Rome Reports. 2016. “Vatican Museums unveils their latest Ethnology collection: “The Americas””. Rome Reports. Posted: June 19, 2016. Available online: http://www.romereports.com/2016/06/19/vatican-museums-unveils-their-latest-ethnology-collection-the-americas
The Northwestern Division of the corps said its decision was based on a review of new information, particularly recently published DNA and skeletal analyses.
The corps, which owns the remains, said the skeleton is now covered by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
The 8,500-year-old remains were discovered in 1996 in southeastern Washington near the Columbia River in Kennewick, triggering a lengthy legal fight between tribes and scientists over whether the bones should be buried immediately or studied. The bones will remain at the Burke Museum in Seattle until the corps determines which tribe will receive them. The next step is for interested tribes to submit a claim to acquire the skeleton for burial, said Michael Coffey, a spokeswoman for the corps in Portland, Oregon.
Determining which tribe receives the bones is likely to be a lengthy process, Coffey said. In the past, the Colville, Yakama, Umatilla, Nez Perce and Wanapum Indians have claimed a connection to them.
"We still have a lot of work to do," Coffey said.
The tribes call the remains the Ancient One and visit the skeleton to hold religious services.
"Obviously we are hearing an acknowledgment from the corps of what we have been saying for 20 years," JoDe Goudy, chairman of the Yakama Nation, told The Seattle Times. "Now we want to collectively do what is right, and bring our relative back for reburial."
New genetic evidence determined the remains were closer to modern Native Americans than any other population in the world. Following that, the corps began to re-examine Kennewick Man's status.
"I am confident that our review and analysis of new skeletal, statistical, and genetic evidence have convincingly led to a Native American Determination," said Brig. Gen. Scott A. Spellmon, commander of the corps' Northwestern Division.
Most scientists trace modern native groups to Siberian ancestors who arrived by way of a land bridge that used to extend to Alaska. But features of Kennewick Man's skull led some scientists to suggest the man's ancestors came from elsewhere. Researchers turned to DNA analysis to try to clarify the skeleton's ancestry. They recovered DNA from a fragment of hand bone, mapped its genetic code and compared that to modern DNA from native peoples of the Americas and populations around the world.
The results showed a greater similarity to DNA from the Americas than from anywhere else, with a close relationship to at least one Native American population, the Colvilles, in Washington state.
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Reference:
Geranios, Nicholas K. 2016. “Corps determines Kennewick Man is Native American”. Phys.org. Posted: April 27, 2016. Available online: http://phys.org/news/2016-04-corps-kennewick-native-american.html
The Northwestern Division of the corps said its decision was based on a review of new information, particularly recently published DNA and skeletal analyses.
The corps, which owns the remains, said the skeleton is now covered by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
The 8,500-year-old remains were discovered in 1996 in southeastern Washington near the Columbia River in Kennewick, triggering a lengthy legal fight between tribes and scientists over whether the bones should be buried immediately or studied. The bones will remain at the Burke Museum in Seattle until the corps determines which tribe will receive them. The next step is for interested tribes to submit a claim to acquire the skeleton for burial, said Michael Coffey, a spokeswoman for the corps in Portland, Oregon.
Determining which tribe receives the bones is likely to be a lengthy process, Coffey said. In the past, the Colville, Yakama, Umatilla, Nez Perce and Wanapum Indians have claimed a connection to them.
"We still have a lot of work to do," Coffey said.
The tribes call the remains the Ancient One and visit the skeleton to hold religious services.
"Obviously we are hearing an acknowledgment from the corps of what we have been saying for 20 years," JoDe Goudy, chairman of the Yakama Nation, told The Seattle Times. "Now we want to collectively do what is right, and bring our relative back for reburial."
New genetic evidence determined the remains were closer to modern Native Americans than any other population in the world. Following that, the corps began to re-examine Kennewick Man's status.
"I am confident that our review and analysis of new skeletal, statistical, and genetic evidence have convincingly led to a Native American Determination," said Brig. Gen. Scott A. Spellmon, commander of the corps' Northwestern Division.
Most scientists trace modern native groups to Siberian ancestors who arrived by way of a land bridge that used to extend to Alaska. But features of Kennewick Man's skull led some scientists to suggest the man's ancestors came from elsewhere. Researchers turned to DNA analysis to try to clarify the skeleton's ancestry. They recovered DNA from a fragment of hand bone, mapped its genetic code and compared that to modern DNA from native peoples of the Americas and populations around the world.
The results showed a greater similarity to DNA from the Americas than from anywhere else, with a close relationship to at least one Native American population, the Colvilles, in Washington state.
_________________
Reference:
Geranios, Nicholas K. 2016. “Corps determines Kennewick Man is Native American”. Phys.org. Posted: April 27, 2016. Available online: http://phys.org/news/2016-04-corps-kennewick-native-american.html
In 2000, archeologist Robert Dello-Russo was hired by the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center (EMERTC) at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology to survey land where they wanted to build a new observation facility for their explosives research. He contracted to look for archeological sites on the state-owned land, and found much more than anyone expected. "We found the Water Canyon Paleo-Indian site and a lot of other early Holocene sites because we were right at the edge of this big alluvial fan so there were other sites eroding out and basically, we said well if you are going to build this, you are going to have to move it some place that is not littered with archeological sites," said Dello-Russo.
EMRTC is internationally famous for the quality of its research and a welcoming spirit that brought the television show Myth Busters back repeatedly to blow up all sorts of things. The EMRTC scientists didn't realize an obscure part of their 14-square-mile field laboratory was a major archeological site.
In the years since he discovered the site at Water Canyon Dello-Russo and his colleagues have returned to the site repeatedly to explore the scope of the ancient wetlands, finding more and more evidence that the best documented earliest humans, known as Paleo-Indians on the North American continent hunted here. EMERTC has helped wherever possible, supplying water, lending a backhoe for a major excavation and generously allowing the access Dello-Russo needed.
He is now the director of the Office of Contract Archeology at the University of New Mexico. OCA operates as a division of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at UNM and functions as a team of professional archaeologists that can be hired to do research.
Students and OCA staff work under contract to various state and federal agencies and with private companies in need of surveys and reports on archeological sites. The work ranges from excavating artifacts to helping the U.S. National Park Service build their history exhibits to assisting pipeline companies find routes that won't damage historical treasures. Depending on the ebb and flow of contracts, Dello-Russo hires dozens of students to work in the field and in the laboratory.
At Water Canyon Dello-Russo and his collaborators have found spear and/or atlatl (throwing stick) points from the Clovis people, who hunted here more than 13,000 years ago, from the Folsom people who hunted here more than 12,000 years ago, from the Cody Complex hunters who butchered bison and left the bones around 10,800 years ago, and from the late Paleo-Indian people who hunted across this landscape around 9,200 years ago, and also left bones from butchered bison. Dello-Russo and his collaborators have also found gypsum points from the Middle to Late Archaic people.
They don't yet know precisely how many generations of hunters found prey at this spot. As a historical comparison, the Paleo-Indian hunters roamed the landscape between 12,000 and 8,000 years before the Ancestral Native Americans built Chaco Canyon, another famous archeological site in the state. It's still a mystery whether the hunters stayed for some time at Water Canyon, or whether they killed and ate bison and moved on, although current evidence suggests the later.
Blackwater Draw or the Clovis Site, in eastern New Mexico is the first site in the state where it could be documented that generations of Paleo-Indian hunters successfully hunted and killed their prey at one place on the landscape, and then returned to the place again and again. Water Canyon, west of Socorro appears to be the second.
One possibility this particular archaeological site may offer is the opportunity to understand how bison evolved. "There is this evolutionary trajectory from the late Pleistocene where bison go from being Bison antiques, which is a species that was 10 to 20 percent larger than modern day bison, to the Holocene when they became the smaller, modern bison or Bison bison," said Dello-Russo.
The bones from the two known bison bone beds at the site are different ages and potentially different sizes. Dello-Russo says they still have to answer the question about whether they are seeing different species of bison or whether they are seeing differences in gender or age in the bison remains. It's the kind of puzzle that fascinates archaeologists, and students in the University of New Mexico Anthropology Department will hopefully have the opportunity to help put the pieces together.
Last summer Dello-Russo conducted a field school for undergraduate archaeology students at the site. The students learned how to document and catalog what they excavated, and heard from visiting experts about a wide range of related topics, including the finer points of how to trace the stone in tools found at Water Canyon back to a prehistoric stone quarry from which it came. Dello-Russo is searching now for graduate students to take back to Water Canyon to learn more about those quarries.
Preserved prehistoric vegetation as an archeological treasure
Dello-Russo also found something at the Water Canyon site called a "black mat" – a buried, but intact layer of sediment with a high degree of organic matter that represents the remains of the prehistoric wetland. It includes decomposed plants, pollen, snails and other wetland related materials.
Over the centuries, the landscape became dryer and sediment slowly covered the former wetlands. The scope of the black mat wasn't immediately obvious, but it is clear now that it covers hundreds of acres.
The black mat tells the story of the landscape and the climate that brought the bison to this spot. "Today this land is what's called a juniper savannah. A very dry grassland. It gets about 8 inches of rain a year, maybe," Dello-Russo said. "Back then they probably got triple that amount of moisture. There was probably standing water in some places, flowing in other places. The vegetation included things that we don't have there today, such as versions of maple trees and birch, cherry. We used to think it was like a forest of actual trees, but we are beginning to think it was a more shrub-like environment."
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Reference:
Wentworth, Karen. 2016. “Uncovering the mystery of very early humans in New Mexico”. Phys.org. Posted: March 18, 2016. Available online: http://phys.org/news/2016-03-uncovering-mystery-early-humans-mexico.html
Recent studies into the remains of sacrificial victims at the ancient city of Cahokia reveal that those who were killed were not captives taken from outlying regions, as many archaeologists had believed.
Instead, they may have been residents of the same community that killed them.
When Cahokia was at its peak 900 years ago, it was the largest city in what’s now the United States, a metropolis of about 15,000 people in southwestern Illinois, whose economic and cultural influence reached from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.
But one of the many mysteries lingering among the city’s ruins, just outside modern-day St. Louis, is a burial mound excavated in the 1960s and found to contain more than 270 bodies — almost all of them young women killed as victims of human sacrifice.
Dated to between 1000 and 1100 CE, their remains were mostly buried in large pits, laid out in neat rows, and bearing few signs of physical trauma, perhaps killed by strangulation or blood-letting.
But the mound also contained a striking group of outliers: a separate deposit of some 39 men and women, ranging in age from 15 to 45, who — unlike the rest — had been subjected to all manner of physical violence: brutal fractures, shot with stone points still embedded in their bones, even decapitation.
For more than 50 years, archaeologists have puzzled over the grisly scenes found in the mound, known as Mound 72.
“It is the significant site in this region and foundational to our understanding of Mississippian culture within this region and beyond,” said Dr. Phil Slater, an anthropologist at the Illinois State Archaeological Survey who took part in the new study.
“One of the big questions raised by the finds at Mound 72 focused on the mass burial events. Those appear to be unique, certainly unique to have so many such features within a single small mound.”
For decades, the prevailing theory has been that its victims were forcibly brought toCahokia from regions under the city’s control, and sacrificed as offerings to its rulers, its dead, or its deities.
“The initial interpretation of the burials of young women suggested they represented ‘tribute’ from outlying communities,” Slater said.
“Our analysis provide[s] … evidence that suggests the young women may have come from within the region, if not from Cahokia itself.”
What’s more, the research done by Slater and his colleagues finds that the same is true for the 39 victims of the more violent, traumatic deaths in the mound.
They’re not only local, the results show; they also turn out to be the most biologically different from the rest of the dead found in the mound. And yet, they’re also the most similar to each other, suggesting that they may have been members of a unique, and perhaps isolated, population within Cahokia.
Slater and colleagues Dr. Kristin Hedman and Dr. Andrew Thompson revisited Mound 72 with a focus on the victims’ teeth — studying both their chemistry and their physical structure.
The team analyzed 203 teeth from 109 of the people found in 3 separate burials in the mound.
Among them: a grave known as Feature 214, thought to be one of the earliest mass burials in the mound, featuring 24 bodies arranged in two layers and dated to around the year 1000; and also Feature 105, dated to around 1050, where more than 50 were buried in two layers of two rows, aligned shoulder to shoulder; and finally Feature 229, which included two layers of human remains — an upper layer of 15 men and women, whose remains were gently laid to rest on cedar litters, and 229-lower — the mass grave of 39 men and women whose mutilated bodies appear to have been dumped, rather than peacefully interred.
“They appear,” Slated said, “to have been lined up and pushed in.”
“We now have the opportunity to take another look at some of these [features] and challenge some of the earlier interpretations,” he added.
“Who were the individuals buried in Mound 72 and what do their deaths and burials signify?”
In their search for answers, the team looked, in part, for chemical clues in the victims’ teeth.
Specifically, they wanted to measure the levels of the element strontium that they contained. Strontium occurs naturally in groundwater as it leaches in from local rock formations. But different regions have different levels of various strontium isotopes, depending on their geology.
So as humans eat and drink, the concentrations of strontium that are specific to the local food and water supply become bound in their teeth.
In this way, teeth can be analyzed to reveal their owner’s geographical history, allowing scientists to determine whether people were born in the same region where they were buried, or whether they immigrated from elsewhere.
This method holds particular promise for researching Cahokia, noted Dr. Thomas Emerson, director of the Illinois State Archaeological Survey, since the city’s rapid growth had been widely attributed to immigration from outlying areas.
“With the development of strontium analysis, there became a way to actually test the immigration hypothesis by looking at the bodies of the people buried at Cahokia,” he said.
And the results showed that, based on their chemical traces, the dead were largely, but not exclusively, local to the floodplain where Cahokia was built, known as the American Bottom.
Of those buried in Feature 105, for instance, about 7 percent of the teeth revealed levels of strontium that were not consistent with the immediate Cahokia area.
In Feature 214, 36 percent of the teeth turned out to have non-local signatures.
And for those who had been carefully buried in the upper layer of Feature 229, 17 percent of the teeth contained non-local levels of strontium.
But for the people buried below them, who had been violently killed and dumped, their teeth were all exclusively within the range of Cahokia’s strontium ratios — and they also displayed the smallest degree of variation in their chemistry.
What’s more, Slater said, the physical measurements of their teeth revealed even more surprising results.
The shapes and sizes of the mutilated victims’ teeth were uniquely similar to each other, and were also different from the morphologies of the teeth of the other victims.
“The 229-lower feature stood out among the four [features], because it seems to have been composed of a distinct sub-population within Cahokia,” he said.
“Both the strontium and dental data of the group show that they separate themselves from the rest of Mound 72.”
Taken together, Slater said, the data suggest that these mutilated victims were all local to the Cahokia region, but also physically different in some ways from the general population.
“It is possible that Feature 229-lower represents a small group that lived in the region — as is suggested by the strontium data — but was isolated from others for a long enough period of time to acquire similar dental characteristics that we tested for,” he said.
Beyond the scope of those 39 individuals, the findings obtained throughout Mound 72 suggest that the 270 people buried there were not all immigrants, or captives from raids into distant territories, as some experts had suggested.
Instead, it seems that the sacrificed were themselves Cahokians — or at least a relatively consistent mixture of immigrants and locals, with native Cahokians forming the majority of the group, a mixture found even in common, non-sacrificial graves in the city.
It’s a prospect that opens up a new set of questions, Slater said.
“On the surface, these results refute interpretations that these people were [killed as] tribute from outside communities and suggest that they were actually local people from within the American Bottom and part of the Cahokia population in some way,” he said.
“However, their unique burial contexts indicate special — either good or bad — treatment in death.
“This actually raises just as many questions as it answers: Why were these groups of people all buried at the same times?
“Why were some being killed and buried, as in Feature 229-lower?
“How were these groups integrated to the rest of Cahokia’s population socially or politically?
“These are things we still don’t know.”
As part of ongoing research called the Cahokia Collapse Project, the team is now planning to study strontium levels in other regions that interacted with Cahokia, in an effort to clarify where some of its immigrants might have come from.
For now, Slater says, their research offers valuable new insights into the nature of life and death in what was once America’s largest city.
“An important value of this specific [study] lies in providing multiple lines of evidence … to try and understand who these people were – and Cahokia at large,” Slater said.
“It is also important to realize that just because someone has ‘answered’ a question previously, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t revisit it with a new perspective or new, improved methodology.
“That’s part of the collective advancement of science.”
The team reports their findings in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
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Reference:
Pastino, Blake De. 2015. “Victims of Human Sacrifice at Cahokia Were Locals, Not ‘Foreign’ Captives, Study Finds”. Western Digs. Posted: August 26, 2015. Available online: http://westerndigs.org/victims-of-human-sacrifice-at-cahokia-were-locals-not-captives-study-finds/
New work on the skeletal remains of scarlet macaws found in an ancient Pueblo settlement indicates that social and political hierarchies may have emerged in the American Southwest earlier than previously thought. Researchers determined that the macaws, whose brilliant red and blue feathers are highly prized in Pueblo culture, were persistently traded hundreds of miles north from Mesoamerica starting in the early 10th century, at least 150 years before the origin of hierarchy is usually attributed. The findings, published today in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that the acquisition and control of macaws, along with other valued items like chocolate and turquoise, may have facilitated the development of hierarchy in the society.
"By directly dating the macaws, we have demonstrated the existence of long-distance networks throughout much of this settlement's history," said Adam Watson, a postdoctoral fellow in the American Museum of Natural History's Division of Anthropology and lead author on the paper. "Our findings suggest that rather than the acquisition of macaws being a side effect of the rise of Chacoan society, there was a causal relationship. The ability to access these trade networks and the ritual power associated with macaws and their feathers may have been important to forming these hierarchies in the first place."
Archaeologists have known for more than a century that the pre-Hispanic Pueblo people of the American Southwest acquired goods from Mesoamerica, including marine shells from the Gulf of California, raw copper and crafted copper bells from west Mexico, cacao from the Neotropics, and tropical birds. Scarlet macaws (Ara macao) have been recovered from many settlements in the Southwest, particularly at Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico, a major cultural center that was densely occupied between about AD 800 and 1200 and had more than a dozen multi-storied "great houses." The birds are native to humid forests in tropical America--primarily the Gulf Coast region of Mexico, Central America, and northern sections of South America--so their presence at Chaco Canyon indicates the existence of long-distance procurement networks often characteristic of a complex society. It was traditionally thought that the Pueblo people did not bring these items back to the settlement until AD 1040, the start of an era of rapid architectural expansion called the Chaco florescence.
But new radiocarbon dating of artifacts discovered in the settlement is changing that view.
First excavated by a Museum-led team in 1896, the largest of the Chaco Canyon great houses was Pueblo Bonito, which had about 650 rooms. Among those rooms was one particularly unusual crypt: Room 33, a single small structure in the oldest area of the Pueblo, that contained 14 human bodies along with significant amounts of symbolically important items like turquoise, shell, and flutes. Two of the bodies were buried below a rare wooden floor with the majority of the grave goods, signaling the special treatment of elite individuals at Pueblo Bonito.
"In general, most researchers have argued that emergence of hierarchy, and of extensive trade networks that extended into Mexico, would coincide with what we see as other aspects of the Chaco florescence: roads being built outward from Chaco and the formation of what are called Chaco outliers that mimic the architecture seen in the cultural center," said Stephen Plog, professor of archaeology at the University of Virginia and a co-author on the paper. "For many years, that was the dominant model."
But in 2010, radiocarbon dating led by Plog showed that the two burials happened no later than AD 775-875.
"Based on these results, which call into question when the formation of the hierarchy actually began in Chaco, we decided to take another look at the macaws," Watson said.
Ethnographically, scarlet macaws are particularly significant in Pueblo cosmology, where based on directional association by color (red/orange), they tend to designate southern positions. Ritual use of macaw feathers on prayer sticks, costumes, and masks to communicate prayers to gods is well recorded. The acquisition and control of scarlet macaws was likely the province of social and religious elites.
"Birds are a part of nature, but they are also agents with magical properties that can be put to human use," said Peter Whiteley, a curator in the Museum's Division of Anthropology and a co-author on the paper. "Flight or just the appearance of certain birds or the use of their feathers is believed to motivate the fall of rain or snow, as well as the seasons, the sunshine, and the heat."
The remains of 30 macaws have been found in Pueblo Bonito, including 14 in a single structure: Room 38, which, based on the amount of guano detected on the floor, was likely a sort of aviary. Previous attempts at indirect dating of macaw skeletons concluded that they were obtained during the Chaco florescence, but the accuracy of the methods used, based on associated tree rings and ceramic type frequencies, is questionable. With radiocarbon dating, the researchers examined 14 Pueblo Bonito macaw skeletons that are currently housed in the Museum's collection.
Direct radiocarbon dating of macaw skeletons found that 12 of the 14 sampled macaws predate the Chaco florescence, with about half of them dating to the late 800s and mid-900s. The acquisition of these birds would have been a formidable task, requiring the removal of fledglings from the nest soon after their birth before traveling between 1,800 and 2,500 kilometers (about 1,120-1,550 miles) on foot back to Chaco.
"We propose that the hierarchical sociopolitical foundation of Chacoan society was established during the initial era of construction of the great houses and that this foundation was reinforced during the late ninth and 10th centuries by the acquisition of scarlet macaws and other cosmologically powerful agents from Mesoamerica," Plog said. "Sociopolitical hierarchies evolved over the course of nearly two centuries before taking the more visible forms seen in the Chaco florescence. As in many parts of the world, this was a long-term process rather than a brief, abrupt transformation."
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Reference:
EurekAlert2015. “Scarlet macaw skeletons point to early emergence of Pueblo hierarchy”. EurekAlert. Posted: June 22, 2015. Available online: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-06/amon-sms061915.php
The cave, on the shore of Utah’s Great Salt Lake, was first excavated in the 1930s, but the artifacts found there — and the questions that they raised — were largely forgotten until recently.
Dr. Jack Ives of the University of Alberta and his colleagues resumed excavations in the cave in 2011 to better understand its occupants, some of whom Ives believes may have been part of one of the greatest human migrations in the continent’s history.
Promontory Caves — contains “exceedingly abundant” artifacts numbering in the thousands, Ives said, marking a human occupation that began rather suddenly about 850 years ago.
This wealth of artifacts may go a long way in demystifying the distinctive, little-researched populations often referred to as the Promontory Culture.
“The beauty of the Promontory Culture is, probably 99 percent of the material culture that the people used was perishable,” Ives said in an interview.
“So, normally in the archaeological record, we only see the durable items — the pottery, the stone tools, the animal bones.
“[But] we have, with the Promontory Culture, spectacularly, more material culture, so we can see all aspects of daily life, together with nuances likely to reflect different cultural identities.”
Large piles of butchered bison and elk bones, for example, suggest that the Promontory lifestyle was based, almost exclusively and quite successfully, on big-game hunting, while other groups around them were farming and foraging.
Scant ceramic sherds and basket fragments, meanwhile, bear strong signs of influence from other Great Basin cultures, including the Fremont.
But it was the staggering amount of footwear in the caves that captured the attention of archaeologists, past and present.
With soles made from a single piece of bison leather, lined with fur, and sewn together at the heel, the moccasins are made in a style typical of the Canadian Subarctic, Ives said, a fashion his team describes as being “decidedly out of place in the eastern Great Basin.”
These moccasins and other cues have led some experts to theorize that the caves’ inhabitants were part of a great migration from the far north, a wave of people who moved into the Great Basin in the 12th and 13th centuries, and eventually gave rise to cultures that include the Apache and the Navajo.
To better understand the role that the Promontory may have played in this event, Ives and his colleagues used the moccasins to gauge the size and makeup of their population.
The team studied 207 pieces of footwear excavated from the cave, both in the 1930s and the 2010s, using the moccasins’ lengths to estimate the age and stature of their owners, based on known anatomical ratios.
The results showed that the vast majority of the moccasins — just over 82 percent — were worn by children of ages 12 and under.
“One of our [paper’s] reviewers said, this isn’t like a normal family ratio — this is more like an elementary school ratio,” Ives said in an interview.
Because the moccasins were likely “cast offs” that accumulated over several decades, these figures don’t reflect the exact demographics of the Promontory community, Ives explained, but they do provide valuable insights into its general proportions.
“These numerous moccasins are telling us about the structure of the population, not necessarily specific numbers,” he said.
“But you can see that children and subadults are a very big part of the population.”
Analysis of radiocarbon dates from the samples suggests that the most intense period of the cave’s use ranged over only one or two human generations — from about 1250 to 1290 CE.
This was a time, Ives points out, when other cultures in North America’s interior were undergoing dramatic changes, as a drying climate and shifting social landscapes forced entire communities to relocate, most notably among the Ancestral Puebloans.
“It’s a tumultuous time period in which this is happening,” he said.
“We know there’s a significant environmental change going on.”
And yet, the large number of children in the Promontory population — along with other clues like the abundance of burned bones of large game — suggest that the Promontory people were “thriving,” Ives said.
“That very high proportion of kids would suggest that it’s a population that’s reproducing very well,” he said.
“We can’t get more specific than that, … but it’s suggesting that there are a lot [of children] in the society, and that implies minimally that they’re doing pretty well.
“Taking it a bit farther, they’re likely a growing population.”
This period of flourishing amid otherwise hard times may have been a pivotal chapter in what Ives calls the “immense human story” of migration from the Canadian Subarctic, one that resulted in the culturally diverse Southwest that we know today.
Ives and his colleagues plan to conduct more research on other artifacts from the caves, like stone tools, nets, and bows, that bear important similarities to Subarctic cultures.
A recent, large-scale genetic study may also provide molecular evidence of the migrant’s trans-continental journey.
But for now, the materials found in Promontory Caves stand as rare examples of perishable goods that have survived to provide glimpses into the day-to-day life during this crucial period.
“Normally [these moccasins] would be gone, but here [in the cave] they’re present in abundance, and they’re signalling: We are typical of the north. That’s what they’re signalling.
“This is not mortality data,” he added. “Some research reaches conclusions from cemetery or burial settings.
“This is vitality data — these were living children and adults that the moccasins came from.”
Ives and his colleagues report their findings in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
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De Pastino, Blake. 2015. “Utah Cave Full of Children’s Moccasins Sheds Light on Little-Known Ancient Culture”. Western Digs. Posted: November 17, 2014. Available online: http://westerndigs.org/utah-cave-full-of-childrens-moccasins-sheds-light-on-little-known-ancient-culture/
A $199,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation will allow researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science to help protect Werowocomoco—one of the most important Native American sites in the eastern U.S.—from shoreline erosion and sea-level rise.
Occupied for the last 10,000 years, Werowocomoco was the seat of power for Algonquian Chief Powhatan when English colonists arrived at Jamestowne in 1607. The site—where Captain John Smith was purportedly saved by Powhatan's daughter Pocahontas—occupies an eroding headland on the north side of the York River about half way between Yorktown and West Point. Bob and Lynn Ripley, the current landowners, have graciously allowed a conservation easement and archeological excavations on the 57 acres of their property that form the core of the historic village.
VIMS researcher Donna Milligan, who leads the project in collaboration with colleagues at the National Park Service (NPS) and the Virginia Department of Historical Resources (VDHR), says "This project is about protecting a one-of-a-kind archeological site. Every day, erosion is removing artifacts from the bank, and we can fix that. We can build a living shoreline that somewhat mimics what the Native Americans would have hunted and fished, the marshy area that would have fringed the whole shoreline in their time."
The main feature of the restoration project will be two or more sills—long piles of rock placed just offshore and parallel to the low, sandy cliff that forms the existing shoreline. Between sill and shore, sand and marsh grasses will be added for additional habitat and protection. Bringing an educational component to the project, the marsh grasses will be planted and monitored by students from Ware Academy in Gloucester. All told, the project will create about 15,000 square feet of marsh while keeping more than 900,000 pounds of sediment and nearly 500 pounds of phosphorus and nitrogen out of the York River each year.
Milligan says VIMS' role in the project is to create the conceptual plan for managing the shoreline—figuring out where to place the sills, how long and high they should be, and the distance between them. That requires careful analysis of a host of site-specific factors, including tidal range, water depth, prevailing wave direction and height, frequency of storm surge, the prevalence of boat wakes, geometry and orientation of the shoreline, height and composition of the bank, and any existing shoreline-defense structures. Scott Hardaway, Director of VIMS' Shoreline Studies program, says the ultimate goal of the restoration is "a diverse coastal habitat that supports marine life, land animals, and birds, while protecting the shoreline and archaeological resources from storms and sea-level rise."
The effects of sea-level rise at the site are clear. Analysis of aerial imagery by VIMS researchers shows that the most exposed stretches of the Werowocomoco shoreline are eroding at a rate of more than 1.5 feet annually, with nearly 100 feet of retreat since the 1930s. Remnant marsh outcrops, widening marsh creeks, and "ghost" trees provide further evidence of rising waters. William & Mary Professor Martin Gallivan, head of archeology at Werowocomoco, says "This area has seen considerable erosion since the site represented a Native town, with recent hurricanes producing visible damage to the bluff."
The area of greatest concern along the 1,300-foot Werowocomoco shoreline is a 300-foot stretch bisected by an existing pier. "Erosion in this section threatens the connection between the pier and the bank," says Milligan. "We've identified this as a critical area and will address it in Phase 1 of the overall shore-protection system." Protection will likely come via construction of two sills, each about 125 feet long and separated by a 50-foot gap for the pier.
Hardaway adds "We'll prepare a Joint Permit Application for the entire site, then put construction of the Phase 1 sills out to bid as a design/build project to local marine contractors." Construction costs are by far the largest part of the project budget. Protection of the remaining Werowocomoco shoreline awaits additional funding.
Preserving the pier is a key part of the long-term plan for the site. The plan—prepared by the Ripleys, NPS, and VDHR—ultimately sees public ownership and permanent protection of the entire 250-acre property, with land access from the Gloucester County road system and water access by boat from another existing pier at York River State Park—directly across the river and within easy driving distance of Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, and other hubs of historical tourism. Werowocomoco is also part of the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. This water trail—the first of its kind in the U.S.—follows the historic routes of Smith's travels based on his maps and journals.
"With docks on both sides of the river, water access to Werowocomoco is easily carried out and will provide an exciting and historic visit," says Milligan. Indeed, the National Park Service believes that visitation to Werowocomoco could ultimately rival that of Jamestown.
Says NPS Superintendent Chuck Hunt, "Werowocomoco could certainly become one of the major heritage tourism sites in the region. It would not only be a major factor in the local economy but also play an important role in helping people to understand the life of American Indians at the time of European contact."
Adds Gallivan, "The archaeological research at Werowocomoco has been conducted in partnership with Virginia Indian tribes who have expressed a special connection to the site and its long history as a landscape of Native power. This shoreline project will provide critical protection for Werowocomoco's richest archaeological deposits. The shoreline was the residential core of the town, and the archaeology in this area includes artifacts, food remains, and the footprints of Powhatan houses. My colleagues and I in the Werowocomoco Research Group agree that this project will provide immeasurable benefits for the site. The stabilization plan is carefully considered and will not harm the archaeological record."
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EurekAlert. 2014. “VIMS to help protect key Native-American site”. EurekAlert. Posted: October 15, 2014. Available online: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-10/viom-vth101514.php
Quite a bit of what Matt Stirn, Rebecca Sgouros and a crew of volunteers found in the high Tetons remains to be told.
Partly because archaeology is a science, and the bits of data they found over two two-week expeditions on the west slope of the Teton Range still need to undergo intense study before any conclusions can be drawn.
And partly because the locations of these heretofore unknown, and unexplored, high-elevation archaeological sites are secret.
“At a few sites we found very little,” said Stirn, who with Sgouros runs the Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum’s new archaeology program. “They were picked over. ... Mountain archaeology is so fragile as it is, because of the environment, we really need as much information as we can gather. When artifacts are taken, that prevents us from answering questions.”
But the very fact that there are sites — some picked over, some yielding troves of evidence about Native American use and habitation of the high country dating back perhaps as early as 11,000 years ago — is exciting news.
Not that long ago archaeologists thought indigenous people of the region made short visits and spotty use of resources above 10,000 feet. The harsh conditions and unpredictable weather, it was assumed, would have mostly discouraged humans fromall but brief visits to forage or for spiritual purposes.
But then a team that included Stirn started finding evidence that American Indians not only pitched camps in the high country of the Wind River Range but also established alpine villages that were possibly used for thousands of years. Besides widespread projectile points, they found large grinding stones that may have been used over generations as well circular depressions that, upon closer inspection, proved to be remnants of structures.
This summer Stirn and Sgouros applied techniques in the Tetons similar to those used in the Winds. With a small group of students from the University of Wyoming and the University of Montana, over two weeks in the mountains — a rainy one in August and a snowy one in September — they found ample signs not only of prehistoric people making short visits there but of families going up to spend an entire summer.
“And probably the spring and fall, too,” said Stirn, who with Sgouros served as project director of the expeditions. What they found “painted the mountains as less marginal, a less harsh picture,” he said.
Archaeological surveys in the Tetons go back to the ’70s, but new technology and new ideas about how prehistoric people might have used the area inspired a new round of inquiry. The result, Stirn said, is 30 previously unrecorded sites probably ranging from 11,000 years ago to “proto-history,” or about when “new Americans” began to enter the picture.
The findings stand to dramatically change archaeologists’ ideas about how ancient residents of the region used the mountains.
Bowl is a rare find
Artifacts found include stone points and tools, soapstone fragments and one complete vessel.
“That’s very rare,” Stirn said of the bowl. “That’s not something we find every day.”
The bowl was found between some rocks beneath some shrubs and nearly covered by dirt. Only the round ring of its lip was visible. Stirn and Sgouros hope the dirt preserved some signs of what the bowl was used for. Because soapstone is porous, any fats the bowl may have contained could have sunk into the vessel’s pores and been preserved. They hope biomolecular testing, to be performed in England, will find such signs, which could reveal how old the item is and also offer clues about what its makers ate.
Sgouros said bighorn sheep or pine nuts would not be unexpected.
Also of interest are artifacts made of stone from the Absarokas near Dubois.
“Stone can travel a ways,” Sgouros said. “We’re guessing [the tools’ makers] moved all over the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. During the winter I’d guess they went to the Snake River Plain toward Idaho. … That’s something not just us but other archaeologists who work at high-altitude sites are trying to find out: where occupants spent their winters.”
Stirn said a lot of artifacts found at Wind River sites are associated with Plains Indian cultures in Nebraska and Kansas, while Teton artifacts are more in the style of the Great Basins of Utah and Idaho.
“So somewhere, the Tetons or the Winds, is that divide between the Great Basin and Plains cultures,” he said. In addition to doing a lot of walking around looking at the ground, the team also zeroed in on ice patches. In many places around the world permanent ice patches are shrinking due to a warming climate. As a result, a lot of material is working its way out, including artifacts made from organic material that, had they not been frozen for the past thousand years or more, would have decayed long ago (see sidebar).
“There’s all this other stuff in there,” Sgouros said, referring not only to the treasures waiting to be found in the ice but to other artifacts waiting to be found elsewhere.
The team has a five-year permit with public land agencies to continue its work. “Our main goal this first season was to see what was up there,” Sgouros said. “Now that we’ve accomplished that we can answer other questions.”
Next: compare east and west
For example, Stirn said, they’d like to plot sites and compare the east side of the Tetons with the west side. “What we consider steep and difficult terrain probably was nothing for them,” he said. “It would be interesting to ask: Did the severity of the topography on Jackson side of Tetons cause problems? Or maybe not. Both answers would be interesting.”
Also, a high priority is to work with the U.S. Forest Service to come up with a plan to preserve and protect the sites. Some areas are frequented by hikers and horse packers. While for the most part looting appeared to be minimal, there’s no real way of knowing what has been disturbed or even removed.
“There are productive ways that anyone can interact with and study the past in a way that doesn’t damage it,” Stirn said, “including working as volunteers with us or other projects.”
“There’s so much left to study,” Sgouros said.
The team plans to present its findings at one of the historical society’s Voices of the Valley events later this fall, possibly in early November.
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Anderson, Richard. 2014. “High Tetons surrender clues about prehistoric residents”. Jackson Hole News & Guide. Posted: October 15, 2014. Available online: http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/news/environmental/high-tetons-surrender-clues-about-prehistoric-residents/article_f2ba9672-b097-501e-a046-c74d8a099d24.html
Between A.D. 1140 and A.D. 1180, about nine out of 10 skeletons from around the Mesa Verde region in Colorado show signs of head trauma or blows to the arms, according to a new study published in the July issue of the journal American Antiquity.
"We’ve concentrated on one thing, and that is trauma, especially to the head and portions of the arms," study co-author Tim Kohler, an archaeologist at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, said in a statement. "That’s allowed us to look at levels of violence through time in a comparative way."
Researchers are unsure why society in this region took a turn for the worse around this time, while ancient inhabitants further south in New Mexico lived relatively peacefully. The new findings shed light on why the ancient settlers around the Mesa Verde region mysteriously vanished over the course of only three decades in the late 1200s.
Ancient baby boom
In a study earlier this year analyzing the same burial plots, Kohler and his colleagues found that from A.D. 500 until about 1300, the ancient southwest experienced a prolonged baby boom. During that period, each woman had an average of more than six children in her lifetime, a higher fertility rate than is seen anywhere else in the modern world. A shift from a nomadic existence to a settled agricultural lifestyle, and specifically plumper, more easily cultivated maize, may have led to this surge in population, the researchers hypothesized.
The growing populations spawned more complex, sophisticated and specialized societies around the northern Rio Grande, in what is now New Mexico. The Rio Grande dwellers shifted from kin-based social networks to affiliating with everyone from their pueblo. Larger pan-pueblo associations, such as medicine societies, also flourished. The ancient inhabitants also developed a specialized expertise in crafts, such as shaping obsidian arrow points, which allowed them to trade across larger pueblo networks.
Around the Rio Grande, the population boom may have ushered in more peaceful ways of living, because people in the specialized society were more reluctant to wage war. If the arrow maker, the beer brewer, the weaver and the potter all need each other's goods to survive, it doesn't make sense to fight, the researchers said.
More people, more problems
But further north, in what is now modern-day Colorado, people didn't adapt well to the denser population environment. Few people developed specialized skills, which meant that each person likely looked out for him- or herself.
"When you don't have specialization in societies, there's a sense in which everybody is a competitor because everybody is doing the same thing," Kohler said.
A wave of settlers from further south didn't help matters. People who lived in the Chaco Canyon civilization attempted to expand into the Mesa Verde region following a drought in the mid-1100s.
"They were resisted," Kohler said in a statement, "but resistance was futile."
For a while, the wealthiest people may have stuck around because they had the most fertile spots, even though people in those pueblos were probably leaving as well. Older people, "who weren’t so anxious to move as the young folks who thought, ‘We could make a better living elsewhere,'" may also have been amongst the last holdouts, Kohler said.
In the final days of those settlements, the remaining few pueblos were likely manned by just a few older people, making them especially vulnerable to raids.
And in the end, the settlements were completely abandoned.
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References:
Ghose, Tia. 2014. “Marred Skeletons Reveal Brutal Fighting in Precolonial Colorado”. Live Science. Posted: August 4, 2014. Available online: http://www.livescience.com/47181-ancient-southwest-had-ultraviolent-period.html
But little direct evidence exists to prove which tree species filled the forests before they were cleared for fields and fuel. Swamp-loving plants, like sedges and tussocks, are the fossil survivors, not delicate leaves from hardwood trees.
Now, thanks to a rare fossil discovery in the Pennsylvania foothills, scientists can tell the full story of America's lost forests.
The fossil site is a muddy layer packed with leaves from hardwood trees that lived more than 300 years ago along Conestoga Creek in Lancaster County, Pa. The muck was laid down before one of Pennsylvania's 10,000 mill dams, called Denlinger's Mill, was built nearby, damming the stream and burying the mud and leaves in sediment.
Researchers from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., discovered the fossil leaves while investigating the lingering effects of milldams. The thousands of small dams — which powered mills, forges and other industry — changed the water table, altering the plants growing nearby and eventually changing the landscape from wetlands to deeply incised, quickly flowing streams.
Before Europeans arrived, American beech, red oak and sweet birch trees shaded Conestoga Creek, according to a study the researchers published today (Nov. 13) in the journal PLOS ONE. Some 300 years later, those trees are gone. The same spot is now home to mostly box elder and sugar maple trees, said Sara Elliott, the study's lead author and a research associate at the University of Texas at Austin's Bureau of Economic Geology.
"This is a very unusual opportunity to compare modern and fossil forest assemblages," Elliott told LiveScience. "It's like you're time traveling," she said.
Elliott carefully peeled apart hundreds of leaves stuck together by mud and layered like a pile of sticky notes. Washing the leaves in a variety of chemical baths helped Elliott determine the leaves' structure and species. The research was performed at Penn State University.
Other kinds of trees found in the fossil layer that have since vanished from North America include the American chestnut, which was attacked by an imported fungal disease called the chestnut blight. Leaves from swamp plants also appear in the mud, confirming that the forested spot was on the upslope edge of a nearby wetland.
"We had a valley margin forest growing right next to the valley bottom in conjunction with all these wetlands," Elliott said. "I think we really have a rather complete picture now of what the landscape was like in this region."
The three dominant tree species found in the fossil forest leaves still exist today in the Northeast, but in different proportions and in different places, Elliot said.
The scientists hope that identifying similar fossil tree-leaf sites will help the massive milldam restoration projects underway throughout the Northeast. The dams left a legacy of toxic sediment piled up behind their walls, as well as reshaped the landscape.
"Having a more complete and enhanced understanding of this past dynamic and complex landscape will help in restoring an ecologically diverse and functional system," Elliott said.
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References:
Oskin, Becky. 2013. “What America's Forests Looked Like Before Europeans Arrived”. Live Science. Posted: November 13, 2013. Available online: http://www.livescience.com/41198-old-growth-forests-before-europeans.html
In a 35-acre farm field on the west side of the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville campus, history is literally unearthed every summer. Amidst the growing corn, anthropology students dig well-defined, carefully smoothed holes in the ground. In these holes, students and faculty have found axes, arrowheads, Hopewell pottery, figurines and more that were left behind by Native Americans as long ago as 10,000 years.
Since 2009, SIUE anthropology professors have worked alongside students during these digs. This opportunity is part of the field school program, which offers anthropology students the chance to gain hands-on experiences in their areas of study. Because of the importance of their discoveries, the field was taken out of agricultural production and dedicated solely to archeological digs.
Each summer, 10 students interested in archaeology get the opportunity to excavate the soil in search of Native American artifacts and structure locations. Students spend their time delving into the earth under their professor’s direction and supervision, sifting soil through screens, mapping the dug areas and washing artifacts in the lab. Each finding has led them and anthropology faculty to learn more about the culture of people who once inhabited what is now the Metro East.
Anthropology professor Dr. Julie Holt led the five-week summer 2013 archaeological dig. “Since we began digging in this area in 2009, we have found more than 30,000 artifacts,” said Holt. “We have found items that are common to the period and location, as well as more rare pieces, like mica and a ‘Casper the Ghost’ style figurine.”
The dig findings are mostly from the Woodland and Mississippian periods. The Woodland period lasted from 1000 BCE to 1000 CE and involved hunter-gatherer and agricultural Native Americans. Mississippian culture thrived from 1000 CE to 1400 CE and is centered on mound-building Native Americans, like the Cahokians. Artifacts from earlier periods have also been found – perhaps as much as 10,000 years old.
During the 2013 archaeological gig, anthropology senior and Edwardsville native, Courtney Reiter, found the figurine and mica. Mica is a shiny mineral that Holt believes could have been used for ceremonial objects, and the figurine is a small ceramic doll. Reiter participated in the archaeological dig as part of her undergraduate requirement but also because she plans to be an archaeologist.
“Finding the figurine was really exciting,” Reiter said. “Going on this dig has made me even more enthusiastic about pursuing my career.”
What makes both the mica and the figurine especially unique is that they are not common for the southwestern Illinois area. Holt says the figurine is 2,000 years old and that only one other “Casper” style figurine has been found in the American Bottom. Mica is also not locally found. Holt believes the mineral was brought to the site from the Carolinas.
“These finds tell us that the people who lived here may have migrated,” said Holt. “They may have come for a winter hunting trip. However, if they had mica and other ‘fancy’ pottery or ceremonial objects, they may have stayed here longer.”
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References:
McIlhagga, Doug. 2013. “SIUE Archaeological Dig Provides Insight Into Ancient Cultures”. PRWeb. Posted: July 4, 2013. Available online: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/7/prweb10895822.htm
Mesa Verde is Spanish for “green table” and the people who lived there are often called the “Anasazi,” a Navajo word that has been translated as “the ancient ones” or “enemy ancestors.” While they did not develop a writing system, they left behind rich archaeological remains that, along with oral stories passed down through the ages, have allowed researchers to reconstruct their past.
The region they lived in is defined by researchers at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. It encompassed almost 10,000 square miles (26,000 square km) of territory going across the states of Utah, Colorado and New Mexico, with part of the region in Colorado forming Mesa Verde National Park.
It was a tough place to make a living. “Cold, snowy winters give way to hot, dry summers, and periods of relatively abundant moisture are punctuated by sporadic — but sometimes prolonged — periods of drought,” writes a team of Crow Canyon researchers in a 2011 online article. “Living off the land has always been, and continues to be, a challenge, but one that people through the ages have met with extraordinary ingenuity and resilience.”
Early History – The “Basketmakers”
The Crow Canyon researchers note that after A.D. 500, a people whom archaeologists refer to as the “Basketmakers” (named from their finely woven baskets) moved from the peripheries of the Mesa Verde archaeological area into the center. They grew corn, squash and beans, supplementing these crops by hunting game and collecting wild plants.
In the time after they moved into the center of Mesa Verde, they developed pottery and the bow and arrow. The adoption of the bow appears to have increased their hunting proficiency, resulting in some game animals, like deer, eventually becoming overhunted and replaced with domesticated turkey.
They lived in simple pit houses with a hearth, fire hole and room for storage. Entered through the roof by way of a ladder the fact that the house was partly underground helped keep it cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
These people came together in what we call “great kivas,” which were also located partly underground. “These very large (more than 100 square meters, or 1,076 square feet), round structures are thought to have been used for public gatherings during which members of the community socialized, performed ceremonies, or discussed issues important to the group,” the Crow Canyon researchers write.
Growth and first collapse
This way of life appears to have been quite successful, at least for a time. A team of researchers report in a 2007 "American Antiquity" article that a portion of the Mesa Verde region, located in Colorado, more than doubled in population between roughly A.D. 700 and 850.
At this time larger communities began to appear in Mesa Verde that used a new type of above-ground structure known to archaeologists as “room blocks.” Built in addition to pit houses, they contained fire hearths and places for storage. Crow Canyon archaeologists note that these room blocks were made of adobe, stone and plant materials, with stone masonry becoming more important as time went on.
But, just as the population peaked, something happened and the people left in droves. The researchers in the "American Antiquity" articlenote that the area of land they’re studying, in Colorado, saw its population rapidly shrink between A.D. 850 and 930 to a level not much above zero. This appears to have happened across the Mesa Verde region with the population moving south to places like Chaco Canyon in New Mexico.
Recent research suggests that a change in climate played a role in this emigration. In a 2008 "American Scientist" article, researchers note that pollen remains indicate that the weather in at least part of the Mesa Verde region became colder.
“Presumably, the most productive portions of this area became cold enough in the 900s to make maize (farming) risky. Dry winters compounded this problem.”
Moving back to Mesa Verde
This downturn in the climate did not last and after A.D. 930 evidence indicates that people moved back into the Mesa Verde region.
Their time at sites like Chaco Canyon, to the south, influenced them, and they brought back a type of building which archaeologists call a “great house.” These functioned as community centers, of sorts, that stood on high ground and contained multistory rooms.
The Crow Canyon Archaeological Center archaeologists note that “like great kivas, great houses were public structures, probably used for community-wide ceremonies and meetings,” they write. “In addition, great houses — with their large storage capacity — may have served as central storage and distribution facilities for both food and trade items.”
Another thing the people appear to have brought from their time outside Mesa Verde was connections to a vast trade network. “The presence of Chaco-style pottery vessels, macaw-feather sashes, and copper bells at some sites indicates that the Pueblo people of the Mesa Verde region were part of a vast trading network that included not only Chaco Canyon but much more distant locations in Mexico as well,” write the Crow Canyon archaeologists.
Cliff dwellings
The researchers who wrote the "American Antiquity" article note that the population in their study area continued to grow almost continuously after A.D. 930, spiking in the 13th century. It was during this last century that people began creating what are called “cliff dwellings,” which are houses, and in some cases entire villages, built into cliff edges. The National Park Service estimates that there are about 600 of these preserved at Mesa Verde National Park. Built near springs, the naturally enclosed sites offered protection against both the elements and intruders.
“Many of the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde are small, only one or two rooms built in alcoves or shallow caves,” writes archaeologist Larry Nordby in a chapter of the book "The Conservation of Decorated Surfaces on Earthen Architecture" (J. Paul Getty Trust, 2006). He notes that one of the largest cliff-dwelling sites is a place we call “Cliff Palace.” It contains about 150 rooms and nearly two dozen kivas that were used, presumably, as a gathering place for rituals.
Cliff Palace also had many decorations that are not well preserved. “Fairly typical examples of embellishments are a panel of numerous stamped handprints above doorways and a series of zoomorphic (animal) figures painted onto plasters,” Nordby writes.
The second collapse
The cliff settlements were not to last. Another population collapse occurred, this time at the end of the 13th century, leaving sites like Cliff Palace abandoned and falling into ruin. The people appear to have migrated south again to sites in Arizona and New Mexico.
Why this second, and very dramatic, collapse in population occurred is a mystery. In the "American Scientist" article, researchers note that a mix of factors seems to be involved. “A combination of factors — including climate change, population growth, competition for resources and conflict — seem to have sparked the move,” they write.
At one Mesa Verde site called “Sand Canyon,” people late in the 13th century were depending more on wild plants and were eating less domesticated turkey. With the population shrinking the site fell into ruin and “refuse was being deposited in once-important civic or ceremonial structures, such as the great kiva,” the researchers write.
There were also signs of a battle. “Excavators found 23 complete or fairly complete human bodies, as well as scattered bones from at least 11 other individuals, indicating that at least 34 people died at or near the end of the village occupation,” the researchers write, noting that “none of these bodies was formally buried, and at least eight exhibit direct evidence of violent death.”
The people who left Sand Canyon, before the final fall, likely joined the other people of the Mesa Verde region in migrating south to new lands.
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References:
Jarus, Owen. 2013. “Mesa Verde: Cliff Dwellings of the Anasazi”. Live Science. Posted: February 22, 2013. Available online: http://www.livescience.com/27360-mesa-verde.html
