Catherine R. Jones
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
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
80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, San Francisco, 15-19 April 2015.
Wisconsin Historical Society, Unknown, Frontispiece to
Flower’s “History of Milwaukee,” (Chicago, 1881), Image
105345. Viewed online at http://tinyurl.com/nyqcwf.f
-Rule 16, Rules and Regulations for the
Government of City Poor Department, County
Hospital, County Alms House, County Wood Yard
and District Physicians, Milwaukee Co., Wis.
1991/92 Excavation
2013 Excavation
Terminology for
Mixed 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
10733 & 10909
Lots 10733 and 10909
are Individuals
10910
Lot 10910
Is Commingled remains
Mixed burial: a single
geographic deposit (i.e. a
grave) containing the
remains of more than one
Lots 10733 / 10909 / 10910
Individual or Commingled lot
are part of a Mixed burial
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
Lots 10219 / 10515
initial pedestaling
Lot 10219 after
removal of Lot 10515
 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
Age
Sex
100%
100%
90%
90%
80%
80%
70%
70%
60%
60%
50%
50%
40%
40%
30%
30%
20%
20%
10%
10%
0%
0%
Mixed
Single
Total:
Juvenile*
Young
Adult
Middle
Adult
9
256
284
10
32
42
40
131
171
Old Adult Indt. Adult
15
66
81
*Juvenile total population of 284 includes 19
individuals from mixed juvenile contexts
22
65
87
Female
Mixed 13 (14.9%)
Single 54 (18.4%)
Total:
67
Male
Indeterminate
61 (70%)
198 (67%)
259
13 (14.9%)
42 (14.3%)
55
Autopsy
 Craniotomy
 Severing cuts to ribs
 Oblique cuts to multiple
concurrent vertebrae
 Buried articulated in
hexagonal coffins
Craniotomied skull of Lot 10657
Cadaver
 Cross-section cuts
to the post-cranial
skeleton, especially
clavicles
 Non-craniotomy
cuts to the
cranium
 Buried informally
in rectangular or
hexagonal coffins
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
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Definition
Primary Individual + 1 Secondary Individual
Primary Individual + 2 Secondary Individuals
Primary Individual + 3 Secondary Individuals
Primary Individual + Commingled Remains
Primary Individual + 1 Secondary Individual + Commingled Remains
Primary Individual + 2 Secondary Individuals + Commingled Remains
Commingled Remains
TOTAL:
N
13
2
0
14
22
2
12
65
Category 1
Category 4
Category 5
Two Individuals
Individual +
Commingled Remains
Two Individuals +
Commingled Remains
Lots 10097 / 10137
Lots 10664 / 11054
Lots 10809 / 11031 / 11033
Category 7
Category 7
Category 7
Perfume and supply bottles,
pipettes, rubber, broken glass,
grease, cattle forearm
Shoe sole, copper tool,
ceramic tiles, rubber brace,
slate fragment, broken glass
Metal chain, medicine bottles,
copper screw, pipette, bandage,
wood shavings, glass fragments
Lot 10410
Lot 10983
Lot 10812
Unexcavated area of cemetery continues
under extant road of hospital complex
Category
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
TOTAL:
2013 MCIG Mixed Burials
N
# of Individuals
MNI of Cm Lots
13
2
0
14
22
2
12
65
Category
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
TOTAL:
2013 MCIG Mixed Burials
N
# of Individuals
MNI of Cm Lots
13
26
2
6
0
0
14
14
22
44
2
6
12
0
65
96
Category
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
TOTAL:
2013 MCIG Mixed Burials
N
# of Individuals
MNI of Cm Lots
13
26
0
2
6
0
0
0
0
14
14
37
22
44
72
2
6
3
12
0
50
65
96
162
The MCIG 2013 Mixed Burials represent a minimum of
258 Individuals in 65 coffins
Category
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
TOTAL:
2013 MCIG Mixed Burials
N
# of Individuals
MNI of Cm Lots
13
26
0
2
6
0
0
0
0
14
14
37
22
44
72
2
6
3
12
0
50
65
96
162
REFERENCES CITED
Adams, Bradley J., and John E. Byrd
2006 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 Loe
2008 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 Cook
2013 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
Wessling
2008 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. Potter
2007 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 Supervisors
1886 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. Martin
2013 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.
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