A Coprological View of Ancestral Pueblo Cannibalism Karl Reinhard University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Kreinhard1@Mac.Com

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5-2006 A Coprological View of Ancestral Pueblo Cannibalism Karl Reinhard University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected]

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A Coprological View of Ancestral Pueblo Cannibalism Debate over a single fecal fossil offers a cautionary tale of the interplay between science and culture

Karl J. Reinhard Karl J. Reinhard is a professor in the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska and a Fulbright Commission Senior Specialist in Archaeology for 2004-2009. The main focus of his career since earning his Ph.D. from Texas A&M has been to find explanations for modern patterns of disease in the archaeological and historic record. He also developed a new specialization called archaeoparasitology, which attempts to understand the evolution of parasitic disease. Address: 309 Biochemistry Hall, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 48503-0578.

s the object of my scientific study, the prehistoric individual who depos- only to move on to a more socially ac- AI’ve chosen coprolites. It’s not a ited the coprolite. He or she was possi- ceptable archaeological specialty.) common choice, but to a paleonutri- bly a cannibal. From the mid-1980s to the mid-’90s, I tionist and archaeoparasitologist, a I had been aware of the cannibalism had characterized the Ancestral Pueblo coprolite—a sample of ancient feces controversy for a number of years, and lifestyle as a combination of hunting preserved by mineralization or simple I was interested in evaluating evidence and gathering mixed with agriculture drying—is a scientific bonanza. Analy- of such activity. But from my scientific based on the analysis of about 500 cop- sis of coprolites can shed light on both perspective, it was simply another sam- rolites from half a dozen sites. Before the nutrition of and parasites found in ple that would provide a few more data me, Gary Fry, then at Youngstown State prehistoric cultures. Dietary reconstruc- points in my reconstruction of ancient University, had come to the same con- tions from the analysis of coprolites can diet from a part of the Ancestral Pueblo clusion in work he published during inform us about, for example, the ori- region that was unknown to me. the ‘70s and ‘80s, based on the analysis gins of modern Native American diabe- The appearance of the coprolite was of a large number of Ancestral Pueblo tes. With regard to parasitology; copro- unremarkable—in fact, it was actually coprolites from many sites. These peo- lites hold information about the ancient a little disappointing. It looked like a ple were finely attuned to the diverse emergence and spread of human infec- plain cylinder of tan dirt with no obvi- and complicated habitats of the Colo- tious disease. Most sensational, how- ous macrofossils or visible dietary in- rado Plateau for plant gathering, as well ever, is the recent role of coprolite anal- clusions. I have analyzed hundreds of as for plant cultivation. The Ancestral ysis in debates about cannibalism. Ancestral and pre-Ancestral Pueblo Pueblo certainly ate meat—many kinds Most Americans know the people coprolites that were more interesting. of meat—but never had there been any who lived on the Colorado Plateau Indeed, I have surveyed tens of thou- indication of cannibalism in any copro- from 1200 B.C. onward as the Anasazi, sands more that, to my experienced eye, lite analysis from any site. a Navajo (or Dine) word. The modern held greater scientific promise. Yet this The evidence for cannibalism at Pueblo people in Arizona and New one coprolite, when news of it hit the Cowboy Wash has been widely pub- Mexico, who are their direct descen- media, undid 20 years of my research lished. A small number of people were dants, prefer the description Ancestral on the Ancestral Pueblo diet. On a Pueblo or Old Ones. Because the image broader scale, it caused the archaeolog- Figure 1. What was the nature of the people of this modern culture could be tainted ical community to rethink our percep- who occupied much of the Colorado Plateau by the characterization of their ances- tion of the nature of this prehistoric cul- for two and a half millennia up until about 1300 A.D.? Commonly known by the Navajo tors, it’s especially important that ar- ture and to question what is reasonable term Anasazi, the Ancestral Pueblo were chaeologists and physical anthropol- scientific proof. considered the “peaceful people” until they ogists come to the correct conclusion were accused of cannibalism in 1990s. The about cannibalism. This is the story of Cannibalism, Without Question answer is more than academic, as their de- my involvement in that effort. scendants still occupy the southerly reaches When a coprolite arrived in my lab- In the arid environment of the U.S. of the Ancestral Pueblo domain. The author oratory for analysis in 1997, I didn’t Southwest, feces dried in ancient throes has studied hundreds of Ancestral Pueblo imagine that it would become one of provide a 9,000-year record of gastro- coprolites—dried or fossilized feces—and the most contentious finds in archaeo- nomic traditions. This record allows me has found all but one to contain residues of a logical history. Banks Leonard, the Soil and a few other thick-skinned research- diverse mixture of plant matter, both domes- Systems archaeologist who directed ex- ers to trace dietary history in the deserts. ticated and wild, and meat. Only one shows cavation of the site at Cowboy Wash, (I say “thick-skinned,” because analysts evidence of cannibalism. Should that single sample be used to condemn an entire cul- Utah, explained to me that there was generally don’t last long in this specialty. ture? The human effigy shown here is from evidence of unusual dietary activity by Many have done one coprolite study, Pueblo III culture, circa 700-1100 A.D.

254 A C o p r o l o g i ca l V i e w o f A n c e s t r a l P u e b l o C a n n i b a l i s m 255 The Art Archive/Southwest Museum/Pasadena/Laurie Pratt Winfrey 256 K a r l R e i n h a r d i n A m e r i c a n S c i e n t i s t 94:3 (M a y /J u n e 2006)

Figure 2. Cowboy Wash, Utah, near the San Juan River and Four Corners, is the only An- cestral Pueblo archaeological excavation to turn up coprological evidence of cannibalism. Evidence from other sites (red dots) con- firms the people’s diverse diet. (Topographic map courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.) undoubtedly killed, disarticulated and had been superseded by a new technol- anthropologist (emeritus) Christy G. their flesh exposed to heat and boiling. ogy. Richard Marlar from the Univer- Turner II, commenting in an interview This took place in a pit house typical sity of Colorado School of Medicine and about a book he co-authored on Ances- of the Ancestral Pueblo circa 1200 A.D. colleagues had taken over direct anal- tral Pueblo cannibalism, said, “I’m the At the time of the killings, the appear- ysis of the coprolite using an enzyme- guy who brought down the Anasazi.” ance of the pit house must have been linked immunosorbent assay to detect Perhaps to temper Turner’s broad gen- appallingly gruesome. Human blood human myoglobin, and their work had eralization, Brian Billman (a coauthor of residue was found on stone tools, and confirmed and expanded my analysis. the Marlar Nature paper) of the Univer- I imagine that the disarticulation of The coprolite was from a human who sity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the corpses must have left a horrifying had eaten another human. The technical suggested that a period of drought splatter of blood around the room. But paper appeared in Nature and was fol- brought on emergency conditions that the most conclusive evidence of can- lowed by articles in the New Yorker, Dis- resulted in cannibalism. Beyond the sci- nibalism did not come from the room cover, Southwestern Lore and the Smith- entific quibbling about who ate whom where the corpses were dismembered. sonian, among many others. The articles and why, I am amazed at the vortex of It came from a nearby room where became the focus of a veritable explo- debate around the Coyote Wash copro- someone had defecated on the hearth sion of media pieces in the press, on ra- lite. The furor over that one coprolite around the time that the killings took dio and television, and on the Internet, represents a new way of thinking about place. The feces was preserved as a cop- amounting to an absolute attack on An- the Ancestral Pueblo and archaeologi- rolite and would turn out to be the con- cestral Pueblo culture. cal evidence. clusive evidence of cannibalism. Initially, I sat and watched the me- My analysis of the coprolite was not dia feeding frenzy and Internet chat de- What Did the Ancestral Pueblo Eat? momentous. I could determine from bates with a sense of awe and post-sab- its general morphology that it was in- batical detachment. My original report To me, a specialist in Ancestral deed from a human being. However, suggesting the coprolite was not of An- Pueblo diet, neither Turner’s nor Bill- the tiny fragment that I rehydrated cestral Pueblo origin went largely unno- man’s explanation made sense. So, in and examined by several microscopic ticed. The few journalists who did call the years since the Nature paper ap- techniques contained none of the typ- me for an opinion proved uninterested peared in 2000, I have renewed my ical plant foods eaten by the Ances- in publishing it. In some cases it was too analyses of Ancestral Pueblo coprolites tral Pueblo. Background pollen of the far to fly to Nebraska to film; in others to understand just what they did eat in sort that would have been inhaled or my opinion didn’t fit into the context of times of drought. And let me say em- drunk was the only plant residue that the debate. Well, I have looked at more phatically that Ancestral Pueblo cop- I found. Thus, I concluded that the cop- Ancestral Pueblo feces than any other rolites are not composed of the flesh of rolite did not represent normal Ances- human being, and I do have an opinion: their human victims. Some of their di- tral Pueblo diet. It seemed to represent The Ancestral Pueblo were not canni- etary practices were, perhaps, peculiar. a purely meat meal, something that is balistic. Cannibalism just doesn’t make I still recall in wonderment the inch-di- unheard of from Ancestral Pueblo cop- sense as a pattern of diet for people so ameter deer vertebral centrum that I rolite analyses. exquisitely adapted to droughts by cen- found in one sample. It was swallowed After analyzing the Cowboy Wash turies of hunting-gathering traditions whole. The consumption of insects, coprolite, I took a half-year sabbatical and agricultural innovation. snakes and lizards brought the Ances- as a Fulbright scholar in Brazil. When Then a media quote knocked me out tral Pueblo notice in the children’s book I returned, I learned that my analysis of my stupor. Arizona State University It Was Disgusting and I Ate It. But look- A C o p r o l o g i ca l V i e w o f A n c e s t r a l P u e b l o C a n n i b a l i s m 257 ing beyond such peculiarities, their diet The Ancestral Pueblo per se de- Adapting to the Environment was delightfully diverse and testifies to scended from this hunter-gatherer tra- the human ability to survive in the most dition. Coprolite analysis shows that In 1992, I presented a series of hy- extreme environments. To me, diet is they were largely vegetarian, and plant potheses addressing why the Ancient one the most fundamental bases of civ- foods of some sort are present in ev- Pueblo ate so many species of wild ilization, and the Ancestral Pueblo pos- ery Ancestral Pueblo coprolite I have plants. Later, Mark Stiger of Western sessed a complicated cuisine. They were analyzed. But these later people also State College and I went to work on the gastronomically civilized. expanded on their predecessors’ cui- problem using a statistical method that Widespread analysis of coprolites sine. They cultivated maize, squash he devised. We determined that the An- by “paleoscatologists” began in the and eventually beans. Yet they contin- cestral Pueblo encouraged the growth 1960s and culminated in the ‘70s and ued to collect a wide diversity of wild of edible weedy species in the distur- ‘80s when graduate students worked plants. They actually ate more species of bances caused by cultivation and vil- staunchly on their coprological theses wild plants—more than 50—than their lage life. In doing so, they increased the and dissertations. From Washington ancestors who were totally dependent spectrum of wild edible plants avail- State University, to Northern Arizona on wild species. able to them, often using them to spice University to Texas A & M and many more, Ancestral Pueblo coprolites were rehydrated, screened, centrifuged and analyzed. Richard Hevly, Glenna Wil- liams-Dean, John Jones, Mark Stiger, Linda Scott-Cummings, Kate Aasen, Gary Fry, Karen Clary, Molly Toll and Vaughn Bryant, Jr., to name a few, joined me in puzzling over Ancestral Pueblo culinary habits. In their consci- entious and rigorous research, the same general theme emerged. The Ancestral Pueblo were very well adapted to the environment, both in times of feast and in times of famine. In general, the Ancestral Pueblo diet was the culmination of a long period of victual tradition that began around 9,000 years ago, when people on the Colorado Plateau gave up hunting big animals and started collecting plants and hunting smaller animals. Prickly pear cactus, yucca, grain from dropseed grass, seeds from goosefoot and foods from 15 other wild plants dom- inated pre-Ancestral Pueblo life. One of the truly interesting dietary patterns that emerged in the early time and con- tinued through the Ancestral Pueblo culture was the consumption of pollen-rich foods. Cactus and yucca buds and other flowers were the sources of this pollen. Rabbit viscera probably provided a source of fungal spores of the genus Endogane, although I doubt that these people knew they were eating the spores when they ate the rabbits. The pre-Ancestral Pueblo people adapted to starvation from seasonal food shortages by eating yucca leaf bases and prickly pear pads and the few other plants that were available in such lean times. Prey for the pre-Ancestral Pueblo people included small animals such as rabbits, lizards, mice and insects. In tact, most pre-Ancestral Pueblo coprolites Figure 3. Small seeds were an important part of the Ancestral Pueblo diet. Because they are contain the remains of small animals. typically quite small and are often fragmented from stone grinding, their identification in cop- My analysis of these remains shows that rolites can be difficult. Shown here (clockwise, from upper left) are seeds of pigweed, goose- small animals, especially rabbits and foot, purslane, dropseed grass, an unknown seed present in on|y one sample and hedge- mice, were a major source of protein in hog-cactus fruit. These are only a few examples of the seeds that the Ancestral Pueblo ate. summer and winter, good times and bad. (Vegetation photographs by the author.) 258 K a r l R e i n h a r d i n A m e r i c a n S c i e n t i s t 94:3 (M a y /J u n e 2006) cultivated plants. Rocky Mountain bee- ñon nuts that must have been harvested House coprolites. The main sources of weed, purslane and groundcherry were some miles away. We also calculated pollen and spores were cattail, horse- especially important in conjunction the number of pollen grains per gram of tail, beeweed and maize, but the diet at with maize. Corn smut was another im- Salmon Ruin coprolites and found both Antelope House included the greatest portant condiment. In fact, maize, purs- maize and beeweed pollen in quantities diversity of wild plants—27 species— lane, beeweed mad corn smut appear as large as millions of grains per gram. ever recorded in Ancestral Pueblo cop- as the earliest components of a distinct Importantly, the maize pollen is shred- rolite studies. By contrast, only 16 wild cuisine in the earliest Ancestral Pueblo ded in a manner consistent with pollen species were identified in Salmon Ruin coprolites I have analyzed, from Tur- eaten in corn meal, so maize was eaten coprolites. key Pen Cave, Utah. These coprolites both fresh off the cob and in the form of As for meat, my colleagues Mark are about 1,500 years old. The maize- stored flour, although most of the mac- Sutton, with California State Univer- beeweed-corn smut-purslane associa- roscopic remains from Salmon Ruin are sity, Bakersfield, and Richard Marlar tion remained a central feature of An- in the ground form. have found chemical signals in Ances- cestral Pueblo cuisine at most sites to One of my former graduate students, tral Pueblo coprolites of bighorn sheep, the latest periods of the culture. Im- Dennis Danielson, now at the Central rabbits, dogs and rodents. But as for portantly, they also ate wild plants to Identification Laboratory at the Joint cannibalism, Richard looked for hu- offset seasonal shortages, especially in POW/MIA Accounting Command, man muscle indicators in the Salmon winter when their stores of cultivated found phytoliths—microscopic crystals Ruin coprolites and found none. At An- food were exhausted. Thus, retaining a produced in plant cells—in the Salmon telope House, Mark found protein res- diverse array of wild plants in the mix Ruin coprolites. More than half of the idue of rabbit, rodents, dog, big horn helped them adapt to food shortages. Salmon Ruin coprolites contain phyto- sheep and pronghorn. There were also Paul Minnis of the University of liths from yucca-type plants and cactus, human protein residues present, but Oklahoma applied a different statisti- a legacy of pre-Ancestral Pueblo gath- they were from intestinal cells shed by cal test to address a different problem. ering adaptation to the desert. Denny the body. The Ancestral Pueblo at An- He analyzed coprolite findings from Ar- eventually found phytoliths from these telope House suffered parasitism from izona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado wild plants in coprolites from other hookworms and hookworm-like or- to see if people in different regions had Ancestral Pueblo sites. These gath- ganisms that would have resulted in distinct dietary traditions. Paul showed ered plants predominated in his anal- excess shedding of intestinal cells. In that the Ancient Pueblo adapted to the yses and reaffirmed that the Ances- fact, one Antelope House coprolite I environmental variability of the Colo- tral Pueblo could adapt to drought by analyzed was a mass of excreted par- rado Plateau by adjusting their agricul- turning to edible desert plants that were asitic worms mixed with seeds. Stable tural, hunting and gathering habits to adapted to extremely dry conditions. carbon and stable-nitrogen isotope anal- the natural resources available. Ancient But were these plants actually what yses of the bones of these people from Pueblo from Glen Canyon, Utah, had a the Ancestral Pueblo ate in times of many sites indicate that, although they slightly different dietary tradition from drought, rather that just a routine part did eat meat, they were 70 percent her- those of Inscription House, Arizona; of their diet? Denny and I analyzed cop- bivorous. those of Mesa Verde, Colorado; and rolites from the last occupation of An- Every coprolite researcher who has those of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. telope House in Canyon de Chelly, Ar- worked with Ancestral Pueblo material Later, in separate work, he identified izona. All archaeological, climatological has found animal bone. Kristin Sobolik how these people adapted to bad times. and biological analyses indicate that the of the University of Maine has shown He found that the Ancestral Pueblo had last occupation was a time of ecologi- that these people ate a particularly large “starvation foods,” such as yucca and cal collapse. The level of anemia in skel- number of lizard- and mouse-sized an- prickly pear, to get through poor times. etons from this time and region is the imals. This reliance on small animals These were a legacy from their hunter- highest known among the Ancestral was a remarkable adaptation to the gatherer ancestors. Pueblo. Archaeological surveys show Southwestern deserts, where small ani- Sometimes Ancestral Pueblo groups that the mesas around the canyon were mals are most numerous and therefore developed dietary traditions that re- abandoned as people moved into the a reliable source of protein—something quired trade or foraging in areas re- canyon to have access to water. The lev- the Ancestral Pueblo relied on feast or mote from their home. Sara LeRoy- els of parasitism, especially with crowd famine, just as their predecessors had. Toren, with the Lincoln High School diseases, elevated; parasites were pres- Science Focus Program, and I are an- ent in one-quarter of the 180 Antelope Life on the Edge alyzing coprolites from Salmon Ruin, House coprolites I studied. which was built along the San Juan The coprolites at Antelope House Compared with other agricultural River between the modem towns of record the adaptation to this environ- traditions I have studied in other parts Farmington and Bloomfield, New Mex- mental collapse and drought. Phytoliths of the world, the Ancestral Pueblo were ico. It was abandoned by its original oc- from prickly pear and yucca leaf bases rarely far from agricultural failure. My cupants and reoccupied by people from were present in 92 percent of the copro- students and I have examined copro- the San Juan River Valley. Our analysis lites. The Ancestral Pueblo at Antelope lites from the most primitive and ad- is from the San Juan occupation, which House had clearly resorted to reliance vanced cultures in the Andes, from the was generally a time of abundance for on desert starvation foods. Yet their diet earliest Chinchorros to the latest In- both agriculture and gathered foods. still lacked desperate monotony, as they cas. In the Andes, too, there is a long These coprolites reflect the Ances- ate wild plants from moist areas. Pol- history, of hunting and gathering that tral Pueblo tradition and contain juni- len occurs at concentrations in the hun- preceded agriculture. Once agriculture per berries and cactus buds from areas dreds of thousands to tens of millions of was established, however, 90 percent local to the site, but they also contain pi- pollen grains per gram in the Antelope of the food species of Andean peoples A C o p r o l o g i ca l V i e w o f A n c e s t r a l P u e b l o C a n n i b a l i s m 259 were cultivated. This stands in mean- ingful contrast to the Ancestral Pueblo, whose food species remained predom- inantly wild. I think this is because they were on the very northern fringe of the region conducive to agriculture and couldn’t rely on consistent productiv- ity of their cultivated plots from year to year. Therefore, they maintained the hunter-gatherer dietary traditions to supplement, or replace if necessary, cultivated plants. Complete caloric depen- dence on cultivated plants, as took place in the Andes, was simply impossible for the Ancestral Pueblo. Furthermore, these people often sur- vived times of drought without cultural perturbations such as cannibalism. In my experience, the most poignant example of drought adaptation was seen in the analysis of a partially mummified child from Glen Canyon, Arizona. The child was buried during a long drought period, from 1210 to 1260 A.D. Archae- ologist Steve Dominguez of the Mid- west Archaeological Center directed the analysis of many specialists includ- Figure 4. The author has done extensive archaeological work at Antelope House in Canyon de ing myself and my students, Danielson Chelly, Arizona. Although there is evidence of nutritional stress, including high levels of para- and Kari Sandness. Burial offerings in- sitism, in the coprolites from Antelope House, the people there still maintained a diverse diet, cluded a wide variety of ceramic, gourd including 26 species of wild plants. These, the author argues, constitute a starvation diet sim- and basketry artifacts. Compared with ilar to what was eaten by the pre-Ancestral Pueblos. (Photograph courtesy of Philip Greens- burial goods of other Ancestral Pueblo, pun, http://philip.greenspun.com) these were consistent with those of av- erage-status individuals. The drought possessed remarkable ecological adapt- were Ancestral Pueblo. Mark Sutton did not disrupt the standard burial tra- ability; if they resorted to cannibalism and I found that these people invariably ditions for this three-to-four-year-old, because of environmental stress, it was ate plant foods when they ate meat; it yet X-rays showed that this child sur- a highly atypical response. Further, was a feature of their cuisine. The com- vived seven episodes of starvation. The burial excavations demonstrate that plete tack of plant matter in the Cow- cause of death is unknown for this oth- they maintained their traditions even in boy, Wash coprolite tells me that it was erwise healthy child. times of drought. Besides, beyond a sin- not from an individual who observed Analysis of the intestinal contents of gle sample, hundreds of coprolite analy- the Ancestral Pueblo dietary tradition. the child provided insights into adap- ses find not even a hint of cannibalism. To date, none of the principal investiga- tation to drought. About 20 coprolites Overwhelmingly, the Ancestral Pueblo tors involved in the Cowboy Wash anal- were excavated, and all of them were were primarily herbivorous. Why, then, ysis have implicated residents or even composed of a wild grass known as does one coprolite from the northern Ancestral Pueblo from another location “rice grass.” In the absence of cultivated reaches of the Ancestral Pueblo do- as the perpetrators of the violence. In foods, the child was provided with an main come to characterize an entire short, I don’t know who killed and ate alternative, and equally nutritious, wild culture? A number of researchers were the residents of Cowboy Wash, but I am food. Dominguez summarized the find- incredulous at the hysteria created by sure the cannibal wasn’t an Ancestral ings from the research succinctly: the Cowboy Wash cannibal coprolite. Pueblo. Vaughn Bryant, Jr., at Texas A & M, e- Investigations in nearby areas indicate mailed his disbelief to our small special- The Peaceful People Concept that this was a period of environmen- ist community. From his experience in tal degradation and that Anasazi pop- the study of Western diets, cannibalism Christy Turner’s quote in the populations may have experienced nutritional stress or other consequent forms was simply not plausible. Karen Clary, ular media puzzled me. Why would of physiological stress. Studies of both with the University of Texas at Aus- anyone want to bring down an ancient prehistoric populations and living pop- tin, also e-mailed her concerns with the culture, especially Turner, whose work ulations suggest that a number of meth- findings as well as with the unbridled is characterized by attention to detail, ods were employed to support individ- sensationalism. meticulous analytical procedures and, uals through periods of stress, and to Both coprolite and skeletal evidence most of all, accumulation of mountains promote the well-being of the group. examined by Utah State University bio- of data to support his conclusions? One archaeologist Patricia Lambert do show of my most striking memories of any Was the Cannibal Ancestral Pueblo? that Ancestral Pueblo of Cowboy Wash scientist was an afternoon chat I had were victims of violence and cannibal- with Turner regarding his work with Work by numerous investigators ism—there’s little question about it. But dental traits to trace migrations to the thus shows that the Ancestral Pueblo that doesn’t mean that the cannibal(s) New World. His office was packed with 260 K a r l R e i n h a r d i n A m e r i c a n S c i e n t i s t 94:3 (M a y /J u n e 2006)

Figure 5. Wild sunflower achenes (left) were commonly eaten Figure 6. Horsetail sections from Antelope House (top) often show cut marks by the Ancestral Pueblo. Wolfberry (top right), however, from stone knives. The same coprolites that contained horsetail also contained turns up only rarely in coprolites. It contains bitter-tasting hundreds of thousands of horsetail spores. This has only been seen at Ante- compounds that must be removed during preparation and is lope House and is thus evidence for dietary stress. A hackberry seed and a considered a starvation food, Groundcherry (bottom right) is partial fruit (lower left) clearly cannot have offered much nutrition and may much more common. Both wolfberry and groundcherry are have been a starvation food. Prickly pear seeds (lower right) were from fruits in the tomato family. eaten when they became available in the fall. neat columns of computer printouts regions, other times and even other spe- that these people were remarkably neg- from data collected from thousands of cies. The Ancestral Pueblo became one ligent with their hearths and weapons. I skulls. That same afternoon, the con- of those “paragons of peace,” as did the began to think of the Ancestral Pueblo versation turned to his study of canni- San Bushmen and wild chimpanzees. as peaceful but fatally accident prone. balism. I asked him specifics about his Elizabeth Marshall Thomas published Those claiming evidence of cannibal- methods and found that he approached her book about the bushmen, The Harm- ism among ancient American cultures this area of research with the same ex- less People, in 1959, and anthropologists were excluded from presenting their haustive thoroughness he applied to took to highlighting the nonviolence of findings at the Pecos Conference, the his dental work. At no time did he in- hunter-gatherers. This was when the regional meeting for Southwestern ar- dicate that he intended to “bring down “New Archaeology” emerged as a re- chaeologists. This caused quite a furor. the Anasazi.” placement for previous approaches. A symposium on the subject of violence Then I read the book that Turner Students were discouraged from read- and cannibalism had been scheduled cowrote, Man Corn, and I realized that ing archaeological research that dated for the meeting, and the participants ar- it was not time Ancestral Pueblo culture from before 1960; thus the earlier work rived, but the symposium was canceled that he brought down. He was after our that described evidence of violence was at the last minute. In 20 years of partic- archaeological biases in how we recon- ignored. ipating in scientific meetings, this is the struct the nature of Ancestral Pueblo Excavations during the 1970s were only instance I can recall of a scheduled culture. To understand how that one very counter-cultural in appearance event being canceled for purely politi- coprolite came to be considered iron- and philosophy. Scholarly excavation cal reasons. clad evidence of cannibalism among camps often had the flavor of hippie In the ‘80s and ‘90s, the paragons the Ancestral Pueblo, it’s necessary communes. In that atmosphere, evi- of peaceful society began to fall—and to understand how these people have dence of violence was largely dismissed fall in a big way. First, violence was ac- been characterized by anthropologists both in the field and during the analysis knowledged among the Maya, held as and archaeologists at various times over phase. I recall participating in three ex- the Mesoamerican counterweight to the past 50 or so years. cavations in which houses had burned the undoubtedly violent and cannibal- The view of the Ancestral Pueblo as and people perished within them. This istic Aztec prior to ascendance of the peaceful people took root in the 1960s seemed like pretty good evidence that peaceful people. Violence and canni- and ‘70s. Earlier work had shown that all was not tranquil with the peaceful balism were then documented among violence, and perhaps even cannibal- people, but such fires were explained as wild chimpanzees, the behavioral ana- ism, had taken place among the Ances- accidental. Once, when we discovered logues to ancestral human beings. The tral Pueblo. But in the ‘60s and ‘70s—a arrow points in a skeleton in a burned evidence of conflict among the Ances- time of social volatility, seemingly suf- house, the evidence of violence was not tral Pueblo became so overwhelming fused in the violence of combat and re- deemed conclusive because the arrow that it was the focus of a 1995 Society of volt—modern American culture was points had not penetrated bone. At the American Archaeology symposium, the searching for examples of nonviolent time, I wondered whether we were be- proceedings of which were published in social systems. Academia sought out ing a little too quick to dismiss the pos- the book, Deciphering Anasazi Violence. paradigms of peacefulness from other sibility of violence; the alternative was The Ancestral Pueblo cannibalism ar- A C o p r o l o g i ca l V i e w o f A n c e s t r a l P u e b l o C a n n i b a l i s m 261 gument was formalized in University raphy of the tower kiva. She found that Bibliography of California, Berkeley anthropologist only 20 children and 4 adults were rep- Tim White’s 1992 book Prehistoric Can- resented. Some of the bodies were de- Billman, B. R., P. M. Lambert and L. B. nibalism at Mancos 5Mtumr2346. In each liberately cremated and others partially Leonard. 2000. Cannibalism, warfare, case, physical anthropology alone, or burned. Some remains showed that and drought in the Mesa Verde Re- in combination with scientific archae- the bodies were dry before they were gion during the Twelfth Century A.D. ology, brought down the peaceful par- burned. This analysis suggests a com- American Antiquity 65:145-178. adigm with the weight of scientific ev- plex series of mortuary events preced- Bryant, V. M., Jr., and G. Williams-Dean. idence. Turner produced much of that ing the burning of the tower kiva and 1975. The coprolites of man. Scientific evidence. surrounding rooms. Analysis of the American 232:100-109. stratigraphy shows that they were not Dongoske, K. K., D. L. Martin and T. J. Cannibalism at Other Sites? burned simultaneously but were depos- Ferguson. 2000. Critique of the claim ited in different episodes. In this view, of cannibalism at Cowboy Wash. In Man Corn, Turner carefully stated the evidence suggests a previously un- American Antiquity 65:179-190. that he thought the Ancestral Pueblo known mortuary practice rather than Fry, G. F. 1980. Prehistoric diet and para- were victims of terrorism imposed on trauma and cannibalism. sites in the desert west of North Amer- them by a more violent and cannibal- I conclude that when analyzing ica. In; Early Native Americans, ed. F. L. istic culture. The book reviews skele- the remains of the Ancestral Pueblo, Browman. The Hague: Mouton Press, pp. 325-339. tal evidence of violence at more than 76 it is important to consider that recent sites in the Ancestral Pueblo region. He work shows that their mortuary prac- Fry, G. F., and H. J. Hall. 1986. Human believes that violence and cannibalism tices were more complicated than we coprolites. In: Archaeological Investiga- tions at Antelope House were introduced by migrants from cen- previously thought—and that complex , ed. D. P. Mor- ris. Washington, D. C.: U.S. Govern- tral Mexico, where there is a long tra- mortuary practices should come as no ment Printing Office, pp. 165-188. dition of violence, human sacrifice and surprise and constitute ambiguous ev- cannibalism. idence. Prehistoric people in Chile, Lambert, P. M., L. B. Leonard, B. R. Bill- man, R. A. Marlar, M. E. Newman and Of the sites Turner discusses, I have the Chinchorros, not only disarticu- K. J. Reinhard. 2000. Response to the first-hand experience with one, Salmon lated the dead, but also rearticulated critique of the claim of cannibalism Ruin, where I spent three seasons ex- the cleaned bones in vegetation and at Cowboy Wash. American Antiquity cavating and later reconstructing the clay “statues.” In Nebraska, disarticu- 65:397-406. parasite ecology and diet of this large lation and burning of bones was done Marlar, R., B. Billman, B. Leonard, P. Lam- pueblo’s occupants as part of my the- as a part of mortuary ritual. Closer to bert and K. Reinhard. 2000. Fecal ev- sis and dissertation research. He focuses the Ancestral Pueblo, the Sinagua cul- idence of cannibalism. Southwestern on a high structure called a kiva at the ture of central Arizona cremated their Lore 4:14-22. center of the three-story pueblo. Initially dead. Thus disarticulated skeletal re- Reinhard, K. J. 1992. Patterns of diet, par- it was thought that the bodies of two mains and burning fall short of prov- asitism, anemia in prehistoric west adults and 35 children were burned in ing cannibalism. North American. In: Diet, Demography, the tower kiva. His analysis indicates and Disease: Changing Perspectives on that these bodies were disarticulated What We Can Learn Anemia, ed. P. Stuart-Macadann and and cannibalized. However, there are S. Kent. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, other interpretations. Because the members of extinct cul- pp. 219-258. In 1977, I discussed the tower kiva tures cannot speak for themselves, the Reinhard, K. J., and V. M. Bryant, Jr. finds with the excavation director, the nature of cultural reconstruction eas- 1992a. Coprolite analysis: A biolog- late Cynthia Irwin-Williams, who was ily becomes colored by the projections ical perspective on archaeology. In: then with Eastern New Mexico State of the archaeological community and Advances in Archaeological Method and University. She believed that the chil- the inclination of the media to oversim- Theory 4, ed. M. D. Schiffer. Tucson: dren were sent to the highest place in plify or even sensationalize. The Ances- University of Arizona Press, pp. 245- the pueblo with two adults when the tral Pueblo, once thought to be peaceful, 288. structure caught fire. As the fire went have now become, especially in the lay Reinhard, K. J., and D. R. Danielson. 2005. out of control, they were trapped there. mind, violent cannibals. Neither depic- Pervasiveness of phytoliths in prehis- Another explanation was offered tion is fair. They had a level of violence toric southwestern diet and implications for regional and temporal trends to me by Larry Baker, director of the typical of most human populations— for dental mircowear. Journal of Ar- Salmon Ruin Museum. He told me that present but not excessive. Is that really chaeological Science 32:981-988. a new analysis of the bones showed so surprising? that the people in the tower kiva were Perhaps more astonishing is how un- Scott, L. 1979. Dietary inferences from Hoy House coprolites: A palynologi- long dead when their bodies burned. questioning our culture can be in tear- cal interpretation. The Kiva 44:257-281. Furthermore, there is evidence in the ing down its icons. Much as we sci- burned bones that the bodies had at entists may prefer to stick to the field Sobolik, K. 1993. Direct evidence for the importance of small animals to pre- least partly decomposed. It may be that or the laboratory, shunning the bright historic diets: A review of coprolite the bodies were placed in the tower lights, we bear a responsibility to pres- studies. North American Archaeologist as part of a mortuary custom after ent our data in a way that reduces the 14:227-243. the pueblo was abandoned. When the opportunity for exaggeration. Our find- Sutton, M. Q., and K. J. Reinhard, 1995. pueblo burned, so did the bodies. ings must be qualified in the context of Cluster analysis of coprolites from An- More recently, Nancy Akins, with alternative explanations. As such, the telope House:. Implications for Ana- the Museum of New Mexico, reana- Cowboy Wash coprolite offers us a cau- sazi diet and culture. Journal of Archae- lyzed the human remains and stratig- tionary tale. ological Science 22:741-750.