PROFILE PROFILE Profile of Patricia L. Crown

Jennifer Viegas, Science Writer

For more than four decades, Patricia Crown, a pro- Defying Expectations fessor of anthropology at the University of New Crown chose the University of Pennsylvania for her Mexico, has conducted field investigations in the undergraduate work, and earned her AB in anthro- Ancestral Pueblo, Mogollon, and areas of pology with honors in 1974. She had planned to at- the American Southwest. Her work has revealed tend graduate school but was informed by an advisor important aspects of these cultures concerning ce- that there was no reason for her to continue her ramics, trade, rituals, diet, gender roles, and more. studies because women in only worked in Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in laboratories. Crown turned to a graduate student for 2014, Crown five years earlier uncovered the first advice, and she recommended that Crown go to the evidence of chocolate consumption in North Amer- University of . She followed the suggestion ica north of Mexico. Crown has also conducted an and earned both her MA (1976) and PhD (1981) in extensive analysis of organic residues from archaeo- anthropology there. logical sites in the US Southwest and the Mexican During her studies in Arizona, Crown attended a Northwest, revealing widespread use of cacao and field school at Grasshopper Pueblo, where she was in- holly in communal, ritual gatherings dating from AD vited to become a teaching assistant and to do a dis- 750 to 1400. sertation project. For the project, she supervised the excavation of Chodistaas Pueblo, where ∼200 Four Artists, One Archaeologist ceramic vessels were unearthed. Interest in the ar- Crown’s father was an art professor at the University tifacts led Crown to shift her dissertation topic from of Southern California, as well as a landscape painter. migration to ceramic variability within the house- “He did most of his painting outside and often holds at the site (1). Archaeologist and National took his three children along,” Academies of Science member Emil Haury (1904– Crown says, adding that her 1992) was Crown’s primary mentor at the University mother, a public school teacher, of Arizona. She says, “He was not only an excep- was also an artist, as were her tional scholar, but also a highly ethical person who two older sisters. “Ihadnotal- provided a role model for all of his students. Doc ent for painting,” she says, “and Haury particularly encouraged his students to write so so had to amuse myself in that a farmer in Kansas could understand what we were other ways.” talking about; I have tried to follow this advice.” One diversion was search- ing for artifacts during summer Ceramics and Ideology family camping trips to places Before Crown finished her dissertation, she was hired in the American Southwest. It as an assistant archaeologist at the Arizona State was during one such trip to Museum, where she worked until 1985. She then when 15-year- became an assistant professor of anthropology at old Crown decided to be- Southern Methodist University (1985–1990), which come an archaeologist after included running the university’s field school in Taos, years of being intrigued by New Mexico. Crown next accepted a position as an landscapes and ruins. She assistant, and later associate, professor of anthro- says, “My parents both en- pology at Arizona State University. In 1993, she be- couraged me to do whatever I came an associate professor at the University of New was passionate about, and Mexico, where she has remained. that was archaeology. So I One year after moving to New Mexico, Crown read everything I could get authored the book Ceramics and Ideology: Salado my hands on and only applied Polychrome Pottery (2). In the book she describes her Portrait of Patricia Crown. Image courtesy of to colleges that had good analysis of one of the most widely distributed types Wirt H. Wills (photographer). archaeology programs.” of 13th century pottery in the southwestern United

This is a Profile of a recently elected member of the National Academy of Sciences to accompany the member’s Inaugural Article on page 11436 in issue 37 of volume 112.

9392–9394 | PNAS | August 23, 2016 | vol. 113 | no. 34 www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1611709113 Downloaded by guest on September 27, 2021 States. She says, “I conclude that the pottery origi- and became convinced that they were used in another nated with migrants moving out of northern Arizona, way. She also consulted with Mayan history scholar and it was widely adopted as part of a religious Dorie Reents-Budet at the Museum of Fine Arts in movement that promoted peace during this time of Boston, who had analyzed similar vessels. Reents- demographic upheaval.” For the analysis and other Budet informed Crown that the Maya used such con- achievements, Crown was awarded the 1994 Society tainers for serving a beverage made out of fermented, for American Archaeology Award for Excellence in roasted, and ground cacao nibs. Ceramic Research. Four years later she received the HPLC and MS testing overseen by Hurst confir- Gordon R. Willey Award from the Archaeology Divi- med the presence of theobromine in three sherds of sion of the American Anthropological Association. the Chaco Canyon jars. Theobromine is a compound obtained from cacao nibs and therefore serves as a Roles of Women and Children in Prehispanic biomarker for chocolate. The research not only pro- Southwest vided proof of chocolate use in North America north In 2000, Crown edited a volume (3) that explores the of the Mexican border, but it also confirmed the role of women and men in southwestern US history. former existence of a Mesoamerican trade network Her contributions include the introduction, which ex- that connected Chaco in the north to cacao-growing amines issues of gender and power in archaeology, regions in the south. and a chapter on women and cuisine that investigates how women actively experimented with both foods The “Black Drink” and food processing technologies to optimize the A few years later, Crown and Hurst, along with other nutritional benefits from the southwestern diet of corn, colleagues, studied plant residues on pottery beakers beans, squash, and protein. from Cahokia, a massive pre-Columbian settlement Crown has also investigated the lives of children near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi from the prehispanic American Southwest (4). Ethno- Rivers (8). Residues on the beakers revealed that they graphic data on potters from the region revealed that once contained Yaupon holly. The leaves of this plant, children began to make ceramics at around age 6. which have high amounts of caffeine, are traditionally Youths received little formal artistic instruction, but roasted and made into a potent tea known as the instead learned largely by observation and imitation. “black drink.” Historical documents indicate that the The amount of adult involvement in the teaching beverage was drunk as part of a purification ritual process varied from one part of the Southwest to an- before battles and other important events. other, with skilled potters sometimes collaborating For Crown’s Inaugural Article, she and her team ex- with learners to finish a vessel. tended the earlier work at Chaco Canyon and Cahokia The work made Crown question the assumption to include organic residue analysis from pottery frag- that individual craftspeople made each pot (5). She ments unearthed at 18 sites in the US Southwest and says, “Multiple artisans may contribute to a finished Mexican Northwest with funding from the National object, and different people may modify objects Science Foundation (9). Crown says, “We argue that over time. Collaborative vessels help us understand there is strong evidence for trade and consumption of labor demands, learning and teaching frameworks, two different caffeinated plants into this area: cacao, specialized production, and the life histories of ceramic vessels.”

Early Evidence for Chocolate Consumption When Crown was three years old, she and her family visited Chaco Canyon, a complex of multistory ma- sonry dwellings built by the ancient Puebloans that is now designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. De- cades after the visit, Crown’s husband Wirt H. Wills, also a southwestern archaeologist on the faculty at the University of New Mexico, led six field sessions reex- cavating trash mounds at a large village within Chaco Canyon known as Pueblo Bonito. Regarding Wills, Crown says, “He remains my most valued consultant and critic.” A book concerning the trash mound ex- cavations was recently published (6). Among the finds in the trash mounds were fragments of rare ceramic vessels known as Chacoan cylinder jars. Crown and colleague W. Jeffrey Hurst, who was a senior chemist for the Hershey Company, analyzed some of these cylinder jar sherds (7). Researchers had speculated that the vessels once held sacred objects like turquoise or were covered with animal skin and Excavations in room 28 of Pueblo Bonito; Patricia Crown is in the orange vest. used as drums. Crown studied the jar wear patterns Image courtesy of Wirt H. Wills (photographer).

Viegas PNAS | August 23, 2016 | vol. 113 | no. 34 | 9393 Downloaded by guest on September 27, 2021 used to make chocolate drinks, and Yaupon holly.” She the room’s inhabitants practiced ritual closure through and her team believe that caffeinated drinks were im- fire, probably around AD 1100. portant to pre-Hispanic individuals and were consumed While describing this project and others, Crown largely in communal, ritual, and political contexts, where expresses her enduring fondness for the University of they functioned as social tools. New Mexico, as well as for her chosen home state. She marvels that her primary research site is a short Ritual Closure in Pueblo Bonito drive away from her house. She says, “Not only does Crown’s present work involves studying a room in New Mexico respect and honor its past, but it is an Pueblo Bonito that housed 66% of all known Chacoan epicenter for creativity in both art and science, and cylinder jars. Originally excavated in 1896, the room has been for over 1,000 years. I’m also fortunate to was reexcavated by Crown’s team in 2013 with fund- practice archaeology at a time when advances in ing from the National Endowment for the Humanities scientific techniques offer so many new ways to an- and National Geographic. Crown’s work suggests that swer questions about the past.”

1 Crown PL (1981) Variability in Ceramic Manufacture at the Chodistaas Site, East-Central Arizona. PhD dissertation (, Tucson). 2 Crown PL (1994) Ceramics and Ideology: Salado Polychrome Pottery (Univ of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque). 3 Crown PL, ed (1998) Women and Men in the Prehispanic Southwest: Gendered Perspectives on Labor, Power, and Prestige in the American Southwest (School of American Research Press, Santa Fe, NM). 4 Crown PL (2000) Children in the prehistoric Puebloan Southwest. Learning and Teaching in the Prehispanic American Southwest,ed Kamp K (Univ of Utah Press, Salt Lake City), pp 108–124. 5 Crown PL (2007) Life histories of pots and potters: Situating the individual in archaeology. Am Antiq 72(4):677–690. 6 Crown PL, ed (2016) The Pueblo Bonito Mounds of Chaco Canyon (Univ of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque). 7 Crown PL, Hurst WJ (2009) Evidence of cacao use in the Prehispanic American Southwest. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106(7):2110–2113. 8 Crown PL, et al. (2012) Ritual black drink consumption at Cahokia. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 109(35):13944–13949. 9 Crown PL, et al. (2015) Ritual drinks in the pre-Hispanic US Southwest and Mexican Northwest. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 112(37): 11436–11442.

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