Archaeology talk April 19 in Pinedale
April 14, 2016
The Upper Green River Basin Chapter of the Wyoming Archeology Society will be having a meeting on Tuesday, April 19th, at 6:30 pm at the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale. There will be a short business meeting followed by a presentation by Rick Weathermon of University of Wyoming. Everyone is welcome.
Rick’s presentation will be on: "A Case of Hypertrophic Osteoarthropathy From A 19th Century Eastern Wyoming Trading Post."
Hypertrophic osteoarthropathy (HOA) is a syndrome that results in clubbing of the fingers and toes, growths on many of the bones of the skeleton, and arthritis in the living individual. Relatively few cases of HOA have been reported in paleopathology literature of North America, although numerous living individuals afflicted by this condition have been documented through modern medical studies across all continents. This presentation describes the discovery location, historic contexts, and the skeletal remains of an adolescent/young adult female afflicted with this condition. The individual is associated with a mid-19th century trading post on the eastern plains of Wyoming. Differential diagnoses suggest that the extensive, bilateral boney additions on long bones and other elements of the skeleton were triggered by thoracic disease rather than systemic infection or long-term heart problems. Dense patches of cortical bone on the interior surfaces of multiple ribs strongly suggest pulmonary or pleural tuberculosis or other lung ailments as the possible agents for the HOA condition.
Rick L. Weathermon is a Senor Research Scientist at Department of Anthropology at the University of Wyoming. He received his B.A. with honors in Anthropology in 1990, M.A. in Anthropology in 1996, and Ph.D. in Anthropology 2011 from the University of Wyoming. Mr. Weathermon joined the Department of Anthropology as an Assistant Academic Professional Research Scientist in 1996. He serves as the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Contact, with half of his time devoted to Physical Anthropology and half to Archaeology. His primary activities consist of NAGPRA compliance, archaeological and human osteological laboratory instruction, and collections access and maintenance. Rick is focusing on perishable technologies. His research interests include bioarchaeology, historic and prehistoric use of the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming, experimental archaeology, and bison ethology. In his spare time, he enjoys roaming the hills with his family, antique weaponry, and documenting sabretooth rodents of unusual size in Black Hills field camps.
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