Large Adena Skeletons as a "Unique Physical Type" (by Juan Perez)

In a two-part 2015 article titled "The Establishment Has Already Acknowledged The “Lost Race of Giants,"" Jason Jarrell and Sarah Farmer argue that Adena mounds preserve evidence of a "Unique Physical Type" of giant human that inhabited the prehistoric eastern woodlands:

"One of the most controversial subjects regarding the ancient prehistoric cultures of North America concerns what we refer to as the Unique Physical Types (UPT). For the purposes of what follows, these UPT are often gigantic humanoid skeletons with high-vaulted crania, occasional extra or pathological dentitions (including several reports of double or triple rows of teeth), and are usually discovered in the burial mounds and associated graveyards of the Adena-Hopewell, Archaic Cultures, and Southeastern Ceremonial Complex."

Jarrell and Farmer argue that these UPT existed as "an elite race within Late Archaic/Early Woodland societies who were often buried in the mounds," stating that "dental and bone anomalies have been used to establish a genetic connection between individuals at mound sites.

Serpent Mound, now thought to be an Adena construction, as shown in "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley" (1848).

Some components of Jarrell and Farmer's argument are plausible: Early Woodland people often did bury their elite in earthen mounds, for example, along with other material objects that might be important to them in the afterlife.

The accounts of skeletons chosen by Jarrell and Farmer, however, do not support their contention that there is a "Unique Physical Type" with a genetic basis. They provide not a single example of a skeleton that has all three of these "unique" features (gigantic stature, high-vaulted cranium, and extra/pathological dentition) that define their "UPT," and at least two of their "genetic" features (high-vaulted crania and extra/pathological dentition) probably have little to do with genetics.  ​

Gigantic Stature
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There are several accounts from the 19th and 20th centuries that report skeletons of relatively tall stature in Adena mounds. Jarrell and Farmer provide several of these as evidence. The account from a "Professor Holbrooke" is typical:

“Judging by the thigh bone he must have been seven feet tall. The skull was much larger than usual, very thick, the forehead unusually receding, the top flattened. The jaws were extremely strong, full of large, perfect teeth.” 

This account is an example of what was probably a common practice: estimating the height of an individual based on a single bone (the femur), perhaps using the common "height = 4x femur length" formula that would tend to overestimate height. 

Examples of the evidence for "gigantic skeletons" is shown in the following table:

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High-Vaulted Crania

In The Adena People, William Webb and Charles Snow remarked that “Approximately 89% of the adult males, 92% of the adult females are brachycephalic.” A brachycephalic skull is a skull with a cephalic index greater than 90%. The cephalic index indicates, “a number expressing the ratio of the maximum breadth of a skull to its maximum length.” 

The amount and degree of brachycephaly in the prehistoric Ohio River Valley was almost certainly related to artificial cranial deformation, a cultural practice that has occurred in many different parts of the world.  Artificial cranial deformation or cradle boarding has been described as an intentional distortion of a baby’s skull by administering force. Historically, one would start the process directly after birth up until the infant was about 6 months old. The skull would then be perceived as flattened, elongated, or rounded. One idea is that Adena people used artificial cranial deformation to indicate social status. Due to the nature of the process, only the elite were subjected to skull deformation because it was seen as aesthetically pleasing and with a greater capacity of intelligence. 

Extra/Pathological Dentition

The third component of Jarrell and Farmers UPT is extra/pathological dentition. Other than the skeleton from Louisiana with extra incisors and some accounts of supernumerary teeth, they don’t provide any real evidence of these features. The description of "perfect teeth" by Holbrooke contradicts the idea that the UPT is characterized by abnormal dentition.  Andy White has written extensively about the "double rows of teeth" phenomenon, which appears to be related to a set of linguistic idioms rather than a real biological peculiarity​
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In summary, Jarrell and Farmer provide little evidence for the existence of a gigantic "Unique Physical Type" among the prehistoric peoples of the eastern woodlands. They describe some burials that were reported as taller than average, but do not make a convincing case that those burials are of a different "race" or "type."   The tall burials, if they really were tall, may have been a social elite but were certainly not of a "Unique Physical Type."

In summary, Jarrell and Farmer provide little evidence for the existence of a gigantic "Unique Physical Type" among the prehistoric peoples of the eastern woodlands. They describe some burials that were reported as taller than average, but do not make a convincing case that those burials are of a different "race" or "type." The tall burials, if they really were tall, may have been a social elite but were certainly not of a "Unique Physical Type."

The concept of a unique "type" of people building the earthen mound of eastern North America harkens back to 19th century i​deas associated with the Mound Builder Myth (i.e., that the mounds were not built by Native Americans).   However wrong, the idea lives on.