Crow Creek Massacre - Skeletal Remains

Skeletal Remains

The remains of the villagers of Crow Creek were discovered in a fortification ditch where they were buried and covered with a small layer of clay from the river bottom during the mid-14th century (Zimmerman 1985). The bodies found in the fortification ditch were piled as deep as four feet in some areas. The bodies showed evidence of having lain out for a period of time, becoming at least partly disarticulated so that a systematic burial might have been impossible due to the state of the remains by the time of later burial (Willey 1982). It is not clear who buried the victims of the massacre, whether it was the attackers, escaped villagers, or members of an affiliated village (Willey et al. 1997). The layer of clay covering the bodies was then coated by a “thin and scattered layer of bones” of which the purpose is unknown, but it is thought that scavengers might have dug up these remains as a food source (Willey 1982). The remains of these villagers not only tell of the gruesome story of their untimely deaths, but the hardships they faced prior to the massacre. The skeletal remains give evidence of nutritional deficiencies and previous warfare as well as events surrounding the attack which were documented by paleopathologist John B. Gregg (Gregg and Gregg 1987).