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."

[PaleoRob]

They wouldn't have overgrazed before 1540 - no grazing animals.

[azbackpackr]

over-harvesting natural resources.

I think you are in the ballpark here (except, as Rob already pointed out, they had no grazing animals) but my understanding is that poor farming practices plus cycles of drought led to arroyo cutting, thereby lowering the water table. A lot of sites, such as Keet Seel, were actually occupied less than a hundred years, and then the people moved on. Another thing is wood gathering. Where they may not have felled big trees on a large scale, they needed to keep warm in winter, and they also needed it all year for cooking. It wouldn't take long to exhaust the availability of firewood in a lot of these areas. When they had to walk too far to get the wood, I expect they would want to move on. They may have just moved a few miles and started again, but I think the general consensus is that eventually a lot of them migrated over to the Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico. Which is where they remain today...other than the Hopi and Zuni. (And remember, the Navajo/Apache group had probably not yet arrived on the Colorado Plateau at the time of the building of the great pueblos. In fact, they may have arrived after the first Spanish entradas.)

[Alston_Neal]

They may have just moved a few miles and started again, but I think the general consensus is that eventually a lot of them migrated over to the Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico. Which is where they remain today...other than the Hopi and Zuni. (And remember, the Navajo/Apache group had probably not yet arrived on the Colorado Plateau at the time of the building of the great pueblos. In fact, they may have arrived after the first Spanish entradas.)

There seems to be more opinion that the Apache arrived so late that they may have run into the Spanish moving north, which is why they settled in northern Mexico and the Norte American southwest.
One of the things that has always intrigued me about the Zuni is their language base is Penutian, which relates to the Klikitat, Umatillo, Yakima, Wasco, Nez Perce, Modoc, Miwok, Costano, Maidu, Yokuts and some others. In other words they are language tied to groups in north and central Cal. and Cascade/Plateau groups. But the Hopi are Uto-Aztecan and the New Mexican pueblos speak Tanoan....Tiwa, Tewa and Towa or are Kerasan speaking. So where did the Zuni come from or did a migrating group settle in with some remnants of the Ancestral Puebleans?

[PaleoRob]

One of the things that has always intrigued me about the Zuni is their language base is Penutian

Actually, its an isolate. Unrelated to any language anywhere in the world. Penutian is generally not accepted as a related language group.

[Alston_Neal]

Actually, its an isolate. Unrelated to any language anywhere in the world. Penutian is generally not accepted as a related language group.

I stand corrected..Wikipedia......Zuni traditionally speak the Zuni language, a unique language (also called an "isolate") which is unrelated to any other Native American language.
Not too long ago it was generally believed that their linguistic base was Penutian. Zunian may be one of those languages with a coastal origin followed by an inland migration. Stanley Newman applied the lexicostatistical method to Zuni and two California Indian languages, Yokuts and Miwok, that he had worked with before studying Zunian. His analysis suggests a California Penutian base for Zunian dating back seven thousand years. In 1987 Joseph Greenberg, a Stanford scholar placed Zuni, without a question mark, as one of nine subgroups of Penutian.
Recent developments in linguistics, archeology and mitochondrial DNA are showing that the population growth occured from coastal migration and not thru the interior of the continent.
The Zuni/ Penutian debate isn't totally dead yet, heavily questioned, but not dead.
Now lets talk about the Zuni/Japanese connection... ;)

[azbackpackr]

There is a new book out on this subject. I went to a lecture by one of its authors, David Wilcox, recently. I believe its other author, David Gregory, has recently passed away. (or is it the other way around?) Anyway, the book is: Zuni Origins: Toward a New Synthesis of Southwestern Archaeology. U of A Press, I think published last year or early this year. I haven't read it yet, but the lecture was amazing.

[Alston_Neal]

OOOhhh sounds cool. Thanks for posting that and gawd I hope David is not dead, he'd be pissed.

[azbackpackr]

Well, I think one of them is. They are both named David. I will ask around.

[azbackpackr]

Ok, it was David Gregory who passed away, in June, in Show Low, of all places. Here is a sort of blog obit:
http://www.tobitaylor.com/blog/blog.php?bid=57&print=1

David Wilcox came to speak to our AAS chapter in Springerville this past winter, talking about the research in the book. Very entertaining and interesting talk.

[colowlkr]

Yuo may want to read the book "Man Corn" by University of Northern Arizona professor Christy Turner. His area of expertise for the last 40 years is the violence and evidence of cannabilsim in the Southwest. The majority of cannabilsim seemed to show up after the advent of the Chaco culture. However the evidence of massacre's goes way back. Rememeber the excavtion at Cave 7 in Whisker's Draw by Richard Wetherill that was the type site for Basketmakers. Approximately 96 skeletons were unearthed that had been massacred. The Anasazi weren't as peaceful as historians would have you believe.

[Nighthiker]

Most life on this planet is either predator or prey, for the want of food, a mate or just because. Since man has learned to throw a stone, sharpen a stick or refine uranium, man has been killing.