A refinement of the adult burial chronology of Grasshopper Pueblo, Arizona

Abstract

Abstract Fluoride analysis of 141 adults from Grasshopper Pueblo, Arizona by ion selective electrode was undertaken to refine the existing burial chronology of the site. A control group of 18 Grasshopper adults of known temporal provenance was analysed initially to determined the effectiveness of the method. Fifteen of the 18 sampled patterned according to expectations. Analysis of all burials from contexts which heretofore had no clear temporal associations—Plazas I and II and the extramural areas—as well as others of known temporal provenance followed the control group. Of the 231 adults in the Grasshopper skeletal series, 164 could be assigned to the “early” period of occupation, corresponding to the Establishment and Aggregation Phases ( ad 1275–1330), and 67 to the “late” period, corresponding to the Dispersion and Abandonment Phases ( ad 1330–1400). The refinement of the Grasshopper burial chronology should strengthen future analysis regarding questions of social organization, subsistence change, health and disease and responses to stress through time at the site.