The bypass channel behind the main river formed a small stockade, about 50 by 500 feet, due to erosion that occurred when an embankment was added to the north side of the channel in 1937-38. Massey and their wives discovered and excavated the site for the University of California in 1939^2, and Linton Satterthwaite and Malcolm Lloyd continued excavations in 1944 for the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. Except for the materials from the graves, the flood water that revealed the site also moved practically all the artefacts found, even fragments of mortars and metates (Hewes.
Heizer (1952) further notes that the Tranquility site probably predates this period and may belong to the transitional period of warming after the 'end' of the last (Mankato) phase of the Wiirm-Wisconsin glaciation, despite his observation that some (unspecified) Tranquility artifacts resemble those from the Middle Horizon. The culture of tranquility can certainly be interpreted as an earlier version of the Early Horizon as it settled 50 to 100 miles north and south at Buena Vista Lake (Wedel, 1941). These remains of extinct mammals predate some of the human burials – a Camelops jaw was cemented to the Fresno hardpan during burial as it formed.
Numerous oval manos and some metate fragments indicate that vegetable food (seeds ?) was an important part of the diet. It is equally likely that a genetic weakness or vascularity of the joint plays a role in small and isolated populations. The Tranquility people show other postural specializations in the frequency of flexion facets at the ankle (80 percent) and in retroversion of the tibia in two out of four cases.
The partial calva includes the upper part of the frontal bone, showing a sloping and probably low forehead, inconspicuous ridges, and an incipient median ridge that rises into a distinct sagittal elevation, the only noteworthy feature of the rare parietal fragments.
ANGEL: TRANQUILLITY SKELETONS of the sub-torus concavity, although broken, suggests a deep
The left surface of the pubic symphysis shows late stage VI (Todd) metamorphosis, along with slight exostoses, indicating death shortly before 35 years of age. The ankles have average flexion facets and a marked obliquity of the external facet (suggesting medial torsion relative to the calcaneus). The occipital torus in the form of a medium to small hill is set in relief with a slight concavity between it and the long and deep cerebellar region.
In contrast to the opisthion, the basal region does not protrude, giving a 16° tilt to the foramen magnum (size 26 X 38). Moderate facial and alveolar prognathism and moderate chin projection with a shallow tip give a concave facial profile. This, and the extreme wear of the teeth wherever the occlusion has been maintained, explain the loss of the lateral roots of both upper first molars, the crowns of which have been completely eroded.
There are nine small flat exostoses (osteomata) in the area of the vertex of the right parietal bone. There are slight signs of healed cranial osteoporosis (porotic hyperostosis) in tiny holes in the superior occipital and lateral parietal regions. The right and left humerus have an irregular and prismatic cross-section, while the left olecranon is perforated.
The right and left radii have prismatic and oval sections with slight bends and medium crests. The highly fractured pelvis appears to have had a broad oval rim of gynecoid-platypelloid shape, rather small innominates with deep concavities anterosuperior to auricular surfaces, broad subpubic angle with marked border of rami, broad sciatic notch with extremely marked preauricular sulcus, average iliac flare and left pubic symphysis probably stage V. Right calcaneus has vertical tuberosity, average Achilles tendon area, marked lateral process, and fused talar facets.
Minor pathology of the right radius appears to be a very well healed Colles fracture 15 mm. Vertex is smooth and far back with slight and relatively vertical lambdoid flattening above deep but not prominent occiput. Baby tooth wear is lower than medium. A notable skeletal feature is excavation of the iliac fossa immediately anterosuperior to the auricular surface together with a sharp flange that overlaps the articular cartilage.
ANGEL: TRANQUILLITY SKELETONS 11 and sagittal sutures suggest young adult age (25-35) and
UCMA 6334 includes a region of the right elbow of a robust male(?) with an olecranon perforation and a slight notch. UCMA 6465 includes part of a thick right parietal bone comparable to Burial 6, a mandibular fragment, a right humeral head, a lower left humerus with a prismatic portion, a left scapular fragment, a right femoral central shaft with a deep oval portion, and a left talus with a nearly vertical axis of the head. Also appearing in this numbered series are the 5th metacarpal and phalanges in adults, the upper right humerus and buttock in juveniles, and the right humerus and left femur in infants.
UCMA 6466 includes a relatively flat frontal infant with a very distinct median crest, and fragments of an infant skull. UCMA 6531 includes thick left frontal fragments with medium-sized ridges and imperceptible median crest, right femoral shaft with oval cross-section, and other fragments. UCMA 6532 includes a 46 mm right femoral head, lower right tibia, and a fractured right talus with medium flexion facets and mild head deformity, all male.
Length (143 mm), width 109 mm, frontal arch (95 mm), parietal arch 91 mm, largest frontal 92 mm suggest mesocrania, and morphology does not predict clearly described adults. long, is less mineralized than the others and fits a figure of 168 cm. U M B-82 and 86 are the left and right lower part of the humerus respectively planoconvex and prismatic in cross-section. index 77.27) articulating with U M B-124, the upper ends of the radius and ulna show slight lipping at the elbow joint. These are minimal numbers and suggest that a fairly extensive cemetery and habitation may be waiting to be excavated in the uneroded part of the site.
Nasion is only slightly depressed due to a relatively flat d o w n w a r extension of the strong glabella, and the nasal root is low and smooth in a w i d e interorbital region.
ANGEL: TRANQUILLITY SKELETONS 13 (Stewart, 1941) and modern Yokuts (Gifford, 1926)
COMPARISONS
ANGEL: TRANQUILLITY SKELETONS 15
- Skeletons or bony fragments from at least 25 adults, 8 children, and 2 infants show a degree of
- Adult lifespan averaged 32 years in this band of hunters and gatherers of vegetable food. Although
Yang, personal communication) and the female from Burial 5 at Tranquility have low and broad noses, shallow malars, short faces, and alveolar protrusion: a Negritoid (or Australoid?) trait complex if one uses the usual type labels. I run another risk of absurdity in table 3 compared to Tranquility and other early East Asian series, as it is an artificial average based on Niah (Brothwell, 1960), Pho-Binh-Gia (Verneau, 1909), Tzuyang (Chang, 1962; Woo, 1958), Liukiang (Chang, 1962; Woo, 1959) and the upper cave at Choukoutien (Weidenreich, . 1939), with female measurements increasing by 6 percent to male averages approximate. The Tranquility specimen differs in being more linear, with more pinched forehead and jaws and slightly higher lower face and orbits: changes in a Mongoloid direction.
There is also a tendency towards shorter heads and much variation in head height and in Mongoloid morphology. The surest one is that the first invaders from Asia, the Palaeamericans, migrating southward over a period of 5-10,000 years after the height of the last glaciation (Willey, 1961), split into many slightly different breeding isolates, of which the deviations occurred. more by sampling accidents (drift) than by selection. The kind of variability of the Tranquility sample, especially the extreme in Burial 5, supports this picture.
Evolution from such proto-Mongoloid admixture in a Mongoloid direction would have occurred in both Asia and the Americas after 20,000 BC. Until very recently, the tule-swamp character of the region had changed very little, except for the gradual (and late?) extinction of most larger game mammals other than deer, and the subsequent wet phase. Regions of climatic and ecological stability during the retreat of the last ice age are likely to be influenced by maritime climate and separated from the northern or plains.
In contrast, Northeast Asia, the Bering Strait region, and northern North America experienced a series of climate and sea-level changes comparable to those of Europe and the Mediterranean. Here there was an evolutionary change to a large-faced, large-headed fully Mongoloid norm, equivalent to the Upper Paleolithic to Alpine-Mediterranean change in Europe and the Near East. Until we have more data on the frequencies of major traits and complexes, it is difficult to guess whether the American Indian in general absorbed Asian genes to any extent in post-Pleistocene times: the possible association of the Diego blood group with a Paleoamerican distribution. and the absence of type B in the New World suggests that there were minor additions from Asia after the end of the Pleistocene.
Although stature was tall (1704 cm. male estimate and 155 cm. . female estimate), as estimated from nine skeletons, and the build muscular, the long bone shafts were flattened and show the "economy" of bone typical of hunting groups ( Upper Paleolithic, Pericues, Algonquians) with just adequate diets. Arthritis of the elbow in particular, mostly in men, may reflect heavy use of atiati. American populations, except in the others, evolved much more slowly in a Mongoloid direction than the Asian ones due to more stable, more varied, and less stringent dietary and climatic selective pressures.
