Prehistoric Indians of the Southwest

by H. M. Wormington

Meat continued to be included in the diet. Bear, elk, buffalo, wolf, mountain sheep, deer, and rabbits were among the animals hunted. The bow and arrow were almost universally used. Arrowheads were well flaked, usually long and narrow, with long, sharp barbs. Late in the period a new type appeared which became increasingly numerous later. These points were short, broad, and notched at right angles.

Dogs and turkeys were the only domesticated animals. One reason for the belief that they were not kept to provide food is that they have been found buried with mortuary offerings. Corn was provided for the turkeys and bones for the dogs which were buried. There was also pottery, sometimes miniature vessels, sometimes sherds rubbed down to form shallow vessels.

Axes are relatively scarce, but are found in this period. Edges were smoothed by grinding. On the whole these were not very efficient cutting implements, for the edges were quite dull.

Human burials varied widely according to locality. For the most part they are found in refuse heaps. These characteristic mounds, as the name indicates, were formed of the refuse thrown away by the inhabitants of a village and are composed of ashes, dirt, broken pottery, and general debris. There was no disrespect for the dead in burying them in such a place; it was simply that, with the primitive implements available, it was desirable to make interments where digging was easiest. The difficulties of excavation also led to the placing of bodies, in some cases, in abandoned storage pits or houses. Children are often found buried under floors near firepits, possibly because mothers felt that the dependence of an infant extended to the soul and they wished to keep it near.

Bodies were inhumed in a more or less flexed position. There was no fixed orientation, as there was in later periods. Undoubtedly there were some mortuary offerings of a perishable nature, but these have not survived. Pottery was placed in graves in many cases. At Kiatuthlana[107] there was a strong degree of consistency in the offerings. Each grave contained a culinary jar covered by a bowl with a blackened interior, and a black-on-white bowl. Certain graves contained more than three pieces of pottery, but they were in multiples of three, with an equal number of each type.

There are some very puzzling features about the disposal of the dead in Developmental-Pueblo times. In most of the San Juan area and in the Kiatuthlana region the number of graves found is about what would be expected on the basis of the population indicated by habitations. In other places, however, and particularly in the La Plata region,[95] only a very few burials have been found and they undoubtedly represent only a fraction of the deaths which must have occurred. What happened to the remaining bodies is a question which has not been answered. Some particularly baffling finds are: skulls buried without bodies, and bodies buried without heads. In the case of skull burials it has been suggested that warriors may have been killed some distance from home. Bringing the entire body back would have been impracticable, and only the heads were returned to be given suitable burial among the kinsmen of the dead individual. This, however, does not explain the headless skeletons which are also found, for it seems unlikely that the body of an enemy which had been left behind, after the head had been removed, would be given burial.

At Alkali Ridge[7] there was the usual baffling scarcity of burials in early Developmental-Pueblo times, and no evidence of cremation. A number of burials were found in the later [horizon], however, and they provide an interesting example of how much we can learn of how people lived from a study of their physical remains. Evidence of various bone diseases indicates that the Alkali Ridge people suffered from malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies. The fact that one individual, so badly crippled that she could not have been a productive member of the community, lived to be sixty years old or more, tells us that these people were willing to care for handicapped members of their group. The communities must have been subject to hostile attack. Two individuals appear to have died from blows on the head. One of these men had also been shot by an arrow, and scratches on his head indicate that he had been scalped. Evidence of local inbreeding is provided by the finding of three people with fused ribs, a very rare abnormality not likely to appear so frequently except in a highly inbred group.

Peripheral Areas

Outside of the central area of the Anasazi region there were other developments during this period. In marginal areas, certain phenomena are almost invariably present. There will be some lag in the [diffusion] of new traits, and in some ways the [culture] of the marginal section will be less advanced. Early elements may survive for a long time. Traits which are chronologically distinct in the main area may arrive together in the outlying sections. Other features may not spread or may be rejected by the people of the peripheral area. In general, there is a progressive fading of the basic pattern as one goes farther away from the nucleus. Certain traits may have been acquired from other cultures, and there is usually also a tendency to develop new traits and to modify and adapt those which have been imported, in accordance with local needs.

All of these characteristics are to be found in the region north and northwest of the Colorado River which is known as the Northern [Periphery] of the Southwest. During Developmental-Pueblo times a number of early traits persisted in the Northern Periphery after they had disappeared in the San Juan country. People continued to live in earth-covered pit houses and lodges after these had been replaced by surface masonry structures farther south. In some cases the side passage still served as an entrance instead of being reduced in size for use as a ventilator. Slab cists, identical with Basketmaker structures, were quite common. In the south and east of the periphery some unit houses were built during late Developmental-Pueblo times, but they were far inferior to those of the main district. Much crude, gray pottery was produced, and fugitive-red paint was widely used. Clay figurines and nipple-shaped objects, characteristic of the Basketmaker [culture], continued to be widely made in the north long after they had disappeared in the nuclear area. Gaming bones are among the most common artifacts. Throughout, there is an amalgamation of traits which were separate elsewhere. In some cases early pottery types are found associated with houses of a later type; in others it is the pottery which is more advanced than the houses.