Ancient Massacre in the Four Corners

[big_load]

Another bit of confirmation from the Discovery channel (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39268873/ns ... e-science/)

Crushed leg bones, battered skulls and other mutilated human remains are likely all that's left of a Native American population destroyed by genocide that took place circa 800 A.D., suggests a new study.

The paper, accepted for publication in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, describes the single largest deposit to date of mutilated and processed human remains in the American Southwest.

The entire assemblage comprises 14,882 human skeletal fragments, as well as the mutilated remains of dogs and other animals killed at the massacre site — Sacred Ridge, southwest of Durango, Colo.

Based on the archaeological findings, which include two-headed axes that tested positive for human blood, co-authors Jason Chuipka and James Potter believe the genocide occurred as a result of conflict between different Anasazi Ancestral Puebloan ethnic groups.

"It was entirely an inside job," Chuipka, an archaeologist with Woods Canyon Archaeological Consultants, told Discovery News.

"The type of event at Sacred Ridge is on the far end of the conflict spectrum where social relations completely melt down," he added, mentioning that the Sacred Ridge "occupants were targeted to take the blame."

Chuipka and Potter analyzed objects excavated at Sacred Ridge, which was a multiple habitation site of 22 pit structures, some of which may have operated as communal ritual facilities for a population that extended beyond the immediate site inhabitants. This suggests the residents at one point exerted some social control in the area.

The unearthed bones and artifacts indicate that when the violence took place, men, women and children were tortured, disemboweled, killed and often hacked to bits. In some cases, heads, hands and feet appear to have been removed as trophies for the killers. The attackers then removed belongings out of the structures and set the roofs on fire.

"I think that the major event was preceded by social stress within the community that may have been exacerbated by a period of drought," Chuipka said. "The scale of the mutilations suggests that it was planned and organized in the preceding days or weeks, and that the violence took place in a relatively short period of time — a few days."

"All evidence points to a rapid event, which is only possible with coordination and complicity within the community," he added.

The researchers ruled out other possible explanations, such as starvation cannibalism, traditional preparation of the deceased, and even individuals targeted for practicing witchcraft. Cannibalism, for example, usually involves bone marrow processing. Witch roundups tend to affect a relatively small number of victims.

In this case, a large group of people was dispatched at one time.

For a separate study, John McClelland, lab manager of osteology at Arizona State Museum, analyzed teeth from human remains within the Ridges Basin region, including Sacred Ridge.

He found that the population at Sacred Ridge in the early 800s was distinct from others in the area.

"The individuals at Sacred Ridge whose remains were disarticulated and processed were not a random selection from among the overall population of Ridges Basin," McClelland determined. "In addition to the biological differences, they appear to have had a somewhat different diet and may have experienced a higher level of juvenile growth disruption."

At least two other separate studies have come to similar conclusions, suggesting the genocide victims at Sacred Ridge belonged to an ethnic group that was different from that of other nearby populations.

Given basic established patterns from more recent ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia, Iraq and Rwanda, the researchers think political structures that had been keeping ethnic conflict at bay probably broke down at Sacred Ridge.

"What we can learn from Sacred Ridge is that archaeological sites are not simply piles of rock and refuse, but that they were occupied by people that were involved in complex webs of social relations," Chuipka said. "Sacred Ridge is a case where social relations melted down and the solution chosen was absolute and shocking."

[Alston_Neal]

This also seemed to have happened at the Dove Creek area NW of Cortez. I first read about it in Childs book House of Rain.
My wife and I own a Native American art gallery and we hear some folks tell us that no Natives killed other Natives until the evil White folks got here.
Yeah right.
Good article, thanks for the post.

[BobP]

@big_load
That was an interesting read...Thanks for posting it.

[writelots]

What a fascinating spotlight on human history. It seems we have never been good at getting along with one another. Maybe if HAZ had been around in AD800 they could've worked it out online...

[Jim]

Hmmm....social stress, drought, break down of political structure that kept the violence at bay, how long before we start killing each other? Oh, wait, that belongs in the cynical thread. Well, not really, since water is a big deal up here and around the rest of the state and you don't have to extrapolate things out too far to start to see increasing pressures on us, today, in our golden age of southwest living, being far worse then we currently are. Perhaps fuel shortages, high unemployment, maybe a drought, and the already present hatred between groups could turn into some sort of genocide. Break down of political structure, we seem to have some of that, right?

[big_load]

Although I don't see that happening soon, history is filled with it, and social order can turn fragile in a hurry.

[SuperstitionGuy]

How about politics and/or religion. The two most common causes for anger, hate and what follows.

[azbackpackr]

Let's put this into perspective. 800 AD is a long time ago. That is during what is known as Pueblo I phase. The great buildings of Chaco are about 200 years in the future. The cliff villages of Mesa Verde and Keet Seel are about 400-500 years in the future!

Dendrochronology, the science of studying climate and other subjects using tree ring data, probably does not reach back that far to tell us the exact dates of prolonged droughts that may have occurred in the 800's. It can tell us, for example, that there was a prolonged drought exactly between 1276 and 1299. However, I am pretty sure that kind of accuracy does not extend back to the 800's, since there are probably no available beams that are that old. However, we can surmise that there have always been droughts in this region. And drought could have played a factor. So could other factors, such as ethnic hatred, which I think has already been addressed.

Hope Robert will jump in here...

[PaleoRob]

The Great Houses of Chaco started construction in the 800s - we know this due to dendrochronology. We do have beams that go back that far. As for drought, dendrochronolgy can be amazingly precise since it is based on tree-rings, which are in turn based on seasonal rainfall.

[imike]

What if the trees used to make the beams were hand watered for the life of the tree...?

[BobP]

@imike
What do you mean your only 12% cynical? ;)

[imike]

Hey, I trust those tests... their scientific... right?

[PaleoRob]

What if the trees used to make the beams were hand watered for the life of the tree...?

Highly unlikely. Each and every tree would have to have been hand watered for every single discovered and dated beam from all of the southwest. And even then...some beams would have had to have been nurtured for hundreds of years before being felled. Also unlikely.

[imike]

it was a religious experience... native american druids tutored by aluvian aliens. Hell to pay when they check back in on their trees in 2024.

[Sarae]

A very interesting read. Thanks for posting. Makes me wonder what other evidence of ancient human violence I walk near or on while in the backcountry. Of course, many positive things happened in the places we visit as well. Something to think about on the trail I guess.

[azbackpackr]

The Great Houses of Chaco started construction in the 800s - we know this due to dendrochronology. We do have beams that go back that far. As for drought, dendrochronolgy can be amazingly precise since it is based on tree-rings, which are in turn based on seasonal rainfall.

Ok, you may have new info, but my textbook, which is a few years old, says otherwise. In Archaeology of the Southwest by Linda Cordell it says during early Pueblo II, 920 to 1020 that Pueblo Bonito, Una Vida and Penasco Blanco were begun, but it was during the next hundred years, referred to as Classic Bonito that most of the major town sites were completed, up to 1120.

And if the dendro data now goes further back, that is also since this book was published. Which would be awesome, of course! Dendrochronology is incredibly precise, as you said.

[big_load]

And if the dendro data now goes further back, that is also since this book was published. Which would be awesome, of course! Dendrochronology is incredibly precise, as you said.

I don't know how far back it goes in AZ, but it's multiple thousands of years in CA and the Pacific Northwest.

[azbackpackr]

In Arizona a link was found between very old living trees, and very old beams in ancient pueblos. The link was at the Whipple site in Show Low, of all places. The site is on private property, and I am told there is nothing left of it now, but when they found that old beam, it provided the link to be able to date Chaco, Mesa Verde, etc., or at least the beams used in their construction, to the exact year.

[PaleoRob]

Yeah, it was found outside of Show Low.
The Architecture of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, edited by Lekson, cites a minimum date of 850.

[JimmyLyding]

Dendrochronology. I walked by the University of Arizona Dendrochronology Lab on the way to a 90-year-old restroom in Arizona Stadium last Saturday night. What little I know about dendrochronology leads me to believe that it's pretty solid science because it's based upon known data married to reasonable extrapolation.
I've always been interested in the idea that the Native Americans around the Four Corners region altered their environment through excessive resource extraction. I.e. cutting down too many trees and overgrazing leading to less rainfall, more erosion, and all of the other fun stuff that results from over-harvesting natural resources.