DISEASE AND OTHER HEALTH CONDITIONS AMONG ANCIENT PUEBLO COMMUNITIES IN THE CENTRAL MESA VERDE REGION – A REVIEW OF SELECTED SITES

Abstract

The prevalence of diseases among pre-Columbian communities is one of the indicators of the general state of health of a given group of people, providing information about the most common diseases as well as additional information about diet and relationships between individuals. In this case, the basic source of information is osteological material from burials analysed by physical anthropologists and archaeologists. For the Ancestral Pueblo culture, many years of research by physical anthropologists have provided a wealth of information on the diet of these communities and the state of health of their residents while also confirming various social phenomena, such as conflicts and struggles, which intensified during the Pueblo III period (AD 1150–1280). Nevertheless, research on skeletons of pre-Columbian Pueblo culture has been a controversial issue that was the stimulus for the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA). Today, most of the data on the health of pre-Columbian Ancestral Pueblo communities stem from analyses conducted during the 20th century. The aim of this article is to compare the state of health (and distinguish the most common diseases) and the age and sex structure for 9 sites selected from the central Mesa Verde region. The data used are from available reports on excavations.