A summary of the results of the examination and measurements of the
Munsee skulls includes the following points of interest:
A number of the specimens show traces of intentional fronto-occipital
deformation, which is completely absent among other Indian tribes of
the northeastern and Middle Atlantic States; and several of the skulls
are of distinctly extraneous type. Both of these conditions point to
admixture, which in all probability came from the southwestward and may
have been due to Shawnee influence during the last few decades of the
occupancy by the Munsee of the upper Delaware.
The crania that can be safely accepted as belonging to the Munsee
themselves, and which are not deformed, are characterized by moderate
dolichocephaly to mesocephaly and a high vault. They are not
thick-walled and show fair capacity.
The face is of moderate dimensions and lacks prognathism. The facial
index ranges from mild chamœprosopy to mild leptoprosopy.
The orbits are very variable, but the majority are mesoseme.
The nose is rather short, but fairly broad; the average index is
mesorhinic.
The palate is of only moderate length, but fairly broad; its index in
both sexes is brachy-uranic.
The lower jaw is of moderate dimensions throughout.
The teeth are medium in size.
_Descriptive features._—The forehead is chiefly of medium development
in the males, in the females frequently somewhat low.
The sagittal region shows more or less arching, in no case extreme; the
temporo-parietal region and the occiput present mostly medium forms.
Serration of cranial sutures is submedium to very submedium. Wormian
and other intercalated bones are scarce. The order of occlusion of
sutures among the males was S-C-TO-L; among the females TO-S-C-L (see
page 35).
The pterions are all of the H type, with tendency to narrow in males,
medium to broad in females.
Parietal foramina are few in number and small, retromastoid foramina
moderate to small.
The mastoid processes and the supraorbital ridges present ordinary
development and variation; no excess.
The nasion depression is well marked in the males, mostly shallow in
the females; nasal bridge is medium to submedium, nasal bones of fair
breadth; lower borders of the nasal aperture are mostly fairly sharp,
and with one exception there are no simian grooves or subnasal fossæ;
nasal spine ranges from very low to submedium.
The orbits show exceptional variation in form, as they do in
measurements; suborbital (canine) fossæ are shallow to medium; malar
bones are of but moderate development, without anomalies; zygomæ
average somewhat submedium as compared with those of other Indians.
The upper alveolar arch is mostly of very moderate slant and free
from abnormalities. The lower jaw is of ordinary form, without
anomalies. The palate in half the cases is elliptic, in two-thirds
of the remainder ovoid, and in one-third parabolic; it is in no case
exceptionally low or very high, and there is no torus.
_Base._—The glenoid fossæ in a majority of the crania show usual form
and medium dimensions, but tend to wideness in a number of the females;
dehiscences in the floor of the auditory meatus are, for Indians,
scarce.
The styloid processes reach medium development in but few instances,
and they are frequently rudimentary.
The middle lacerated foramina are mostly submedium to small; depression
of petrous portions prevalently submedium to slight. The posterior
lacerated or jugular foramina are, as usual, in a majority of the cases
larger on the right side. Pterygo-basal foramina are scarce.
Anomalies observed on the skulls pertain mostly to the basal
structures, particularly the condyles and the sphenoidal foramina.
_Teeth._—Dentition was remarkably regular, but decay and loss of teeth
in life were relatively more frequent than in other Indians; upper
incisors, especially the middle, are shovel-shaped lingually, as usual
in Indians. More or less wear of the teeth in the adults is present in
every instance. Dental anomalies, while few in number, comprise a case
of special interest: a perfect fusion of canine and incisor.