article
Perimortem damage to human skeletal remains from Wupatki National Monument, northern Arizona
Kiva • 55 (3) • Published In 1990 • Pages: 187-212
By: Turner, Christy G., Turner, Jacqueline A..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Turner and Turner examine two assemblages of human skeletal remains from the Wupatki National Monument: Room 59 from Wupatki Pueblo and House of Tragedy in Big Hawk Valley. The 19 individuals from Wupatki Pueblo appear to have died from an epidemic and been rapidly buried. The pueblo was probably then abandoned due to the catastrophic nature of the epidemic on the pueblo. This allowed scavenging animals to disturb the graves. The remains were then deposited in Room 59 by later visitors to the Pueblo. These remains provide a "taphonomic signature for differentiating damage done by [carnivores] and that due to humans in other Southwest sites …" (page 206). At Tragedy House the authors found evidence of cannibalism with butchering marks, smashed long bones, and unceremonious abandonment of the dead. Turner and Turner point out "that repugnance to the eating of human flesh, particularly that of enemies, would not necessarily be expected to occur with a naturalistic worldview…[where] humans are not unique, animals can speak and change forms…and eating human flesh could be … permissible … in some situations such as seeing enemy humans as nonhuman." (page 207). The author's research does not support the view that the Wupatki basin was abandoned because of climate change or ash/soil depletion. Instead, abandonment of the Southwest can be linked to multiple causes and "increased chaos and social pathology." (page 209).
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Burial practices and funerals
- Cannibalism
- Post depositional processes in archaeological sites
- Disasters
- Settlement patterns
- Sociocultural trends
- traditionCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Early Anasazi
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2012
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- North America
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Southwest and Basin
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Physical Anthropologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Sarah Berry; 2011
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- not specified
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 900-700 BP (AD 1100-1300)
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Wupatki basin, northeast Arizona, United States
- NotesAdditional notes
- Christy G. Turner II, Jacqueline A. Turner
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-212)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 41020657
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Indians of North America--Antiquities