Anasazi Cannibalism? Skeletons from Mancos Canyon, Colorado Pueblo dating to just after A.D.

1100 Twenty nine individuals 17 young adults, 12 children Signs of nutritional stress: Dental hypoplasia (erratic growth) Bones exhibit porotic hyperostosis (anemias and infectious diseases) Bone surfaces: Cut marks Burning Percussion Limb-bone shafts and rib bone fragments: Polish/abrasion Comparison with equivalent animal bones from other sites Experiment with fresh mule deer bones and replica of Anasazi cooking pot 87 percent of 2106 bones from Mancos fractured at time of death Skull vaults broken Vertebral spines detached Ribs removed by levering against backbone Larger limb bones broken for marrow No evidence of violence, as in warfare Similar pattern from Pueblo Houck K in Arizona, A.D. 1150 1200 Conclusion: cannibalism. Has been disputed. Direct evidence from Cowboy Wash in S.W. Colorado, A.D. 1150 Pithouses suddenly abandoned During abandonment or soon after bodies of 7 people of both sexes and various ages were disarticulated, defleshed and apparently cooked as if for consumption. Incomplete remains of these people left on floors in other nonburial contexts.

2 Household goods, valuable items, and salvageable construction materials left in place. Roofs decayed gradually, not burned or scavenged for reuse as would normally be the case after useful items removed. In one pithouse, disarticulated human remains scattered and piled up. Minimum of 4 adults and 1 adolescent. In another, scorched tooth and bone fragments in central hearth; other whole bones directly on floor, piled in side-chamber and stacked on a bench. Abandoned cooking pot tested for human meat residues by immunological analysis: results positive for human myoglobin. Coprolite found in ashy fill of hearth. Not burned so deposited after last use of hearth. Only coprolite ever recovered from hearth in S.W. Provided opportunity to obtain direct evidence for cannibalism. Macroscopic analysis: no plant remains extremely unusual. Tests positive for human myoglobin must have consumed human muscle tissue. What was the context of this cannibalism? For nutrition or terrorism? Both?