Grasshopper Pueblo Research Articles

Hyung Il Pai 裵炯逸 (14 June 1958 – 28 May 2018)

Hyung Il Pai 裵炯逸 (14 June 1958 – 28 May 2018) Lothar Von Falkenhausen Click for larger view View full resolution Fig 1. Hyung Il Pai (Photograph courtesy of Alex José) [End Page 209] Hyung Il ("Lee") Pai 裵炯逸 and I became friends from the moment we met for the first time at Harvard in September 1981. As beginning graduate students and fellow advisees of the late Kwang-chih Chang 張光直 (1931–2001), we spent a large part of the following three years in each other's company. It was an intense and exhilarating time. Hyung Il had graduated from the prestigious Ewha Girls' High School梨花女子 高等學校and obtained her B.A. in Korean history from Sŏgang University 西江大 學校, an academically rigorous Jesuit-run institution in Seoul. Having lived in Malaysia and Denver for several years in her teens—her father was a medical doctor attached to the Korean communities there—she was comfortable in English, familiar with negotiating cultural differences, and curious about conceptualizing them theoretically through the lens of anthropology. She had little trouble adjusting to American ways. In this respect she was quite different from the other Korean students at Harvard, many of whom were men and (due to military-service requirements) older than her; they were nice people, interesting and fun to be with, but often astonishingly conservative in their attitudes. Socially as well as academically, Harvard, with its diverse international constellation of highly driven graduate students, was the right place for her. Had she stayed in Korea, then still under a repressive military dictatorship, her outspokenness would likely have gotten her into trouble sooner or later. She sometimes shared stories of student demonstrations during her college days, from which some of her fellow students had emerged crippled for life due to police brutality. I never asked her why she had chosen to switch fields from history to anthropology, though one reason may have been that anthropology at the time was being regarded (all too briefly, as it turned out) as a kind of hegemonic super-discipline that would eventually imprint itself upon the totality of the Humanities and Social Sciences. More pragmatically, I believe, Hyung Il was looking for new, untapped bodies of evidence and more rigorous—or perhaps just different—methods of analysis that would help her develop a broader perspective on early Korea than she had hitherto encountered. In particular, she was obviously seeking to escape from the doctrinaire nationalism that then pervaded Korean academia. Even though anthropology was completely new to her, she took to it like a fish to water. Together, we broke our teeth on archaeological method and theory under the late Stephen Williams (1926–2017); suffered valiantly through Erik Trinkaus's (b. 1948) osteology class, which was mandatory for archaeology students; and struggled to hold our own in the formidable Gordon R. Willey's (1913–2002) seminar on the Early Classic Maya. No one on the Harvard faculty at the time knew much about Korean archaeology as such, but K. C. Chang was the most supportive advisor imaginable. He gave Hyung Il completely free rein to develop her expertise, insisting only that she master Japanese and Chinese, which she did. Probably, the Harvard anthropologist who came to exert the strongest intellectual influence on Hyung Il was Peter S. Wells (b. 1948), whose sophisticated anthropological modeling of the nature and effects of contacts between late prehistoric Central Europe and the Mediterranean world provided her with an excellent framework for conceptualizing early Korea-China interactions. For her first summer in Graduate School, Harvard's Anthropology Department sent her to the University of Arizona's long-running archaeological field school at Grasshopper Pueblo, where she acquired first-hand acquaintance with the realities of archaeological fieldwork. Hyung Il's influence on me during those years was considerable. She was almost single-handedly responsible for kindling my fascination with Korea. In the summer of [End Page 210] 1983, she persuaded me to accept an invitation from our older fellow student Choi Mong Lyong 崔夢龍 (b. 1946) from Seoul National University, who was then just finishing his Ph.D. at Harvard, to join his archaeological field project in Korea. I was hooked. I returned to Korea the following summer and even...

Biodistance Evidence of Gene Flow from the Kayenta Region

Socioeconomic upheaval and environmental degradation pressured people in the Kayenta region of northeast Arizona to move south into large pueblo communities 800 years ago. This study tests if gene flow followed these migrations. Ten anatomical coordinate points were measured from left temporal bones of 204 individuals from Kayenta Region Black Mesa sites and three large pueblo communities. Results of Canonical Variate, Mahalanobis and Procrustes distances demonstrate significant distances between groups except Point of Pines Pueblo and Black Mesa. This suggests gene flow occurred among Kayenta region immigrants, their descendants at Point of Pines Pueblo, and people from earlier Black Mesa sites representing a pre-migration population. Diverse people buried at Grasshopper Pueblo indicate people of different origins co-resided there, yet gene flow was limited with other groups in this analysis. Migration, co-residence, and admixture that ultimately led to gene flow variably occurred in large pueblo communities south of the Mogollon Rim.

Lest We Forget: An Estimate of Vikuosa Nienu’s Contribution to the Archaeology of Northeast India

The present paper is the outcome of a small documentary research that the author undertook since the year 2009 on the early life and academic foundation of an archaeologist – Vikuosa Nienu, wherein his contribution to the archaeology of the region seem like an unfamiliar one to the majority of us from Northeast India. But the value of his work stands out for two reasons – firstly, prior to this research, no archaeological investigations had ever been conducted in Nagaland beyond mere archaeological reconnaissance. It was a time when political situations in Nagaland were tense, and field archaeology at that time was considered problematic and challenging. Secondly, this pioneering work is laudable because of its theoretical underpinnings of three dominant paradigms – culture-historical, processual and behavioural archaeology where Nienu gained exposure as a student at the University of California, Berkeley and at the Grasshopper Pueblo Field School during the early 1970s. The paper thus, examines Nienu’s formative years at the School of Archaeology, New Delhi, and thereafter his field experiences, academic environment and the major paradigms that shaped his understanding of the region’s prehistory in the course of his later research.

Battered and abused: Analysis of trauma at Grasshopper Pueblo (AD 1275–1400)

Increasing violence and inter-group conflict in the American Southwest is prevalent into the 13th and 14th centuries AD. In the northern Mogollon region during this time period, the site of Grasshopper Pueblo experienced a shift in social organization as population movements occurred in response to regional stressors. The skeletal remains of 187 adult individuals from the site are analyzed for nonlethal and lethal trauma, musculoskeletal stress markers, and pathology as indicators of changing social dynamics. Nonlethal, healed trauma is present in all adult age groups and both sexes. Approximately one-third (n=63) of the population has healed cranial depression fractures. Females and males are fairly equal in the proportion of cranial injuries incurred; however more females are injured overall when post-cranial injuries are added. Musculoskeletal stress markers do not differ substantially among age groups or between sexes. Heavy musculature development is also similar for groups with and without cranial depression fractures. The results of this study suggest that interpersonal violence was ubiquitous within the pueblo and may have escalated as the community grew in size. Immigrants from other parts of the Southwest may have sought refuge at Grasshopper only to find that the community was experiencing its own social stress.

What Were We Thinking? What Do I Think? Assessing Michael B. Schiffer and his Behavioral Archaeology

The coordinators of this special issue of the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory initially invited some of us to provide a critical review of Michael Schiffer's Behavioral Archaeology for the 75th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) in St. Louis on April 17, 2010. Rather than write a critical review of the more than 35 years of development of Behavioral Archaeology or of Mike Schiffer's many accomplishments and contributions to archaeology, science, and history, I offer a brief personal perspective on the nature of discourse in a sector of American academic archaeology in the early 1980s. I then comment, again briefly, on achievements in archaeology that I attribute to Behavioral Archaeology as developed by Mike Schiffer, Jeff Reid, Bill Rathje, and their many students and colleagues. Finally, I conclude by returning to personal reactions to recent directions in Mike Schiffer's research. A number of professionals in the audience of that 2010 SAA symposium, addressed me after the session, commenting positively on my presentation, and thanking me because it reminded them how exciting the late 1970s and early 1980s were in American archaeology for them. In 1987, I (Cordell et al. 1987) published an uncalled for attack on Behavioral Archaeology, interpretations of the mortuary assemblage from Grasshopper Pueblo and Mike Schiffer. Walker, Skibo, and Nielsen (1995: 2) refer to that paper as one that reflects misunderstanding of the explicit program of Behavioral Archaeology as articulated by Reid et al. (1974). A response

“A Hohokam Pottery Bell”

����� Although the clapper was not recovered, construction details for the bell were obvious from impressions on the interior of the sherds. Using these construction inferences, Ethel had no trouble making and firing a beautiful replica. Norton noted that other pottery bells had been found, but did not emphasize that, although a few from Pecos Pueblo are larger than the bell from the Twelve Mile Site, the photographs and description make it clear that all are rather crudely modeled in comparison (Kidder 1932:138–40). What the Pecos bells lack in sophistication, however, they make up for in number: 189 were recovered from trash deposits. This leads one to suspect that Pecos might even be the source of the other, individual finds of very similar-looking pottery bells known from Awatovi (Fewkes 1898:628–29), Grasshopper Pueblo (Jernigan 1978:fig. 43), near Camp Verde (Barnett 1991:33), and the FF Ranch Site near Dragoon (Fulton 1934:19, pl. X-d), all in Arizona, and from sites near Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico (Tanner 1976:194). Nevertheless, in spite of the passage of more than fifty years since its discovery, this bell from the Twelve Mile Site remains unique in its craftsmanship. The copper bells found in the Southwest were imported from Mexico, primarily during the Hohokam Colonial and Sedentary Periods, circa Ad 600 to 1100 (Sprague 1964; Sprague and Signori 1963; Vargas 1995). This is also the tightest age range for the Twelve Mile Site and Norton’s bell, suggesting that the Mexican bells are its source of inspi

Architecture and Identity at Grasshopper Pueblo, Arizona

In the southwestern United States, Pueblo migration traditions hold the key to understanding the identity of migrants in what Bernardini (2005) calls "serial migrations." Using data from Grasshopper Pueblo, this study assesses the concept of serial migration by focusing on four layers of identity: the community, the dual division between locals and non-locals, lineages, and households. These four layers of identity are explored by focusing on the building behaviors of these various groups as they settled into the Grasshopper community in the early part of the fourteenth century AD. This paper demonstrates that the concept of serial migration, combined with a focus on the architectural correlates of social group identity, helps to explain the formation of large aggregated communities in late Southwest prehistory.

Infancy and childhood in the pre‐Columbian North American Southwest–first results of the palaeopathological investigation of the skeletons from the Grasshopper Pueblo, Arizona

AbstractInfant and child skeletons (n = 369) from the pre‐Columbian Grasshopper Pueblo site in east‐central Arizona (US) dating from the 14th century AD were examined macroscopically and with low‐power microscopy. They were studied as a representative example of a typical Mogollon community with respect to frequencies of deficiency and inflammatory diseases. First results revealed very poor living conditions, which are characteristic for this time period in the North American Southwest because of lack of food due to climatic and political changes. Thus, non‐specific stress indicators were frequently observed. In the group of deficiency diseases, anaemia was found in more than 50% of individuals, and in the group of inflammatory diseases, meningeal irritations were diagnosed in more than 70%. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A simple carbon isotope model for reconstructing prehistoric human diet

A compilation of experimental animal data shows that neither delta13C(collagen) nor delta13C(apatite) nor Delta13C(CO-AP) indicate diagnostic reconstructions of diet, diet energy and diet protein. In contrast, plots of delta13C(collagen) against delta13C(apatite) provide a model of three regression lines (C3, C4, and marine diet protein) where position on each line indicates the energy source (C3, C4, or mixed). Neither body size nor trophic position appears to affect these relationships. Modern free-ranging, terrestrial fauna do not fit the model perhaps because they, unlike the experimental fauna, mainly use fermentation rather than digestion during energy metabolism. Archaeological humans fall as expected based on associated floral and faunal evidence. Foraging people plot at positions expected from associated C3 fauna and plants. Those from Cahokia plot, as expected, from associated deer, nuts, and maize whereas people from nearby smaller sites plot in positions consistent with eating more fish. Agriculturists from Ontario and Grasshopper Pueblo plot consistent with dependence on fish by the former and on turkeys by the latter. In Tierra del Fuego, people from interior regions ate more terrestrial fauna, as suggested by ethnohistoric reports, than did people from the coast. In the Southwestern Cape in South Africa individuals late in the sequence have pure C3 diets whereas ones early in the sequence ate marine protein as suggested by independent archaeological evidence. People on San Nicolas Island depended on C4 plants in contrast to other islands off California's coast. This simple model provides more detailed and precise dietary information than do individual isotopic measures.

Migration, Regional Reorganization, and Spatial Group Composition at Grasshopper Pueblo, Arizona

Strontium-isotope (87Sr/86Sr) analysis of first-molar enamel of 70 adult individuals interred at Grasshopper Pueblo, Arizona, when coupled with a variety of other lines of evidence, reveal a complex pattern of immigration and settlement at the site. Thirty-three of the individuals pattern as local (most likely having been born at Grasshopper), and 13 others originate from the region immediately surrounding the site. The remaining 24 individuals are of non-local, extra-regional origin. Recent 87Sr/86Sr analysis of rodent bone from archaeological sites in several regions surrounding Grasshopper—including the Tonto Basin, Payson area, Mogollon Rim, and Chevelon Valley, as well as prehistoric human bone from the Walnut Creek/Cherry Creek region—reveal potential matches for all of the nonlocal individuals. It is suggests that immigrants at Grasshopper likely derived from the Chevelon Valley, at least two localities from the central Mogollon Rim region, and possibly the Payson area at the western edge of the Mogollon Rim. Migration occurred throughout the occupational history of the site, but patterns of migration clearly changed through time. The structure of migrations likely followed the internal frontier model of Kopytoff (1987). A number of inferences that have been postulated for Grasshopper regarding ethnicity, diversity, and social and community organization are evaluated and supported.

Grasshopper Pueblo: A Story of Archaeology and Ancient Life. Jefferson Reid and Stephanie Whittlesey. 1999. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson. $29.95 (cloth), ISBN 0-8165-1913-7. xiv + 186 pp. $15.05 (paper), ISBN 0-8165-1914-5.

Grasshopper Pueblo: A Story of Archaeology and Ancient Life. Jefferson Reid and Stephanie Whittlesey. 1999. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson. 15.05 (paper), ISBN 0-8165-1914-5. - Volume 67 Issue 1

Book Reviews: Northwest Carving Traditions, The Lost Cities of the Mayas: The Life, Art, and Discoveries of Frederick Catherwood, Tutankhamun: The Eternal Splendor of the Boy Pharaoh, Clovis Revisited: New Perspectives on Paleoindian Adaptations from Black-water Draw, New Mexico, Native Visions: Evolution in Northwest Coast Art from the Eighteenth through the Twentieth Century, Handbook of the North American Indians, Volume

Book Reviews: Northwest Carving Traditions, The Lost Cities of the Mayas: The Life, Art, and Discoveries of Frederick Catherwood, Tutankhamun: The Eternal Splendor of the Boy Pharaoh, Clovis Revisited: New Perspectives on Paleoindian Adaptations from Black-water Draw, New Mexico, Native Visions: Evolution in Northwest Coast Art from the Eighteenth through the Twentieth Century, Handbook of the North American Indians, Volume

Grasshopper Pueblo. A Story of Archaeology and Ancient Life, by Jefferson Reid and Stephanie Whittlesey. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1999

Grasshopper Pueblo field school closed after the 1992 summer season. Its closing marked the end of a 30-year period of survey, excavation and analysis of archaeological sites and materials as well as student education. From 1963-1992, hundreds of students were trained in the field methods and analytical models and techniques of the New Archaeology as practiced at the University of Arizona under the direction of Raymond Thompson (1963-1965), William Longacre (1966-1978), and J. Jefferson Reid (1979-1992). By the end of the 1992 summer season, Grasshopper Pueblo was, perhaps, the most thoroughly studied archaeological site in the American Southwest. As the authors note, "Although large pueblos of the American Southwest have attracted archaeologists for more than a century ... Ancient life at these special places will never be understood with as much detail as we have for Grasshopper Pueblo". Much of the detail is reported in the many published papers, nine doctoral dissertations, and two masters' theses cited by the authors, and more reports are likely to follow. As a training ground for archaeologists, Grasshopper is probably comparable in impor­tance to the Chaco Canyon field schools and excavations of the 1920s- 194Os.

Analytical Perspectives on Prehistoric Migration: A Case Study From East-Central Arizona

Strontium isotope analysis of the tooth enamel of 69 adults from Grasshopper Pueblo reveals aspects of the settlement of and immigration to the area during the late 13th and 14th centuries. Depending on the range of local strontium isotope compositions, non-local residents vary from one-third to more than half of the individuals analysed. Based on associated archaeological evidence, it is likely that the latter figure is more accurate. The majority of locals are associated with Room Block 2 and the Great Kiva. Individuals associated with Room Blocks 1 and 3 tend to be immigrant, and this is also the case of the two individuals analysed from Room Block 5, a room block which has been thought to represent an immigration to the site. There are both locals and immigrants in the outliers, and the temporal data indicates that immigration continued throughout the occupation of the pueblo. Immigrants originate largely from two geologic areas: those underlain by Precambrian rocks located to the west and south of Grasshopper, or from areas underlain by Phanerozoic sedimentary rocks to the north and immediately east of Grasshopper. Ten individuals buried with diagnostic artefacts were analysed in the sample, and they represent both local and non-local origins, supporting earlier notions that the diagnostic artefacts symbolized sodalities which cross-cut ethnic and social boundaries.

Hypoplastic area method for analyzing dental enamel hypoplasia.

Most analyses of dental enamel hypoplasia compare frequencies of disturbed tooth types, which do not account for variability in the area of affected enamel. An alternate methodology, hypoplastic area, is presented here that accounts for this variability by combining acute and continuous enamel hypoplasia into an interval-level variable. The method compares samples based on individuals, by multiple tooth type variables, or by a single value rather than by tooth types. Use of the hypoplastic area method is illustrated by analyzing human skeletal dentitions in three archaeological samples: Meroitic Nubians from Semna South, Sudan; Anasazi from Navajo Reservoir, New Mexico; and Mogollon from Grasshopper Pueblo, Arizona. Both univariate and multivariate statistical tests are employed to assess variation in defects between individuals and samples. By incorporating measurements of continuous defects, the hypoplastic area method provides information beyond that of frequency data in comparing levels of stress. Flexibility of the method is also discussed.

Residential Mobility in the Prehistoric Southwest United States: A Preliminary Study using Strontium Isotope Analysis

Strontium isotope ratios and strontium concentrations in bone and tooth enamel are used to investigate patterns of residential mobility and migration in the late prehistoric (14th century) period in the mountain province of east-central Arizona. This area is of interest because of significant questions concerning the movement of people into and within the region and because of the number of late prehistoric sites with well-studied burial populations. Grasshopper Pueblo is the main focus of analysis, with additional information from the site of Walnut Creek.A pilot strontium isotope study of bone and tooth enamel of first molars from the Grasshopper and Walnut Creek regions has demonstrated intriguing variability in strontium isotope compositions of human samples and indicates a significant probability of the success of the investigations proposed here. This initial work indicates that there are measurable and meaningful differences between bones and tooth enamel from the same individuals, among individuals from the same site, and between communities in the study area.

Dietary change and variability at Grasshopper Pueblo, Arizona

A bone chemistry analysis of the adult burials ( N = 230) from Grasshopper Pueblo (east-central Arizona) reveals considerable dietary variability of the inhabitants and distinct changes in the diet through time. Dietary data from the early period (A.D. 1275–1325) indicate males had greater access to meat and cultigens (maize, beans, squash), while females had greater access to wild plant foods. During the late period (A.D. 1325–1400), however, male and female diets become virtually indistinguishable; meat and wild plant foods decline in importance and the consumption of cultigens is emphasized. A series of social and environmental factors (increased population, increased aridity, marginal agricultural lands, etc.) interacted to create food stress, which compelled the inhabitants to focus attention on an agricultural rather than horticultural lifestyle in the late period. Responses to food stress at Grasshopper Pueblo include reduction of household size, increased storage, and increased mobility (and ultimately migration), as well as a breakdown in status whereby males no longer had greater access to preferred foods (e.g., meat and cultigens). The bone chemistry data also reveal some spatial variability, suggesting decisions regarding subsistence activities may have been made primarily at the household level.

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

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.

The Canyon Creek Turquoise Mine, Arizona

ABSTRACTTurquoise mines near Canyon Creek Ruin (AZ V:2:100 [ASM]), on the escarpment of the Grasshopper plateau in east-central Arizona, provide a supply-side perspective on the production and distribution of one of Precolumbian North America's most highly valued commodities. Although a minimum of 1,000 work days were spent by prehistoric peoples in quarrying at Canyon Creek, the site has been overlooked as a significant turquoise source. Compositional analyses link the mine to turquoise excavated from the Room 113 manufacturing area at Grasshopper Pueblo (AZ P:14:1 [ASM]). Both the commodity and the Canyon Creek source apparently were important in east-central Arizona prehistory, but there is as yet no material evidence that the quarry was monitored or systematically exploited by a managerial elite.

Response to N. Tuross, A. K. Behrensmeyer and E. D. Eanes

Strontium isotope ratios and strontium concentrations in bone and tooth enamel are used to investigate patterns of residential mobility and migration in the late prehistoric (14th century) period in the mountain province of east-central Arizona. This area is of interest because of significant questions concerning the movement of people into and within the region and because of the number of late prehistoric sites with well-studied burial populations. Grasshopper Pueblo is the main focus of analysis, with additional information from the site of Walnut Creek.A pilot strontium isotope study of bone and tooth enamel of first molars from the Grasshopper and Walnut Creek regions has demonstrated intriguing variability in strontium isotope compositions of human samples and indicates a significant probability of the success of the investigations proposed here. This initial work indicates that there are measurable and meaningful differences between bones and tooth enamel from the same individuals, among individuals from the same site, and between communities in the study area.