Harris Lines as Indicators of Stress: An Analysis of Tibiae From the Crow Creek Massacre Victims

Horizontal lines of increased density in bone, or Harris lines, have intrigued scientists for over a century. While earliest Harris line research dealt with medical aspects of line formation, most recent emphasis has been anthropological in nature, utilizing Harris lines as non-specific indicators of stress. The purpose of this study is to test the usefulness of Harris lines as they are applied anthropologically.

A sample of 122 adult distal tibiae x-rays are used in this study. This skeletal sample represents massacre victims from the Initial Coalescent Tradition of the Crow Creek Site in central South Dakota. Each bone was sexed by discriminant function analysis and age of line formation was estimated.

Harris line frequencies reveal no sex differences. However, when age-specific frequencies are compared with sex-specific human growth curves, there is a strong similarity in curve shape. These results suggest that sex influences on line formation are probably subtle but not detectable. The similarity in frequency of line formation and growth velocity has discouraging connotations for the usefulness of Harris lines as indicators of stress.