramural midden context nearly duplicates the P2MLD mortality curve since this MCT contains the most primary burials by far. This distribution diverges only in having a slightly lower frequency of burials in the Child age group. This result provides evidence that the extramural midden was construed as the most appropriate mortuary location for individuals of all ages, in addition to being the place most preferred in terms of frequency of use by residence and number of primary burials. In contrast, the age structure of the burial pit MCT is divergent in several respects. This may well be a product of the small sample size but, setting that problem aside, the most notable departure from the P2MLD and Latin American mortality curves involves burials allocated to the Child stage. The 10 members of this age group constitute nearly half of the individuals interred in a burial pit. However, four of these children, plus one of the infants, are from Ida Jean Pueblo. Since no older individuals have been located at that site during formal research, this dichotomy could imply that age-grading played a role in mortuary location decisions at this site. Such a culturally-based motive could have a disproportionate effect on the regional age structure given the small number of individuals associated with this MCT. At a larger scale, the evaluation of grave depositions by geographic location indicates that this spike is influenced by but is not specific to the mortuary program of one or two communities. The remaining child burials come from another five sites dispersed over two geographic localities, with the closest residences some three km distant from each other.
comparative wealth of numbers of individuals and sites provides a much more meaningful demographic profile than those associated with other contexts, though the data regarding 23 individuals in a burial pit MCT provide information that is suggestive. Not surprisingly, the extramural midden context nearly duplicates the P2MLD mortality curve since this MCT contains the most primary burials by far. This distribution diverges only in having a slightly lower frequency of burials in the Child age group. This result provides evidence that the extramural midden was construed as the most appropriate mortuary location for individuals of all ages, in addition to being the place most preferred in terms of frequency of use by residence and number of primary burials. In contrast, the age structure of the burial pit MCT is divergent in several respects. This may well be a product of the small sample size but, setting that problem aside, the most notable departure from the P2MLD and Latin American mortality curves involves burials allocated to the Child stage. The 10 members of this age group constitute nearly half of the individuals interred in a burial pit. However, four of these children, plus one of the infants, are from Ida Jean Pueblo. Since no older individuals have been located at that site during formal research, this dichotomy could imply that age-grading played a role in mortuary location decisions at this site. Such a culturally-based motive could have a disproportionate effect on the regional age structure given the small number of individuals associated with this MCT. At a larger scale, the evaluation of grave depositions by geographic location indicates that this spike is influenced by but is not specific to the mortuary program of one or two communities. The remaining child burials come from another five sites dispersed over two geographic localities, with the closest residences some three km distant from each other.