| Archaeologists find evidence of cannibalism in early Southwest
Associated Press, 04/04/97 07:42
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - One spring around the year 1150, the people of
what's now known as Cowboy Wash met a horrible end.
In a jumbled collection of bones, tools and pottery, archaeologists
have uncovered grim evidence that attackers slaughtered, butchered and
perhaps even cannibalized the long-ago inhabitants of the American
Southwest.
The discovery adds to the growing debate over the possibility of
cannibalism among the Anasazi Indians, whose spectacular,
apartment-like cliff dwellings are now a major tourist attraction.
``We feel very strongly that this is a case of cannibalism. If it's
not, we don't know what else it could be that would produce this set of
remains,'' said Brian Billman, part of a team of archaeologists who
excavated the site from 1992 to 1996 in the Ute Mountains of
southwestern Colorado.
Inside two of the three small dwellings they unearthed were the bones
of at least seven people scattered amid the everyday pottery and tools
of 12th century Southwestern life. Cut marks on the bones suggest that
the bodies were butchered about the time of death, and darkened areas
on some of them suggest cooking as well.
``Certainly people were mutilated, and it seems to be the case that
they were eaten,'' said Patricia Lambert, a Utah State University
archaeologist.
Lambert, Billman and archaeologist Banks Leonard presented the results
of the Cowboy Wash dig on Thursday in Nashville at the annual meeting
of the Society for American Archaeology.
Hopi tribal archaeologist Kurt Dongoske said the evidence from Cowboy
Wash and the 30-plus other Southwestern sites where dismembered remains
have been found doesn't actually prove that human flesh was consumed.
The bones could be the result of attacks in which people were hacked
apart but not eaten, he said. They could also be those of people
suspected of witchcraft, who in many cultures are dismembered or
otherwise destroyed after death. In colonial New England, for example,
suspected witches were executed.
The bones may even have a nonviolent origin, Dongoske suggested. The
Anasazi may have left dismembered bodies in abandoned buildings for
religious reasons. That wouldn't be too far removed from the practice
of displaying holy relics consisting of saints' body parts at medieval
cathedrals.
In addition to the bones, there are two stone cutting tools at Cowboy
Wash bearing traces of human blood. And preserved human feces were
found on the hearth in the middle of one dwelling.
``It seems to me that that's a pretty universal symbol of contempt,''
said David Wilcox of Arizona State University.
Arizona State University archaeologist Christy Turner, who spent three
decades researching cannibalism among the Anasazi, hypothesized that
raiders from Mexico, where cannibalism is known to have been practiced,
committed the violence at Cowboy Wash and the other sites.
But Billman believes that the violence was more local, perhaps related
to a drought that hit the Southwest during the middle and late 12th
century.
The pottery at the Cowboy Wash site suggests that its inhabitants may
have been immigrants from about 50 miles to the south, and the locals
may have resented the newcomers' presence when things got bad, he said.
The apparent violence came on the heels of the abandonment of Chaco
Canyon, a large collection of Anasazi dwellings in northwestern New
Mexico, in about 1140.
``It's not very common,'' Billman said. ``But for some reason probably
having to do with the drought and probably the collapse of the Chaco
system, there's this outbreak, so to speak, of cannibalism.''
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