The Final Days of the Franklin Expedition: New Skeletal Evidence

Abstract

ABSTRACT. In 1992, a previously unrecorded site of Sir John Franklin's last expedition (1845 -1848) was discovered on King William Island in the central Canadian Arctic. Artifacts recovered from the site included iron and copper nails, glass, a clay pipe fragment, pieces of fabric and shoe leather, buttons, and a scatter of wood fragments, possibly representing the remains of a lifeboat or sledge. Nearly 400 human bones and bone fragments, representing a minimum of 11 men, were also found at the site. A combination of artifactual and oxygen isotope evidence indicated a European origin for at least two of these individuals. Skeletal pathology included periostitis, osteoarthritis, dental caries, abscesses, antemortem tooth loss, and periodontal disease. Mass spectroscopy and x-ray fluorescence revealed elevated lead levels consistent with previous measurements, further supporting the conclusion that lead poisoning contributed to the demise of the expedition. Cut marks on approximately one-quarter of the remains support 19th-century Inuit accounts of cannibalism among Franklin's crew.Key words: Franklin Expedition, skeletal remains, oxygen isotope analysis, lead poisoning, cannibalism RÉSUMÉ. En 1992, on a découvert un site non mentionné auparavant, relié à la dernière expédition de sir John Franklin (1845-1848) dans l'île du Roi-Guillaume, située au centre de l'océan Arctique canadien. Les artefacts récupérés sur ce site comprenaient des clous en fer et en cuivre, du verre, un fragment de pipe en terre, des morceaux de tissu et de cuir de chaussure, des boutons et de multiples fragments de bois éparpillés, qui pourraient venir d'un canot de sauvetage ou d'un traîneau. On a aussi trouvé sur le site un total d'environ 400 fragments osseux ou os complets, représentant au moins 11 hommes. En se basant à la fois sur de la documentation archéologique et sur des analyses des isotopes de l'oxygène, on a pu attribuer une origine européenne à au moins deux de ces individus. Les lésions osseuses comprenaient périostites, ostéo-arthrite, caries dentaires, abcès, perte de dents précédant le décès et parodontolyses. La spectroscopie de masse et la fluorescence X ont révélé de forts taux de plomb correspondant aux mesures précédentes, venant ainsi appuyer la conclusion qui veut que l'empoisonnement par le plomb ait contribué à la fin de l'expédition. Des entailles sur environ un quart des ossements confirment les récits inuit du XIX e siècle sur le cannibalisme pratiqué par l'équipage de Franklin.Mots clés: expédition Franklin, ossements, analyse des isotopes de l'oxygène, empoisonnement par le plomb, cannibalisme Traduit pour la revue Arctic par Nésida Loyer.

The “Boat Place” Burial: New Skeletal Evidence from the 1845 Franklin Expedition

“…The human mandible found in the burial is relatively large, and it and several matching pairs of large bones, including humeri, femora, tibiae, and fibulae, would thus be consistent with the large individual Hobson discovered in the stern of the boat. However, some of the attributes of the NgLj-3 remains-particularly the cut marks-are more difficult to reconcile with the accounts of Hobson and McClintock. Previous studies of skeletal remains from members of the Franklin expedition, including a large collection from site NgLj-2 in Erebus Bay, have revealed cut marks consistent with oral historical reports that Franklin's men had engaged in survival cannibalism Beattie and Savelle, 1983;Keenleyside et al, 1997). The relative frequency of bones exhibiting cut marks is quite low (5%) in the NgLj-3 assemblage, as is the number of elements affected, but the earlier studies have demonstrated that the presence of cut marks would not be surprising in an assemblage of this type from Erebus Bay.…”

“…Therefore, most clinicians do not consider the condition to be abnormal (Barnes, 1994:49). Cleft neural arch was previously documented in an atlas vertebra from NgLj-2 (Keenleyside et al, 1997).…”

The Spectral Arctic

“…Almost immediately Arctic veterans like Richard King and William Parker Snow campaigned for further expeditions, although it was several years before another explorer returned to the King William Island region in search of survivors, tombs, testimony or any paper records. In the late twentieth century, scientists and archaeologists confirmed Inuit accounts of cannibalism (see Beattie and Savelle, 1983;Keenleyside, Bertulli and Fricke, 1997;Potter, 2016), while in the last few years, teams sponsored by the Canadian government launched annual searches for the wrecks of the Erebus and Terror. These proved successful in 2014 and 2016.…”

1. Eating People Is Wrong Famine’s Darkest Secret?

“…• Explorer Sir John Franklin and his crew who met their deaths in attempting to find the Northwest Passage in 1847, and some of whom, according to contemporaneous accounts now backed by recent archaeological research, engaged in cannibalism (Irish Times, 'The American Franklin search expedition', 9 October 1880; Keenleyside et al 1997). …”