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The existence of cannibalism has emerged as one of the most controversial issues in the archaeology of the American Southwest. In this paper, we examine this issue by presenting the results of our investigation at 5MT10010, a small early Pueblo III habitation site in southwestern Colorado. Battered, broken bones from seven individuals were discovered in two adjacent pithouses at 5MT10010. Mixed and incomplete remains of four adults and an adolescent were recovered from the floor and ventilator shaft of one pithouse; the remains of two subadults were found on the floor and in various subfeatures of the second. Cut marks and percussion scars implicate humans in the disarticulation and reduction of these bodies. Evidence of heat exposure on some bone fragments and laboratory analyses of a human coprolite recovered from one of the pithouses support the interpretation that people prepared and consumed human body parts. The discovery of disarticulated human remains at 5MT10010 is one of a number of similar finds in the northern Southwest. Analysis of cases from the Mesa Verde region indicates a sharp increase in cannibalism around A.D. 1150, a time of drought and the collapse of the Chaco system. The causes, consequences, and nature of this apparent outbreak of cannibalism are examined in light of 5MT10010 and other recent finds.

The existence of cannibalism is one of the most controversial issues in the archaeology of the American Southwest. Disarticulated, cut-marked and heat-altered human remains from non-burial contexts at prehistoric Puebloan (Anasazi) archaeological sites in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest have been interpreted by some scholars as evidence of cannibalism. Osteological studies indicate that many of the disarticulated bodies found at these sites were processed in a manner consistent with food preparation. Opponents of this interpretation point out that non-cannibalistic practices such as secondary interment, corpse mutilation and ritualized witch executions might account for the assemblages. Osteological evidence alone does not document the actual ingestion of human flesh. Here we show consumption of human flesh did occur as demonstrated in preserved human waste containing identifiable human tissue remains from a site with osteological evidence of cannibalism.

Geoarchaeological study on the southern piedmont of Sleeping Ute Mountain in southwestern Colorado indicates the presence of discontinuous ephemeral streams that were the foci of episodic Puebloan occupation between A.D. 600s and 1280. Characterized by arroyos, discontinuous ephemeral streams contain alternating aggrading and degrading reaches and are well suited for ak chin floodwater agriculture. Episodic Puebloan abandonment of the southern piedmont correlates with periods of drought but does not appear to be linked to stream entrenchment. We question a priori assumptions of droughts correlated to stream entrenchment and urge caution in the use of drought-arroyo models for settlement shifts in alluvial flood plains without supporting stratigraphic or geomorphic evidence.

AbstractIn this paper we test the hypothesis that an intensification of maize production preceded the development of a regional Moche political economy in the Moche Valley of north coastal Peru during the Early Intermediate period (400 B.C.—A.D. 600). To do so we analyze stable isotopic signatures of 48 bone apatite and 17 tooth enamel samples from human remains recovered from the site of Cerro Oreja, a large urban and ceremonial center in the Moche Valley. These remains date to the Guañape, Salinar, or Gallinazo phases and provide a diachronic picture of subsistence before the appearance of the Southern Moche state. The most notable patterns identified in the study include a lack of significant change in δ13Capatitevalues from the Guañape to Satinar phases, followed by a significant enrichment in δ13Capatitevalues from the Salinar to Gallinazo phases. Several lines of evidence, including archaeological context, dental data, and comparative carbon stable isotope data from experimental animal studies and studies of archaeological human remains support the interpretation that the observed13C enrichment in stable isotope values in the Gallinazo phase primarily reflects maize intensification. The stable isotope data from Cerro Oreja thus suggest that a shift in subsistence toward a highly productive and storable crop may have served as an important precursor to state development during the Early Intermediate period in the Moche Valley.

Many scholars interpret assemblages of disarticulated human remains from Anasazi sites as evidence of cannibalism. Other scholars argue that variation in the condition of these assemblages implies that many, if not all, resulted from non‐cannibalistic practices. This paper evaluates four well‐documented cases of mutilated human bones from a dispersed community on the southern piedmont of Ute Mountain, Colorado. Evidence indicates that all four sites were suddenly abandoned around ad 1150, after events responsible for corpse mutilation took place. Still, variations in processing methods were observed between the sites and between two sets of remains at one site. The authors suggest that these, and similar assemblages in the Mesa Verde region, resulted from violent raiding involving cannibalism, and that minor processing variations are consistent with the expediency inherent in such attacks. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We present the results of detailed surficial geologic mapping for a 10 km 2 area of alluvial (quebrada) deposits located in the middle Moche Valley of Peru, where archaeological features and deposits provide cross-cutting relationships and numerical age control for late Holocene erosion and deposition associated with El Niñ o. Despite surfaces containing clasts that are heavily pitted and cracked due to salt weathering, archaeological and 14 C dates indicate that most quebrada landforms in the study area are late Holocene in age and may reflect enhanced alluviation associated with increased El Niñ o activity beginning ca. 6000 cal yr B.P. Our study provides criteria for correlative dating of other Holocene landforms in the Moche Valley area but urges caution in long-distance (Ͼ100 km) correlation because of geographic variability in surface weathering. Surficial geologic mapping aided by archaeological age control allows improved understanding of the rates of landscape change important to the development of complex irrigation-based societies in the Peruvian Desert. ᭧

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