Chapter 5
This chapter provides descriptive information regarding the mortuary location categories, or mortuary context types (MCT), that were selected for Pueblo II and Pueblo III primary burials in the Montezuma County study area. The objectives of this chapter are two-fold. The first is to provide a detailed description of the occurrence and distribution of mortuary contexts observed in substantially excavated Pueblo II and Pueblo III habitation sites of the Mesa
Verde region (MVR) of southwest Colorado. The second goal is to evaluate use of surface room floors as a mortuary context to complete the falsification of the
Persistent Community Hypothesis
: “The Wallace Ruin room burials occurred throughout the AD 1150-1300 time span. The deceased came from the local
(<7 km radius) persistent community; a surface room floor location is merely an amplification of that community's pre-existing mortuary tradition.
”
As the reliability of a scientific interpretation rests upon the quality of the evidence (Ziman, 1991), a review of the literature demonstrates that there is firstly a scholarly need for a comprehensive and thorough examination of the mortuary evidence from the MVR study area before any sound inferences, or interpretations, can be drawn regarding the range and frequency of mortuary locations accessed between roughly AD 900 to 1300, let alone evaluate how
Wallace Ruin fits into the picture. Currently, there is over-reliance upon localised findings and sketchy knowledge. For example, the commonly held view that the frequency of intramural burial locations increased during the
Pueblo III Period (Karhu, 2000:32; Morris, 1939:115; Schlanger, 1992:25) is largely unsubstantiated. Martin and Akins (2001:224) make strong arguments
1

for the need to investigate variant mortuary practices, using the orderly positioning of the skeletons from Site Morris 41 (ibid., 231) as an example of a normative practice. Yet, even they do not mention that this former Chaco great house has Pueblo III burials within its surface rooms (Morris, 1939). Nor do these scholars refer to probably the most divergent mortuary setting in the
Northern San Juan Region: the burial rooms of Aztec Pueblo (Morris, 1924), which housed the largest and most richly-accompanied Pueblo III burial population discovered to date. Conceivably, since the use of surface rooms at these two sites is not highlighted, there is a reasonable chance other researchers reporting on less well-known sites in the MVR have also not explicitly documented the presence of burials on a surface room floor.
Consequently, the significant problems to be resolved are whether the frequency and distribution of room floor contexts are distinctive compared to the selection of other mortuary contexts by major temporal period. In other words, are there Pueblo II precedents for the use of surface room mortuary contexts? If so, what scale by numbers of sites, residences, rooms, and burials? Are individuals in surface rooms within room fill, on floors, or in subfloor pits? What other locations were accessed during the Pueblo II and Pueblo III Periods, and what is their relative frequency in respect to surface room burials? Also, is there evidence that the age or sex of the individuals is associated with the use, or avoidance, of specific mortuary locations? Although demographic information is not necessarily essential for falsifying Hypothesis Two, these data provide additional evidence to evaluate the possibilities that socio-economic considerations, i.e., status, or cultural metaphors influenced decisions regarding the selection of a particular mortuary location.
2

OF BURIALS, MORTUARY CONTEXTS, AND RESIDENCES
As applied by archaeologists, the term burial has multiple meanings (Brown,
1971; Duday, 2009; Knüsel and Gowland, 2006; Murphy, 2008; Parker
Pearson, 2003; O’Shea, 1984; Williams, 2006). It can refer to the material evidence, namely the physical remains of the body or the place of disposal.
However, it is also applied to such unobservable actions as the disposal of the body or even funerary rites occurring in locations distant from the place of disposal. A further complication is that archaeologists may use burial to describe a single individual as well as multiple individuals (Karhu, 2000;
Stirniman et al., 2005). Following Duday (2006:33; 2009:14), the phrase
“primary burial deposit” (or deposition) refers to a specific kind of physical deposit produced when a body that is “still in a state of anatomical integrity” is dispo sed of during a “simple funeral.” Such deposits also include any items associated with the corpse, whether personal items (clothing, jewellery) or grave inclusions. The term “primary burial” then refers to the skeletonised remains of a single individual within a primary burial deposit in which the skeleton is in a position and location is indicative of the deliberate and patterned placement of a corpse, followed by in situ decomposition.
In its strictest sense the word “burial” refers to an inhumation in which a corpse is “buried” in native ground. This study makes use of a broader usage in which this term is restricted to formal disposal processes through which the “dead are removed from the living” (Parker Pearson, 2003:5). Accordingly, not included in this analysis are non-burials: articulated human remains, often evidencing perimortem skeletal damage, in body positions and contexts that strongly point to the absence of mortuary considerations. Also excluded are small articulated
3

units and clusters of dis-articulated skeletal elements, even if they have been assigned a burial number by the investigating archaeologist. Although
Southwest archaeologists sometimes term such deposits as “secondary”
(Brisbin and Brisbin, n.d.; Swannack, 1969:171; Lister 1965:107; Stirniman et al., 2005:5.2), this usage does not imply the presence of the second phase of a formal, “compound mortuary program” (Sprague, 2005:63-70) or “double funeral” (Duday, 2009:14) as exemplified by ossuary burial practice (Ubelaker,
1974:8). Rather, these MVR bone clusters are largely interpreted as an informal disposal in a “second” location following the accidental disturbance of the primary burial context during the construction of new rooms or extramural features. Possibly, this subsequent disposal again involved some sort of mortuary rites, but the evaluation of this potential is beyond the scope of this study. Likewise, since analysis involves a diachronic consideration of Pueblo II and Pueblo III practices, evidence from individuals who cannot be assigned to either period is not incorporated. Given these restrictions, as this chapter deals with primary burials only, the term burial is used for simplicity’s sake.
Although every physical deposit entails a location, the range of places construed as suitable for the formal disposal of a human corpse can vary substantially by both community and culture (Huntington and Metcalf, 1991;
Parker Pearson, 2000). Such mortuary contexts can range from formal, highly organised cemeteries to isolated graves, scaffolds, or interment within a tree trunk, to name just a few. Although Ancestral Puebloans of the Northern San
Juan Region did not inter their dead in cemeteries, they made use of a variety of locations within the confines of their residences (Schlanger, 1992:1). While
“residential burial” can refer to intramural areas only, this study makes use of the definition offered by Adams and King (2011: 3), in which the term refers to
4

“burials within houses as well as in outdoor living areas, where everyday domestic activities occur and where a clear spatial relationship between the living area and the domestic structures exist.” To reiterate, an Ancestral Pueblo house, which is equivalent to a kiva-unit, is comprised of three major components. The two intramural sections consist of the roomblock and a pitstructure, whereas the extramural zone contains the midden, the courtyard or plaza, and any associated small subsurface pits.
Previous research in the Mesa Verde Region
To date, there is no in-depth, formal analysis of Ancestral Pueblo mortuary patterns at the regional scale within the Montezuma County study area, nor within most of its precincts. As is the case with all but a few of the more than
300 references interrogated during the course of this archival investigation, mortuary evidence is addressed on a site-by-site basis, and furthermore, the data provided is simply descriptive. The few studies that entail an explicit evaluation of patterns associated with formal burials, including interpretation within a theoretical context, involve communities situated at some distance from
Wallace Ruin (Bradley, 1998; 2002; Karhu, 2000; Stodder, 1987). Regrettably, the multi-disciplinary volume Ancient Burial Practices in the American
Southwest (Mitchell and Brunson-Hadley, 2001) does not include any new information regarding the Mesa Verde region of southwest Colorado.
Furthermore, the contributions that pertain to Ancestral Puebloan groups of the
Northern San Juan Region are further examinations of previously published studies regarding Chaco Canyon (Akins, 1987) and the La Plata Valley (Martin et al., 1995).
5

Considering the long history of archaeological research in the southwest
Colorado, it is curious that the number of publications that centre upon
Ancestral Pueblo mortuary practices can be counted on one hand. Stodder
(1987) offers such an intensive analysis of the biological and mortuary evidence regarding 66 individuals from Basketmaker III, Pueblo I and Late Pueblo II sites that were excavated during the Dolores Archaeological Project (DAP), perhaps the largest archaeological project conducted in the United States (Lipe 1998).
Although her study established the benchmark for Mesa Verde region bioarchaeological studies, it primarily concerns the earliest Ancestral Pueblo occupation of the River (Dolores) Locality during the Basketmaker III and
Pueblo I Periods. Only 12 burials are from the Pueblo II Period and there are no
Pueblo III burials.
Karhu (2000) provides a similar investigation of the human remains from adjacent Sites 5MT1 and 5MT3 of Yellow Jacket Hamlet of the eastern McElmo
Dome. This is an extremely important source of information since the 101 primary burials constitute the largest burial population discovered in the MVR, surpassing the 66 individuals located during the DAP project (Stodder, 1987).
However, as noted by Karhu (ibid.:12), though these sites were completely excavated by the University of Colorado Museum Field School over a 37 year time-span, data quality is sometimes compromised since most burials, usually in a poor state of preservation, were excavated by students of varying levels of experience. Further complications involve inconsistencies in field practices, data recording, and research approaches. Even so, b oth Stodder’s and Karhu’s contribute a wealth of descriptive data as well as efforts to place these remains within broader cultural and interpretive contexts. Each researcher follows
6

Binford (1971), in which mortuary and biological evidence are construed as measures of socioeconomic status.
Schlanger’s (1992) unpublished yet seminal manuscript addresses temporal and locational variability in Ancestral Pueblo mortuary practices of the Northern
San Juan Region in which she also adopts the New Archaeology approach to mortuary analysis as advanced by Saxe (1970). She relates the decisions of buriers to a complicated cultural milieu involving personal and community mobility, land tenure, environmental contingencies, and circumstantial options.
Schlanger also provides new information on mortuary evidence from 28 sites situated within the La Plata Valley of northern New Mexico, but the strength of this work, and relevance to this study, lies in her extensive interpretive treatment of Ancestral Pueblo mortuary locations, including surface room floors.
The integration of Pueblo traditions and viewpoints contributes a culturallysituated interpretive layer.
Even when the occurrence of primary burials in surface rooms is noted in MVR site reports, little attention is given to interpreting formal burials in a surface room floor context. Schlanger (1992) provides a rare exception, but her consideration pools mortuary data associated with the floors of surface rooms and subsurface structures. Unfortunately, this work does not provide additional mortuary location evidence for the MVR study area, nor is it in actuality an intensive regional analysis. Rather, due to sample size considerations (ibid., 18-
19), the mortuary evidence is limited to that from the La Plata Valley, Stodder’s
(1987) DAP results and the human remains from Chaco Canyon (Akins, 1987).
Large blocks of the MVR thus have no in-depth or considered examinations of burial practices, even in more recent large-scale excavation projects.
7

Considering the extent of research excavations within MVNP (Lister, 2004) since 1950, it is surprising that there is neither a synthetic nor interpretive analysis of the comparatively abundant, and well-excavated, mortuary evidence. The data used in this analysis are drawn from 15 sites and nearly 200 primary burials, although these are only samples of the total located.
During the 1990s, Soil Systems, Inc. conducted extensive, large-scale, intensive excavations at 42 sites the Ute Mountain Ute Irrigated Lands
Archaeological Project within the Sleeping Ute Mountain piedmont area
(Billman, 1998). This effort produced exceptionally strong evidence regarding
Pueblo II and III mortuary location preferences. Since one of the project objectives entailed removing burials that would have been destroyed by field construction, surface rooms and extramural areas, including middens and courtyards/plazas, were stripped to sterile to expose subsurface features, and subfloor test units were placed in subsurface structures (Birnie et al., 1998:60-
62). Mortuary findings are described on a site-by-site basis. Although Lambert
(1999) provides a synthesis of population health of the 63 human remains recovered from 12 sites, there is no counterpart regarding mortuary evidence.
Barnett (1992) and Dice (1993) provides syntheses of the mortuary evidence obtained by Complete Archaeological Service Associates during their excavation and testing of numerous sites located within the construction zone of an irrigation system that traverses large sections of the study area. However, these efforts effectively cluster sites based on their location within a specific construction zone rather than by a potential community affiliation.
Crow Canyon Archaeological Center (crowcanyon.org) has conducted numerous excavations of Pueblo II and III sites of the McElmo Dome. This
8

author (1998; 2002a; 2002b; 2003) participated in this research and contributed bioarchaeological analyses that makes use of mortuary evidence. However, the only multi-site treatment of human remains involves the interpretation of the seeming absence of mortuary ritual (non-burial) associated with episodes of violence (Kuckelman, 2002; Kuckelman et al., 2000).
Finally, Woods Canyon Archaeological Consultants conducted large-scale excavations and testing at Indian Camp Ranch, a private housing development located west of Cortez, and in sites located within various construction right-ofways. Their site-specific reports (woodscanyon.net) provide descriptions of all human remains located. No formal burials were located at Hanson Pueblo,
5MT3976, but Dice (1993b) provides a focused analysis of the disarticulated bones with peri-mortem damage that were found within its Pueblo II kiva.
METHODS
Construction of the Mesa Verde Region Mortuary Location Database (MLD)
The information that forms the basis of this evaluation was obtained by this author during archival research conducted at multiple southwest Colorado libraries: the Anasazi Heritage Center, Crow Canyon Archaeological Center,
Mesa Verde Research Center, Center for Southwest Studies of Fort Lewis
College, Primtech Enterprises, and Woods Canyon Archaeological Consultants.
Additional material comes from online scholarly or administrative resources.
Since the presence of human remains is not necessarily listed in a document’s table of contents, this data acquisition process involved reading through every published and unpublished report or manuscript, i.e. “grey literature”, that involved excavation research within the Montezuma County-Mesa Verde region study area. The primary reference used to obtain this evidence is identified in
9

the relevant master table, but additional sources are included in the bibliography.
This master Mortuary Location Database, or MLD, (Appendix MVR) lists 277
Pueblo II and Pueblo III sites within Montezuma County and a small section of southwest Dolores County. The bulk of these sites entail human remains reported to the Colorado Office of Historical Preservation and listed in OAHP database. This author added information from another 20 to 30 sites, some because of first-hand knowledge of sites that had not been included in the
OAHP list but also to ensure that each geographic and cultural locality, as defined in Chapter 3, are represented by several sites, when possible. Roughly
180 of these sites are listed simply because human remains were reported during the course of an archaeological survey. Another 40 or so sites involve information obtained during limited testing, site monitoring, targeted recovery efforts by professional land managers, the retrieval of human remains from nonprofessional collectors, or archaeological endeavours for which the necessary documentation is not available.
In total, approximately 80 sites are sufficiently excavated for an appraisal of the range of mortuary locations accessed by their inhabitants. The requisite information was obtained for 66 sites, ten of which have both a Pueblo II and
Pueblo III residential component. This means that mortuary data is compiled from more than 80% of the sites having the potential to provide more than incidental evidence. The information pertaining to the primary burials from these sites are compiled in various databases: the Pueblo II database (P2MLD) and the Pueblo III database (P3MLD) compile information by site whereas the
BMLD contains contextual and demographic data by primary burial. The details
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of the excavation extent of these 66 sites are provided in Appendix TBD. Sites which are largely to completely excavated are labelled EE for extensively excavated, and sites in which at least several surface rooms are tested or excavated are identified as AE, or adequately excavated.
Given this study’s focus on interpreting the surface room burials of Wallace Ruin, even sites which are substantially excavated but which do not have surface rooms, such as Site
9863 of the Ute Locality (Hungerford et al., 2002), are not included in this analysis. This restrictive scheme also means that mortuary data from sites undergoing limited excavation (LE) are used only in very special circumstances, as will be explained in the relevant section. Unfortunately, as a result, much of the data obtained by Crow Canyon Archaeological Center researchers during their years of work on late Pueblo III sites is not suitable for this particular study.
This decision also eliminates from consideration several sites in which the bioarchaeological analyses were performed by this researcher.
In keeping with the classification system employed in the residential proximity analysis, in this analysis, sites identified as Pueblo II/III are grouped with Pueblo
II sites. Ideally, it would be beneficial to evaluate mortuary trends by the more refined groupings of Early and Late, but historical inconsistencies in the application of regional chronological systems, methodological problems associated with determining residence construction dates, and the difficulty in dating a specific mortuary context from ceramic vessels of long-standing or overlapping use precludes such refinements.
As is often the case in archaeological research, some deviations from this preferred approach are required. Due to this project’s emphasis on interpreting the burial rooms of Wallace Ruin, sites in which primary burials are reported in
11

a surface room mortuary context are included regardless of the excavation approach. So, even though research at Site 5MT8119 involved limited testing, its mortuary evidence is included in the P2MLD since this is one of only two sites within the 7 km Lakeview Locality. Also, the residential midden was either not investigated, or only very lightly tested in several sites. Fortunately, this is not a critical impediment to this analysis since the pervasive use of a midden mortuary context across time and space is so thoroughly documented in the
Mesa Verde region.
Allocations to household units are based upon the interpretations provided by relevant researcher when available, or by a building’s proximity to a kiva. In cases in which there is insufficient architectural information to identify specific residential units with confidence, a household unit is assigned an arbitrary designation that captures data from distinctly separate sections of a site. So, for example, even though the Pueblo III component of 5MV34 (O’Bryan, 1950: 62-
80) comprises three kiva-units, the mortuary contexts from Rooms 9, 12 and 13 in the western half of the site are assigned to 5MV34.1, those in Rooms 32, 36, and 43 of the eastern section are allocated to 5MV34.5, and no mortuary contexts are allocated to 5MV34.3.
Departures from the residential focus of this analysis pertain to such extramural mortuary contexts as the residential midden and subsurface burial pits in sites with multiple domiciles. Primary burials in such contexts are thus allocated per site since it is often impossible to make a secure association between a specific residence and a particular burial. However, burials in extramural pits that are in close proximity to a domicile are allocated to that specific residential unit.
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Although this study centres upon residential units, the burials associated with
Pueblo II occupations of Chacoan great houses are included on the basis that each contained at least one residence during that time span. Even though hearsay accounts and some documents indicate that Pueblo II and Pueblo III burials were found at the third Lakeview Group site of Haney Ruin, this information is not included due to uncertainties about proveniences of associations. Based on information provided by archaeologist Susan Ryan
(pers. comm, 2010), this site was commercially mined in the 1980s by the landowners and a third party in an attempt to locate and sell vessels found with burials. Reportedly, the third party, long suspected for unlawful looting of
Ancestral Pueblo burials on federal lands, conducted much of the excavation by backhoe. Suffice to say, none of these individuals had professional archaeological or osteological training, nor experience obtained working as a volunteer under professional supervision. Although notes were taken by one of the landowners, and Mesa Verde Black-on-white vessels have been sold, it is of concern that there is, reportedly, only one photograph of a burial. More troubling, when showing Bruce Bradley a video of their work made for commercial purposes, the other landowner advised Bradley (pers. comm,
2010,) that a grouping of items portrayed as from a single burial was fabricated for dramatic purposes.
That there was some use of Haynie Ruin after AD 1180 is indicated by the presence of numerous Mesa Verde Black-on-white sherds. This evidence, though not in an undisturbed archaeological context, has the virtue of involving the independent observations of highly trained archaeologists from Crow
Canyon Archaeological Center (Glowacki, pers. comm, 2010). By the time these
“mining” operations took place, the sale of Ancestral Pueblo pottery had
13

become much scrutinised by federal and legal authorities. Thus, it cannot be overlooked there may have been a financial and legal impetus to associate pots with burials found on private land, possibly even those found elsewhere.
Ultimately, even though this researcher has significant concerns regarding the credibility of the information from Haynie Ruin, this is not to say that the information provided is not legitimate, albeit no doubt inaccurate on several levels. Although it is not proper to accord a hearsay account with the credibility attributed to formal archaeological endeavours, the possibility that Haney Ruin also functioned as non-residential mortuary facility for multiple primary depositions after AD 1180 cannot be dismissed categorically.
Mortuary Context Types (MCT)
In archaeological terms, a mortuary context refers to the vertical and horizontal location (provenience) of a primary burial deposit within a site, though it can also include associated items and architectural features. The presence of nonperishable grave inclusions provides an additional indicator of a deliberate mortuary program, but in Ancestral Pueblo groups the absence of such is not unusual. As defined in this thesis, the term mortuary context type(s), or MCT, refers only to the locational attribute of a mortuary context. Specifically, it pertains to categories of place.
The major analytical categories used in these databases consist of ten mortuary context types that are associated with the three major components of a typical
Ancestral Pueblo domicile as defined in the Chapter 3, along with selected locational and demographic data. Each MCT is thus evaluated in terms of occurrence by residence (kiva-unit) and by primary burials. Since one of the chief difficulties encountered during this process involved the problem of
14

ambiguous terminology, these MCT are defined as used in this study in the glossary provided in Appendix G. In brief, those associated with the roomblock comprise the three vertical proveniences of surface room fill, surface room floor, and surface room subfloor, otherwise referred to as room fill, room floor, and room subfloor. The second major domicile component consists of the large, one-room habitable structures, or subsurface structures, in which the floor and walls are either partly or completely below ground level, whether a kiva, pit room or pit house. The location categories associated with such subsurface structures comprise subsurface structure fill, floor, and subfloor MCT. The
Architectural Feature MCT is clustered with the subsurface structure group since most of these small architectural elements, such as niches, southern recesses, and tunnels, are associated with kivas. The third cluster comprises
MCT that are, generally, in extramural locations. These consist of the extramural midden, storage feature, and subsurface burial pit (grave) MCT.
Eleven MCT containing more than one primary burial were identified during a pattern analysis collected by a thorough interrogation of the documentary evidence. The talus context is subsumed into the subsurface burial pit MCT since this geomorphic feature is not present throughout the study area. Nine
MCT were used in the Pueblo II Period and all ten were accessed during the
Pueblo III Period. The range of MCT independently identified during this investigation essentially replicates the categories employed by Karhu (2000:21) in her appraisal of the mortuary behaviours of Sites 5MT1 and 5MT3 of the
Yellow Jacket community. The only significant difference is that the method applied here does not take into account whether a pit is observed for depositions in a fill or midden context since this information is inconsistently reported in the literature. These categories are also similar to the seven used by
15

Schlanger (1992:19) in her study of Ancestral Pueblo mortuary practices of the northern San Juan Basin and the eight types employed by Stodder (1987:352) in her appraisal of mortuary evidence obtained during the Dolores River Project.
Locational Categories
The results of the residential analysis performed in Chapter 4 strongly indicates that there was no persistent residential community near Wallace Ruin by AD
1180, either within the culturally-based 2 KM or the 7 KM Lakeview Localities.
However, it cannot be ruled out that the use of a surface room floor as a formal burial location was part of the mortuary program in more distant communities.
Given that Wallace Ruin’s status as a former Chaco Outlier, the potential exists that people, or their descendants, with a connection to the great house during its Pueblo II heyday could have lived anywhere within the Mesa Verde region by
AD 1180. Moreover, since Mesa Verde Black-on-white pottery designs cannot be connected to a specific household even within a two-residence site
(Glowacki, 2006), it is not possible to associate the Wallace Ruin skeletal remains accompanied by this item to a particular site or MVR sub-region.
Therefore, to understand the Pueblo III mortuary context of Wallace Ruin requires fine-grained information to document patterns of mortuary behaviour by temporal period and in terms of residential units, communities, geographic and cultural localities, and the MVR region, as defined in Chapter 2.
Demographic Categories
In their influential study of the cultural factors which underpin mortuary ritual,
Metcalf and Huntington (1991) provide numerous examples regarding the selection of mortuary options which are either influenced or based upon the age or sex of the deceased. Similar results abound in the archaeological literature
16

(Andrews and Bello, 2006; Kn
üsel and Gowland, 2006, Gowland, 2006;
Mitchell, 1992; O’Shea, 1984; Stoodley, 2000; Sullivan and Rodning, 2011).
Extant Puebloan groups are generally reluctant to share specific information regarding mortuary behaviours (Dozier, 1970), especially regarding the deposition of children (Bradley, 1998: 149). In a significant departure, San Juan
Pueblo member and anthropologist Alfonso Ortiz (1969: 50-59) applies the structuralist approach advocated by Van Gennep (1960) and Levi-Strauss
(1963) in his detailed discussion of funerary rituals in relation to symbolic associations between Tewa cosmology and rites of passage. Illuminating as this is in terms of Tewan conceptual metaphors and world view, the only mortuary detail provided is that an adult is interred in a grave. Although the unbroken continuity of Ancestral Pueblo and historic Puebloan viewpoints cannot be assumed, the organisation of historic Puebloan communities in terms of sex and age categories is well documented (Babcock, 1991; Beaglehole, 1935; Dennis,
1940; Dozier, 1966; 1970; Goldfrank, 1945; Ortiz, 1969). The questions then arise as to whether age and sex distinctions in post-AD 900 Ancestral Pueblo mortuary practices can be traced in the archaeological record, and also if there is credible evidence that such distinctions are associated with any of the
Ancestral Pueblo conceptual metaphors identified by Ortman (2009).
With minor adjustments, the age and sex groups denoted in Table 5. 1 are derived from Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains
(Buikstra and Ubelaker, 1994:9), hereafter Standards . This classification system is the most appropriate for comparative purposes as it is the one employed by most Mesa Verde region researchers since the 1990s (Bradley, 1998; 2002;
Kuckelman and Martin, 2007). Most notably, this includes Karhu ’s work
(2000:44) regarding the human remains in the Yellow Jacket community sites of
17

5MT1 and 5MT3. Her thorough bioarchaeological and mortuary analyses provide the bulk of the comparative information used herein. Karhu’s age range is adopted since it eliminates the overlapping years present in the Standards categories . To minimise confusion, substitute abbreviations are used for the
Adolescent and (Indeterminate) Adult age groups. The few burials classed as
Possible Male or Possible Female are labelled as such in the relevant database, but their data are pooled with the Male or Female categories to boost sample sizes.
Table 5.1: List of age and sex groups, abbreviations, and chronological spans as defined in Standards (Buikstra and Ubelaker,1994) and Karhu (2000).
Estimation of Age (years)
Infant
Child
Adolescent
Subadult
Young Adult
Middle Adult
Old Adult
Indeterminate Adult
Older Adolescent-Adult
Undetermined
I
C
T
Determination of Sex
<0-3 y Male M
4-12 Possible Male
13-19 Ambiguous
M?
AM
S <0-19 Possible Female F?
YA 20-34 Female F
MA 35-49 Undetermined
OA 50+
U
IA 20-50+
T-IA 15+
U
Although other classification schemes offer a more fine-grained categories, particularly regarding infants (Lewis, 2007), numerous factors argue against their use in this particular project. Some of the more salient considerations that hinder age-group refinements involves inconsistently defined age ranges
(Cattanach, 1980:147, Rohn, 1971:89; Wheeler Smith, 2009:84), the lack of estimated chronological age data in published or grey literature, and the frequently poor condition of the skeletal remains. Methodological inconsistency is a significant factor in the estimation of age at death of older adult skeletons, a weakness that is further compromised by failures to identify the techniques
18

applied (Cattanach, 1980; Martin, 1929; Rohn, 1971; Reed, 1944; Swannack,
1969; Wheeler Smith, 2009). Age and sex estimates made in the early years of
Ancestral Pueblo research by archaeologists having little or no biological training (Fewkes, 1909; Nordenski
öld, 1979 (1893); Prudden, 1914; 1918) are also problematic. Ultimately, although great strides have been made in recent years towards consistent standards for age estimations, and many of the primary burials located after 1950 have been evaluated by a skilled physical anthropologist, inter-observer variation is nevertheless substantial enough in the
Pueblo II and III Mortuary Location Databases to warrant the broader categories recommended in Standards .
Pueblo II Mortuary Contexts
The Pueblo II Mortuary Location Database contains data on the 229 primary burials observed in 50 residences situated within 42 sites. Summary locational and demographic information is provided in Table 5.2, and Figure 5.2 provides a map of the distribution of these P2MLD sites within the various geographic and arbitrary localities of the study area. The lightly tested Site 5MT8119 of the
7 km Lakeview Locality is both mapped and listed in the summary Table 5.2, but its mortuary data are not included in any statistical analyses.
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Table 5.2: Locational and demographic data from Mesa Verde region Pueblo II mortuary contexts, by residence or site*.
Mortuary
Context Type
Residence
Surface Room
Fill
5MT11555.H
5MT4126, IJP
5MV1088
5MT6970,WRgh
Surface Room
Floor
5MT4126, IJP
5MT2836
5MT6970,WRgh
5MT2148
Subfloor 5MT, Site 3
5MT8651
5MV34.2
5MT10991
5MT3.Hs1
Subsurface
Fill
Sub. Structure
Floor
5MT9934.HA3
5MT9943.HA2
5MV1595.A
5MT11555.H
5MT2433
5MT7723
5MT9942
Sub. Struct.
Subfloor
5MT11555.G
5MT3.Hs1
Other Architectural
5MT3.Hs2
5MT3.Hs3
Storage Feature
5MT7723
5MT8766
5MT8827
5MT1.C1
5MT3.Hs2
5MV1595.B
5MT10991
5MT2336
5MT3.Hs2
Subsurface Burial
Pit*
5MT4126, IJP
5MT8899
5MT8938
5MT9924
5MV1104
5MV1229
5MT6970, WR
5DL.27
5MT, Site 3
5MT10010
5MT123
5MT1566
Extramural
Midden
5MT2836
5MT3
5MT7723
5MT8119^
5MT8651
5MT8943
5MT9924
5MT9934
Locality
VL; 24LL
VL; LG
ML; 24LL
VL; LG
VL; LG
ML
VL; LG
RL; 24LL
CL
CL
UL
ML; 24LL
VL; 24LL
CL; 24LL
UL
UL
UL
ML; 24LL
VL; 24LL
CL
UL
UL
No. Burials
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
3
1
1
1
2
3
1
2
1
1
2
1
1
1
VL; 7LL
VL; 24LL
UL
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
VL; LG
CL
CL
UL
CL
CL
ML
CL; 24LL
UL
VL; 7LL
UL
UL
UL
UL
VL; 24LL
CL; 24LL
CL; 24LL
CL; 24LL
UL
CL; 24LL
CL
CL; 24LL
CL; 24LL
ML; 24LL
VL; 24LL
DL; 24LL
CL; 24LL
VL; LG
Age Group
IA
MA
OA
OA
I
T, MA
OA
YA
OA
C
I, IA
I
C
U
C
I, C, MA
I
IA
OA
IA
C, U
IA
C, IA
I, C, T, IA
MA
C
C, YA
I, C, IA
C, IA
I, IA
C, IA, OA
T, IA
A
I, C, A
I, C, YA, MA, OA
C
U
MA
C, YA, MA, IA
I, C, YA, MA, OA
C, MA
I
I
C, YA
1
I
C
I
C, YA, MA
C
MA
C, MA
YA
I
I, C
4
13
1
2
8
3
3
5
9
1
1
2
2
4
4
1
1
4
4
2
1
1
3
5
1
5
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
Sex
M?
M
F
F
U
U, M
F
F
U
U
U, F
U
U
U
F
U
U
F?
M
F
U
F
Source
B. Bradley, 2010
Brisbin & Brisbin, n.d.
Lister & Smith, 1968
Bradley, this volume
Brisbin & Brisbin, n.d.
Reed, 1984
Bradley, this volume
Reed, 1979
Morris, 1991
Martin, 1938
Leonard, 2005
O'Bryan, 1950
Wheeler Smith, 2009
Karhu, 2000
McAndrews et al., 2005
McAndrews et al., 2005
Stirniman et al., 2005
Swannack, 1969
Bradley, 2010
Morris, 1986
Errickson, 1993
McAndrews et al., 2005
U
U
U, F
U
U
U
C. Bradley, 1998
Karhu, 2000
Karhu, 2000
Karhu, 2000
Errickson, 1993
Fetterman & Honeycutt, 1985
U Kuckelman, 1988
U, AM, M, F Karhu, 2000
U Karhu, 2000
F
U, M
F
U
U
Swannack, 1969
Wheeler Smith, 2009
Dohm & Gould, 1986
Karhu, 2000
Brisbin & Brisbin, n.d.
U, M
U, M, F
U, F
M, F
U, M?
U, M, F
U
U, M, F
U, F
M
U
U, F
U
U, M, F
Barnett, 1992
Barnett, 1992
Stirniman, 2005
Lister & Breternitz, 1968
Rohn, 1971
Bradley, this volume
Guthe, 1949
Martin, 1938
Leonard et. al., 2005
Ryan, 2004 von Bonin, 1936
Reed, 1984
Karhu, 2000
Errickson, 1993
U
F
Federal Register, 6/15/2011
Leonard, 2005
U, M, F, F?
Errickson, 1993
U, M, F Stirniman, 2005
U, F McAndrews et. al, 2005a
20

Ext. Midden
5MT9942
5MT9943
5MTUMR, Site1
5MTUMR, Site7
5MV1
5MV1088
5MV1104
5MV1229
5MV1452
5MV1595
5MV16
5MV499
5MV866
5MV808
5MV875
UL
UL
ML
ML
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
1
6
4
5
2
1
5
1
31
20
3
7
12
2
1
T
C, YA, MA, IA
I
I, A
A
C
C, A, U
YA
I, C, YA, MA, OA, IA
I, T, YA, MA, IA
I, C, IA
I, C, MA
I, YA, MA, OA, IA
U
YA
^Limited excavation but in the 7 km LL. 5MT6970,WRgh= Wallace Ruin great house; IJP=Ida Jean Pueblo
F
U, M, F
U
U
M
U
U
F
U, M, F
U, M, F
U
U, M,F
U, M, F
U
F
McAndrews et al., 2005b
Stirniman et al., 2005
Reed, 1984
Reed, 1984
O'Bryan, 1950
Lister & Smith, 1968
Lister & Breternitz, 1968
Rohn, 1971
Hayes & Lancaster, 1975
Swannack, 1969
Lancaster & Pinkley, 1950
Lister, 1964
Lister, 1966
Fewkes, 1916
Lister, 1966
Fig.5.2: The locations of P2MLD sites within the Mesa Verde region study area, by geographic and cultural locality.
Forty-two P2MLD residential units are extensively excavated and seven are adequately excavated for the needs of this study. The Wallace Ruin and Ida
Jean Pueblo great houses of the Lakeview Group are categorised as adequately excavated. All surface rooms in the west wing of the Wallace Ruin
21

great house are completely excavated but as yet no Pueblo II kivas, the plaza or extramural areas adjacent to the building have been excavated or tested and the extramural midden is only lightly tested. At Ida Jean Pueblo, just three of its
55 surface rooms, four work areas on the western side of the room block, a kiva, and the lower courtyard have been completely excavated by professional archaeologists (Brisbin and Brisbin, n.d.).
Pueblo II MCT Distribution and Frequency
The distribution and frequency of P2MLD mortuary context types by residences
(kiva units) and primary burials are displayed in Table 5.3, arrayed by the three major residential components. At least one P2MLD primary burial (excluding the individual from 5MT8119) is present in nine of the MCT, albeit rarely in most cases. No individual is in a subsurface structure subfloor context. The available information documents that in terms of the range of context types accessed per residence, buriers made use of just 70 of a potential 500 MCT proveniences, calculated as the number of residences (50) times the 10 potential MCT.
Surface Room MCT
Significant to this study, a surface room floor MCT is very unusual in P2MLD sites, being observed in only three residences (4%) and constituting a maximum of five primary burials (2%). Two of these residences are in the Lakeview
Group, and the third is many kilometres to the south. These low rates match the frequencies of room fill depositions by residences and primary burials, and it also equals the rate of occurrence for burials in a room subfloor MCT. However, the room subfloor context is twice as common as a floor or fill location.
22

The only incontrovertible surface room floor mortuary contexts involve the infant
HR 7 at Wallace Ruin and Burial 3, a young child, of Ida Jean Pueblo. Each rests upon thin layers of silt fill of a depth less than 5 cm above a prepared floor surface. A floor context allocation of the three remaining individuals is inconclusive or suspect. Another two Wallace Ruin infants are in direct contact with prepared floor surfaces in two other rooms, but one or both could be in a subfloor context. The individual from Site 5MT2436, of undetermined age and sex, may be neither floor-associated nor a primary burial.
Table 5.3: The distribution of Pueblo II mortuary context types, by number and frequency of P2MLD residences* and primary burials.
Mortuary Context Type Residences
No. %
S. Room Fill
S. Room Floor
S. Room Subfloor
3
3
6
0.04
0.04
0.09
5
5
8
Burials
No. %
0.02
0.02
0.04
Sub. Structure Fill
Sub. Structure Floor
Sub. Structure Subfloor
Other Architectural
6
4
0
7
0.09
0.06
0.00
0.10
7
5
0
8
0.03
0.02
0.00
0.04
Storage Feature
Sub. Burial Pit*
Extramural Midden* ^
Total
* Site; ^ Not including 5MT8119
3
9
29
70
0.04
0.13
0.41
1.00
7
23
160
228
0.03
0.10
0.70
1.00
Even though these three depositions are, conservatively, identified as floorassociated, these allocations are at best uncertain. Due to their very small size, incomplete preservation, or disturbance by animal burrowing, it is possible that foetal-neonates HR 8 and HR 12 from Wallace Ruin were deposited within very shallow and unobserved, or destroyed, subfloor pits. Moreover, as will be
23

addressed in the next chapter, HR 8 could date to the Pueblo III Period. The last deposition involves an individual of non-described age or sex. From Reed’s
(1984:408) account, it does not seem that any articulated units are present.
Several bones are on the floor of a surface room, but these elements may be intruded from the overlying room fill that contains more bones from this person.
There are no grave goods. The ends of several bones are scorched, but Reed advises that the evidence is insufficient to determine if this damage was accidental or intentional. That these bones are not in their original deposition location is suggested by the absence of evidence that the floor or fill were exposed to fire. This burial seems the least likely of all to be floor-associated but is deemed as such mainly because the description provided is too sketchy to refute such a determination.
Two individuals assigned a surface room fill context also warrant discussion, in large measure because they too are associated with a Chaco great house.
Brisbin and Brisbin (n.d.) describe the location of Burial 3 of Ida Jean Pueblo as
“nearly one inch off the floor in the silt layer” with no mention of a burial pit.
These key details differ from their descriptions of the mortuary circumstances of
Burials 2 and 4, who are in the same room as Burial 3. In contrast, these two children are in scooped-out or shallow pits intruded into a pre-existing silt deposit of unspecified thickness. The most conservative approach would be to consider Burials 2 and 4 as floor-associated, but both are allocated to a fill context since each is in a pit, and unlike Burial 3, the Brisbins make no reference regarding the underlying floor.
Moreover, even though the inclusion of IJP Burials 2 and 4 as floor burials provides a 3% rate of occurrence by primary depositions, this frequency is still
24

less than those observed for surface room subfloor and subsurface structure floor locations. The low percentages of room floor locations, however calculated, are also comparable to those of the remaining minor mortuary contexts. The term minor refers only to the scale of usage, with no implication intended regarding a location’s potential social or symbolic value.
Regardless of the accuracy of the vertical allocations within surface rooms, the use of a surface room mortuary context of any type is unusual. The total number of mortuary locations in a surface room context of any type comprises
18 primary depositions from 12 residences. Only Wallace Ruin and Ida Jean
Pueblo are represented by more than one surface room MCT. Surface room contexts at Ida Jean Pueblo are, apparently, restricted to the use of a single room. In contrast, three rooms are used at Wallace Ruin, including an incontrovertible subfloor burial pit for HR 9 that was cut through the floor that
HR 12 either rests upon or intrudes into. Accordingly, Wallace Ruin and Ida
Jean Pueblo are the only Pueblo II sites having primary depositions in multiple surface room mortuary contexts, and the use of more than one room floor occurs only at Wallace Ruin.
The breakdown by major residential component demonstrates no strong preference for a surface room location compared to the use of subsurface structures, whether calculated by number of residences or primary burials.
Eighty-three (83) per cent of the burials, in 59% of the residences, are located in a residential midden, grave or storage pit. The remainder are more or less evenly distributed between surface rooms versus subsurface structure MCT.
The prevalence of a floor context is consistent between these two intramural zones, but surface room use is slightly more common when all three vertical
25

contexts are taken into account. However, all but one of the eight burials in an
Other Architectural MCT is associated with a kiva. Consequently, even though there are no subfloor depositions in a subsurface structure, the inclusion of
Other Architectural data provides slightly higher results compared to surface rooms, whether by numbers of residences or primary burials.
Other Residential MCT
This investigation confirms the reliability of the common archaeological inference that an extramural midden location was highly preferred in the Mesa
Verde region during the Pueblo II Period (Afton, 1971; Lister, 1966:96), especially since many sites with reports of midden burials are excluded from this analysis on methodological grounds. Still, by frequency of burials, a midden context is seven times more common than the next most accessed MCT, the burial pit, and around 20 times more prevalent than the remaining mortuary context types.
Multiple MCT per residence
Findings obtained from studies of mortuary practices from MVR sub-localities
(Karhu, 2000:32; Stodder, 1987:352) and other regions of the Northern San
Juan Basin (Martin and Akins, 2001:224; Schlanger, 1992:19) demonstrate that the use of more than one mortuary context within an Ancestral Pueblo site is not uncommon. Yet, 69% (34/49) of the P2MLD residences make use of only a single MCT, and no residence has depositions in more than three of the ten potential mortuary locations. Slightly above half (18) of the single-loci domiciles have primary burials in an extramural midden only. In three residences, only a surface room subfloor context is used, but there are no domiciles in which the only deposition involves a surface room floor or fill location. Otherwise, the
26

selection of MCT in single-locus sites is not patterned, with the five remaining categories distributed thusly: burial pit (4); subsurface structure floor and other architectural (3 each); subsurface structure fill and storage feature (2 each); subsurface structure subfloor (none).
This non-specific distribution of the less common mortuary contexts is replicated in the 15 residences in which either two or three types were accessed per residence. As documented in Table 5.4, the array of locations with at least one primary deposition also supports the preference for an extramural midden location, though it is less pronounced for those residences possessing three context types. This tally probably does not capture the complete distribution since the Ida Jean Pueblo midden was not excavated and the numerous 5MT3 midden depositions are assigned to a single domicile. For the most part, the intramural components of these 15 domiciles are largely if not completely excavated, so there high level of confidence regarding the use of those loci.
Table 5.4: The occurrence of Mesa Verde region mortuary context types, by
P2MLD residence or site* in which more than one category is observed.
Room
Fill
Room
Floor
Room
Subfloor
Substr
Fill
Substr
Floor
Substr
Subfloor
Other
Arch.
Storage
Feature
Burial
Pit*
Ext.
Midden*
Residence
2 Types
5MT, Site 3
5MT10991
5MT11555.G
5MT8651
5MT9943.HA2
5MT2836
5MV1088
5MV1104
5MV1229
5MV1595.A
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
3 Types
5MT3.Hs1
5MT3.Hs2
5MT4126, IJP
5MT6970.WRgh
5MT7723
X X
X X
X na na
X na
X
X
X
X X
X na
X
X
X
27

Distribution of mortuary context types by localities
Geographic Localities
The analysis of the use of mortuary context types by and between geographic zones is problematic given the small numbers involved, especially considering that there are significant differences in excavation strategies. Still, including tested Site 5MT8119, the distribution of the 71 MCT observed in P2MLD residential sites demonstrates no particular preference by geographic zone for a particular location or for a suite of contexts. Rather, as documented in Table
5.5, the total number of context types are essentially proportional with estimated sub-regional site densities (Varien, 1999a).
Table 5.5: The distribution of Mesa Verde region Pueblo II mortuary contexts per geographic and cultural locality, by P2MLD residence or site*.
Mortuary Context Types
S. Room Fill
S. Room Floor
S. Room Subfloor
Geographic Localities Lakeview Localities
CL ML RL UL VL Total LVG 2LL 7LL 24LL Total
0 1 0 0 2 3 1 0 0 2 3
0
2
1
1
0
1
0
1
2
1
3
6
2
1
0
0
0
0
0
2
2
3
Sub. Structure Fill 1
Sub. Structure Floor 1
Sub. Structure Subfloor 0
Other Architectural 5
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
3
2
0
1
1
1
0
1
6
4
0
7
Storage Feature
Sub. Burial Pit*
Extramural Midden*
Total
^Includes Site 5MT8119
2 1 0
1 2 1
5 14 0
0
1
9 2
0
4
^
3
9
30
0
1
1
17 21 2 17 14 71 6
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
3
1
0
5
0 0 3 3
0 1 6 8
0 1 ^ 12 14
0 2 34 42
3
1
0
5
Although the Mesa Locality contains the greatest number of MCT, the Valley
Locality (VL) constitutes the most complete array, lacking only a primary deposition in a subterranean structure subfloor pit or storage feature. The
Canyons Locality (CL) has the second-highest number of context types observed, yet no depositions in a surface room fill or floor location. The very few
28

mortuary contexts observed in the River Locality (RL) is to be expected considering that this zone was very lightly populated after AD 900. Even though the Ute Locality (UL) and the VL have the same number of observed MCT, there is less variability in the options selected in the southwest quadrant of the
Mesa Verde region with just four types selected. Intra-site excavation bias is not a factor as almost all of these UL sites are substantially excavated.
Lakeview Localities
Nearly two-thirds (42/71) of the observed Pueblo II MCT are situated within an arbitrarily-defined cultural locality having its centre in the Lakeview Group of the
Valley Locality. A total of three context types are utilised in the Lakeview Group sites of Wallace Ruin and Ida Jean Pueblo, though only the surface room floor context is duplicated. No primary depositions are reported for a residential site within the 2LL residential locality, but primary burials are described in two sites southeast of Wallace Ruin within the 7LL community resource locality. The four individuals from Site 5MT8899 are in separate burial pits, and test excavations at Site 5MT8119 exposed one primary deposition in the residential midden.
However, relatively few sites in either of these two arbitrary localities have been excavated or tested, and the OAHP database contains no reports of human remains observed during archaeological surveys of the eastern Montezuma
Valley. The 34 mortuary contexts allocated to the 24LL, which do not include those in the smaller Lakeview localities, are from sites situated exclusively within its western and southern precincts. All but a few of these MCT are located near the outer perimeter of the 24LL zone, but those at Mitchell Springs
Pueblo (5MT10991) and 5MT8938 are within 10 km of Wallace Ruin ( Fig 5.2
).
29

Demographic Structure
Age
Of the 228 primary depositions that comprise the Pueblo II Mortuary Location
Database skeletal population, 223 are in a sufficient condition for a reliable estimation of age. The distribution of individuals by age class and mortuary context type is tabulated in Table 5.6. Unfortunately, even when the numbers per context allow more fine-grained analyses, the available documentary evidence is insufficient for the appraisal of possible differences in mortuary options for younger versus older children, with many reports designating any individual between the ages of about two to twelve simply as a “child.”
Table 5.6: The age distribution of Pueblo II primary dispositions from P2MLD residences, by age class and mortuary context type.
Mortuary Context Type
Surf. Room Fill
Surf. Room Floor
Surf. Room Subfloor
I C T YA MA OA IA U Total
1 2 0 0 0 1 1 0
3 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
2 2 0 0 2 1 1 0
5
5
8
S:A
3:2
4:0
4:4
Sub. Structure Fill
Sub. Structure Floor
1 0 1 1 1 2 1 0
0 1 0 0 0 1 2 1
Sub. Structure Subfloor 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Other Architectural 5 2 0 1 0 0 0 0
Storage Feature
Sub. Burial Pit
Extramural Midden
Total
0
3
3
10
0
1
1
3
3
1
0
0
0
5
0
0
7
5
0
8
7
23
2:5
1:3
0:0
7:1
3:4
14:9
38 23 11 19 23 7 36 3 160 72:85
53 44 13 25 30 12 46 5 228 110:113
Age
Ratio
156
85
97
The number of individuals who can only be classed as Indeterminate Adult can also hinder the production of a reasonably accurate mortality curve that captures risk or age-grading throughout the lifespan. Rather than eliminating indeterminate Adults from consideration, and also to increase sample sizes for statistical analyses, Stodder (1987) re-allocated indeterminate Adults to the
30

Young, Middle and Old Adult categories on a proportional basis. This method is used here though advanced demographic analyses are not part of this research. On the other hand, a disadvantage of an arbitrary re-allocation, which is based on the assumption that all factors are equal, is that it may obscure differential risk, or mortuary patterning, through adulthood. As a case in point, the burial pit profile has no Old Adults even though at least one of the five IA may actually belong to this age group. Since no one of that age range is reported in the literature for this MCT, a strict use of the proportional approach means that no individuals is re-allocated to this age group.
Conversion of the raw numbers to frequencies enables the comparison of age profiles to the mortality pattern that is pervasive in non-industrial groups (Weiss,
1973:26, 42-49) and developing countries (Coale and Demeny, 1966; Zhao,
2007:91). Such an age structure is characterised by a very high infant death rate (usually between 30 and 50 per cent) that gradually declines through childhood and then reaches lowest mortality around 14 years of age. This nadir is followed by a marked rise in young adulthood, after which death rates drop slowly throughout adulthood. Subadult mortality ranges from 30 to 70 per cent.
Figure 5.3 displays the age structures of the primary burials in total and by selected MCT, excluding individuals classed as Unknown. The P2MLD curve documents mortality for these 223 burials whereas the Latin American pattern represents one of the four macro-clusters of model life table patterns derived through United Nations (1982:12) research in developing countries. The LA curve reflects sex-specific mortality rates (q x
) based on a life expectancy of 40 years, which is the most appropriate option for pre-antibiotic societies
(Sheridan, 2001). Due to the sketchy information on infants and children, this
31

Fig. 5.3: Mortality by age class by selected Mesa Verde region P2MLD mortuary context type and in comparison to the Latin American Model Mortality Pattern .
The Latin American pattern is adapted from United Nations, 1982: Figs I and II.
UN profile integrates data from the Coale and Demeny West life table (1966), which is calculated from life at 10 years of age (lq x w ). Although the West table includes data from industrialised countries, it is nevertheless the most applicable of the five CoaleDemeny life table “families” to small-scale societies
(Sheridan, 2001; Zhao, 2006). Analyses of age group structures per MCT are limited to the midden and burial pit contexts since these are the only ones that have more than eight primary burials. However, the extremely disproportionate number of subadults (7:1) in the Other Architectural context merits a brief explanation. This MCT include tunnels of sufficient size to contain an adult corpse, but four of the architectural features comprise post holes and wall
32

niches with dimensions that would preclude the deposit of corpses larger than that of small infants. The P2MLD mortality curve follows the major demographic trends described above. This pattern, which includes a near 25% frequency for infants suggests that this burial population is relatively unaffected by selection bias at deposition, preservation conditions or archaeological excavation strategies. Moreover, the subadult frequency of 49% (110/223) is consistent with data reported for non-industrial societies (Weiss, 1973) and numerous
European archaeological groups (Lewis, 2007). Although inconsistencies in age range definitions create difficulties for comparisons of demographic trends observed in other Ancestral Pueblo groups, this MVR mortality curve is broadly similar to those reported for Grasshopper Pueblo (Hinkes, 1983) and Pueblo
Grande (Sheridan, 2001). The problem of sample size is somewhat mitigated at these two sites since each has a burial population of at least 300 individuals. In marked contrast, Stodder (1987:364) infers that very poor preservation conditions are a factor in the non-representative mortality profile of burials located during the Dolores Archaeological Project. The DAP profile, in which
36% of the individuals and 75% of the adults are classed as young adults, is substantially skewed by the very low frequency (5%) of infants.
Surface Rooms
Fortunately, dependable estimates of age are available for four of the five primary depositions in a surface room floor context. Although they are few in number, it may be noteworthy that each is less than eight years of age, whereas at least one adult is present in the other eight contexts having at least one primary deposition. Moreover, this result is in slight contrast to the depositions
33

in surface room fill, where the number of individuals observed is also five, though comprising both younger and older individuals.
Yet, though the numbers of all but two MCT are inadequate for credible frequency analysis, evaluation by residential component hints at age-grading for subadults in the use of surface rooms. Eleven of the 17 burials in a surface room MCT are less than 20 years of age, for a 65% rate of occurrence. The
53% rate of occurrence for subadults (10/19) in subsurface structures is essentially equivalent to that of adults, as is the 48% (89/187) subadult frequency in the extramural component. In each instance, the occurrence of subadults is in line with mortality trends in developing societies and other archaeological groups, although that of the surface room is near the upper limit of the range identified by Weiss.
Other Residential MCT
The P2MLD age distributions are greatly dominated by depositions in an extramural midden context, wherein a total of 160 individuals are present amongst 28 sites scattered across the Mesa Verde region. Accordingly, this comparative wealth of numbers of individuals and sites provides a much more meaningful demographic profile than those associated with other contexts, though the data regarding 23 individuals in a burial pit MCT provide information that is suggestive. Not surprisingly, the extramural midden context nearly duplicates the P2MLD mortality curve since this MCT contains the most primary burials by far. This distribution diverges only in having a slightly lower frequency of burials in the Child age group. This result provides evidence that the extramural midden was construed as the most appropriate mortuary location for
34

individuals of all ages, in addition to being the place most preferred in terms of frequency of use by residence and number of primary burials.
In contrast, the age structure of the burial pit MCT is divergent in several respects. This may well be a product of the small sample size but, setting that problem aside, the most notable departure from the P2MLD and Latin American mortality curves involves burials allocated to the Child stage. The 10 members of this age group constitute nearly half of the individuals interred in a burial pit.
However, four of these children, plus one of the infants, are from Ida Jean
Pueblo. Since no older individuals have been located at that site during formal research, this dichotomy could imply that age-grading played a role in mortuary location decisions at this site. Such a culturally-based motive could have a disproportionate effect on the regional age structure given the small number of individuals associated with this MCT. At a larger scale, the evaluation of grave depositions by geographic location indicates that this spike is influenced by but is not specific to the mortuary program of one or two communities. The remaining child burials come from another five sites dispersed over two geographic localities, with the closest residences some three km distant from each other.
Sex
A determination of sex was achieved for 105 individuals. These burials are located in eight MCT, of which seven are populated by fewer than 11 individuals. As is customary in bioarchaeological research, the distribution of males versus females is evaluated in terms of the sex ratio (M/F x 100) rather than by frequency analysis. Either way, this should not be problematic given the small number of individuals in nine of the MCT. However, due to the problem of
35

sample sizes, sex ratios are calculated just for this P2MLD subgroup, the midden and burial pit MCT, and by residential component; possible males and possible females are allocated to the apt category. A score of 100 denotes a balanced distribution, results less than 100 indicate a preponderance of females, a score of 0 means females only, and scores greater than 100 describe skews toward males.
As indicated in Table 5.7, both males and females are well-represented in the
P2MLD population. This distribution of 49 males and 56 females, which includes four possible females and 2 possible males, provides a sex ratio of 88. This result thus differs from the essentially balanced sex ratio (approaching 50% males) that is typical of non-industrial societies (Weiss, 1973:58). However, the extent to which this moderate skew towards females represents the reality is open to question. The sex of 17 adults (YA, MA and IA) is either undetermined or ambiguous (1), and the age and sex of another 6 burials is also unknown.
This is often due to the poor preservation of bones, but methodological weakness is also a factor. Of these 17 burials, one (IA) is in surface room fill, a second (YA) is in a large storage pit, and the remaining 15 individuals (YA, MA, and IA) are in an extramural midden. Consequently, even though the numbers observed in the minor MCT are quite small, the proportions of males to females are largely unaffected by this particular problem.
The sharp rise in young adult mortality in P2MLD age structure more closely resembles the female rather than the male curve of the Latin American mortality pattern. However, this steeper incline in the Latin American female curve is due to lower female subadult mortality rather than differential risk for young adult
36

females compared to young adult males. This is not the case for P2MLD adolescents, who have a very female-dominated sex ratio of 29.
Table 5.7: The distribution of P2MLD primary dispositions of mature skeletal development by age, sex and mortuary context type.
Mortuary Context Type
Surf. Room Fill
Surf. Room Floor
Surf. Room Subfloor
T
M F M
YA MA MA OA OA IA
F M F M F M
IA
F
Total M:F
1 1 0:1
1 1 1 1
0
4
0:0
2:2
Sex
Ratio
Sub. Structure Fill
Sub. Structure Floor
Sub. Structure Subfloor
Other Architectural
Storage Feature
Sub. Burial Pit
Extramural Midden
Subtotal
Undetermined/AM Sex
Total
1
1
1
1
2 1
2
0
1
5
3
1:4
1:2
0:0
0:1
1 3
1 2
1 2 3
2 6 8 9 12 9 3 4 16 9
3
10
1:2
3:7 43
41:37 111 78
2 7 8 14 16 12 4 8 19 15 105 49:56
2 2 2 0 11 17
88
11 24 30 12 45 124
Surface Rooms
No primary burial in a room floor context has a determination of sex. The four individuals from Wallace Ruin and Ida Jean Pueblo are too young for this assessment, and neither the age nor sex of the burial from 5MT2836 is reported. There is no preference for males or females when considering all surface room MCT.
Other Residential MCT
Of the two most populated MCT, males are slightly more common than females in extramural middens, but this sex ratio (111) is particularly uncertain for the reasons noted above. The subsurface burial pit MCT has roughly twice as many females as males, providing a sex ratio of 43. This calculation is secure in that
37

there are no individuals of undetermined sex, or unknown age and sex, in this
MCT. However, the question remains as to whether this preponderance of females is due to sampling error. The arbitrary decision to allocate individuals to a midden context when a subsurface burial pit is associated with a midden deposit could also alter this result.
These generally miniscule sample sizes makes it difficult to draw secure inferences regarding possible associations between the sex of the deceased and a particular mortuary context type, including differential use by major residential component. Even so, both sexes are present in those contexts represented by more than two individuals. This circumstance points to the possibility that the low numbers of adolescents and adults in the minor contexts are associated with the infrequent use of these locations for individuals of this age rather than a preference associated with the sex of the deceased.
Demographic analysis by major residential component hints at a possible sexbased sorting in one residential component only. Again ignoring the problem of sample size, subsurface structure depositions demonstrate a strong skew (2:7) towards females. The proportion of males to females is essentially balanced in surface rooms, though this information is anecdotal since a determination of sex was possible for five individuals only. Fortunately, the data from the extramural zone are more robust, with 45 males and 46 females providing a nearly balanced sex ratio of 98. However, 92% of the males are in this residential component versus four males in three intramural MCT. In contrast, a still high
82% of the females are in extramural zone contexts, but the remaining 10 occur in five different intramural contexts. When data from all subsurface locations is pooled (room subfloor, subsurface structure, storage pit, grave, or other
38

architectural feature), the skew towards females is pronounced (8:18), as is demonstrated by the sex ratio of 44. This ratio is duplicated in the distribution of males to females (4:9) in the four intramural subsurface MCT (surface room subfloor and subsurface structure) with human remains. To summarise, there is a strong preference for extramural locations for both sexes, but there may be some sorting for females in subsurface intramural locations.
Pueblo III Mortuary Contexts
Thirty-three P3MLD sites, comprised of 50 residences, are sufficiently excavated for an appraisal of the full range of potential mortuary contexts.
Forty-four residential sites are extensively excavated and six are adequately excavated for the purposes of this study. In addition, the evidence obtained from a single room at Site 5MV640 is included in evaluations of MCT distributions because it involves the use of a surface room floor. Summary locational and demographic data are provided in Table 5.7. Wallace Ruin and
Ida Jean Pueblo are the only excavated, former Chaco great house sites in the
MVR with one or more verifiable Pueblo III primary burials. However, since these depositions are associated with the post-abandonment, non-residential use of these two sites, their mortuary data are not included in tables or statistical analyses pertaining to residential burial patterns. Nevertheless, the information from Ida Jean Pueblo is discussed below and that from Wallace
Ruin in a subsequent chapter. The spatial distribution of all 36 sites is displayed in Figure 5.4.
39

Fig. 5.4: The locations of P3MLD sites in the MVR study area, by geographic and cultural locality.
Distribution and frequency by mortuary context type
All ten mortuary context types were employed at least once in P3MLD residences. The distribution and frequency of P3MLD mortuary context types by residences (kiva units) and primary burials are displayed in Table 5.9, arrayed by the three major residential components. Calculated by occurrence per residence, just 89 of a possible 500 (50 residences X 10 MCT) were selected for these 255 primary burials. Although such low sums mean that inferences must be drawn with caution, for the most part the figures from these
MCT are more substantial than their Pueblo II counterparts.
40

Table 5.8: Locational and demographic data from Mesa Verde Region Pueblo III mortuary contexts, by residence and site*.
MCT Residence Localities
Unit Type
5MT1.B
5MT3.17
5MT3.65
5MT3.73
CL; 24LL
CL; 24LL
CL; 24LL
CL; 24LL
5MT765.1206
CL; 24LL
5MTUMR, S.7
ML
5MV1200.C
5MV1200.F
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
5MV1200.H
5MV1228
5MV1285.A
5MV34.5
5MT10991
5MT2346
5MV34.5
5MV640 ^
5MT1.B
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
VL; 24LL
ML
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
CL; 24LL
5MT3.5
5MT3.17
5MT3.27
5MT3.65
CL; 24LL
CL; 24LL
CL; 24LL
CL; 24LL
5MT3.73
5MT8651
CL; 24LL
UL
5MTUMR, S.7
ML
5MV1200.J
ML; 24LL
5MV1285.A
5MV34.1
5MV34.5
5MT1.E
5MT123
5MT3.5
5MT3.46
5MT9541
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
CL; 24LL
1
2
1 kiva
CL
CL; 24LL kiva kiva
CL; 24LL mealing room
UL pit room
1
1
3
1
3
1
1
2
1
1
1
3
1
1
1
1
3
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
4
5MV1200.D
5MV1200.K
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
5MT10991, R.1 VL; 24LL
5MT13403 CL
5MT2564
5MT7704
5MT2544
5MT3.27
5MT3.46
UL
UL
CL; 24LL mealing room kiva kiva kiva pit room kiva pit room
CL mealing room
CL; 24LL mealing room
Age Group
Indivs.
3
1
1
1
1
2
1
3
1
1
5
1
3
1
1
5
1
2
1
1
2
1
2
1
1
2
4
1
3
1
1
1
1
5
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
5
I
C, IA
I
I, OA
IA
C
I, T, YA
T
I
T, YA
I, YA
C
I, C, YA
C
I
C
IA
I
I
C, U
I
YA
I
YA, MA
I, YA
I
I, C, YA
I
MA
YA
I
I
I, U
C
I, C, YA, OA
I
IA
C, A, OA
U
YA, OA
I, IA
I
Sex Reference
U
U
U
U
U
U, F
F
F
F
U
F
U, F
M
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
U, F
U
F
Karhu, 2000
Karhu, 2000
Karhu, 2000
Karhu, 2000
F?
U
U
U
Kuckelman & Martin, 2007
Reed, 1944
Cattanach, 1980
Cattanach, 1980
U Cattanach, 1980
U, M, F Rohn, 1971
U
M
Nichols, 1972
O'Bryan, 1950
U, M, F Dove, 1997; Wheeler Smith, 2009
U Nordby, 1974
O'Bryan, 1950 M
U
U
Nordenskiold, 1893; Fewkes, 1909
Karhu, 2000
U Karhu, 2000
U, M, F, PF Karhu, 2000
U, M
U
Karhu, 2000
Karhu, 2000
U, PM, AM Karhu, 2000
Leonard, 2005
Reed, 1944
Rohn, 1971
Nichols, 1972
O'Bryan, 1950
O'Bryan, 1950
Karhu, 2000
Ryan, 2003
Karhu, 2000
Karhu, 2000
Kleidon, 2005
Cattanach, 1980
Cattanach, 1980
Prudden, 1914
Luebben, 1982
Billman & Robinson, 2003
Errickson, 1993
Morris, 1991
Karhu, 2000
Karhu, 2000
41

5MT9943
5MT2343/5
5MT2346
5MT2831
5MV1200
5MV1229
5MV1285
5MV1452
5MV34
5MV499
^ Room 9
5MT1.C2
5MT1.E
5MT2715
5MT3.99
5MT3.27
5MT3.46
CL; 24LL
CL; 24LL
UL
CL; 24LL
CL; 24LL
CL; 24LL
CL; 24LL s. recess s. recess tunnel pit/tunnel tunnel; pit/wall pit/post holes
5MT765.1004
5MV1200.B
5MV1452
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL k. corner room k. corner room vent shaft
5MT10207.A
UL
5MT3.65
CL; 24LL iso. structure subsurface pit
5MT3.17
5MT3.27
5MT3.73
5MT3.46
CL; 24LL
CL; 24LL
CL; 24LL
CL; 24LL subsurface pit subsurface pit subsurface pit subsurface pit
5MT9943. A1
5MT2343/5
5MV522.A
5MT1.C2
UL
ML
ML; 24LL
CL; 24LL subsurface pit recessed vessel granary
5MT10991
5MT3.17
5MT3.46
5MT3.73
VL; 24LL
CL; 24LL
CL; 24LL
CL; 24LL
5MV1228
5MV1229
5MV1285
5DL, SP
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
CL
5MT10991 VL; 24LL
5MT10991R1 VL; 24LL
5MT2
5MT2519
CL; 24LL
CL
5MT3
5MT4104
5MT765
5MT8943
5MT9933
CL; 24LL
CL
CL; 24LL
UL
UL
UL
ML
ML
ML
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
ML; 24LL
5
2
1
3
24
17
2
1
4
4
1
3
8
23
1
1
1
2
1
8
9
6
1
1
2
1
1
1
2
1
I, C
C
C
MA
YA, MA
I
I , C, T
IA
C
U
F
U
U
M, F
U
Karhu, 2000
Karhu, 2000
Luebben, 1985
Karhu, 2000
Karhu, 2000
Karhu
U
U
U
Bradley, 1998
Cattanach, 1980
Hayes & Lancaster, 1975
M
U, M
Errickson, 1993
Karhu, 2000
U, AM Karhu, 2000
3
1
2
3
4
1
1
2
1
3
1
1
YA
T, IA
C, YA, MA
YA
C, YA
I, T, MA
C, T
I
IA
I
IA
I, C, AD
F
U, F
Karhu, 2000
Karhu, 2000
U, PF, M Karhu, 2000
U
U
Stirniman, 2005
Reed, 1944
U
U
Fewkes, 1920
Karhu, 2000
M Wheeler Smith, 2007
U, PF Karhu, 2000
1
1
YA
I
M
U
Karhu, 2000
Karhu, 2000
4 C, YA, IA U, M Rohn, 1971
15 I, C, YA, MA, IA U, M, F Rohn, 1971
I, C, IA, U
C, IA
U
IA
U, M, F?
Nordenskiold, 1979
U Prudden, 1918
U
U
Dove et al., 1997
Prudden, 1914
U
T,YA
U
U, F
Wilshusen & Lekson, 2003
Morris, 1991
I, C, T, YA, IA U, M, F Karhu, 2000
U
I
U
U
Martin, 1929
Bradley, 1998
YA
YA
I, C, T, MA
I, C, T, IA
U
IA
I, C, T, IA
I, C, T, IA
C
C, YA
T, IA
IA
F
M
U, F
U, F
Errickson, 1993
Kleidon, 2005
Stirniman et al., 2005
Nordby, 1974
U
M
Nordby, 1974
Reed, 1984/1985
U, M, F Cattanach, 1980
U, M, F Rohn, 1971
U Nordenskiold, 1979
M Hayes & Lancaster, 1975
U, M, F O'Bryan, 1950
M, F Lister, 1964
42

Table 5.9: The distribution of Pueblo III mortuary context types, by number and frequency of P3MLD residences* and primary burials.
Mortuary Context Type
Surf. Room Fill
Surf. Room Floor
Surf. Room Subfloor
Residences
No. %
12
4
12
0.14
0.05
0.14
Burials
No. %
21
10
24
0.08
0.04
0.09
Sub. Structure Fill
Sub. Structure Floor
Sub. Structure Subfloor
Other Architectural
Storage Feature
Sub. Burial Pit*
Extramural Midden* ^
Total
^ Room 9
7
4
3
9
9
8
20
88
0.08
0.05
0.03
0.10
0.10
0.09
0.23
1.00
10
5
4
16
18
34
113
255
0.04
0.02
0.02
0.06
0.07
0.13
0.44
1.00
Surface Room MCT
A floor allocation is secure for only five of the primary burials listed in Table 5.8.
These individuals comprise an adult and a child from Site 5MT10991, an individual of unknown age and sex from 5MT2346, and two adult males from
5MV34. The associations of four burials from 5MV34 are probable, and that of one individual from 5MT10991 is possible. In addition to these, both Wallace
Ruin and Ida Jean Pueblo have at least one floor-associated primary burial deposit.
A mixed strategy of intensive and test excavations revealed three Pueblo III individuals on the floors of three rooms constructed during the Pueblo II occupation of Mitchell Springs Pueblo, 5MT10991. Each is allocated to a single
43

residential unit since a Pueblo III room block has not been excavated during recent archaeological research. The semi-flexed skeleton of an adult male in
Room 13 was, apparently, covered with dirt at deposition, and the semi-flexed remains of a child are in Room 9. Both individuals are accompanied by grave goods suggestive of an Early Pueblo III timeframe. The allocation of a third primary burial is less certain. The fully flexed skeleton of an older adult female is in a test trench that reveals the floor of a Pueblo II building. Several flat rocks are under her head, and she is accompanied by a corrugated jar and black-onwhite bowl of a non-specified ceramic style. Unfortunately, this mortuary context is not otherwise described, so it is not evident if this is a surface room or a subterranean structure. Conservatively, all three depositions are assigned a surface room floor context. The remains of two individuals are on the floor of
Room 1 of Site 5MT2346, a small, multi-component habitation situated south of
Mesa Verde in Mancos Canyon, so within Ute Mountain Ute Tribal lands. This site is renowned in the archaeological literature (see White, 1992) due to compelling evidence of intense post-mortem processing of the corpses of multiple individuals at the end of its Pueblo II occupation. However, there is no evidence of peri-mortem trauma in the remains of the five primary burials associated with the Pueblo III residence. Burial 1 is in situ and accompanied by numerous vessels, but the bones of Burial 9 are highly disturbed and distributed across the floor surface. Unfortunately, no information is provided regarding the positioning of Burial 1, nor is there demographic data for either individual.
Burial 1 is allocated to a room floor mortuary context but the information from
Burial 9 is inadequate for such a determination.
At 5MV34, the skeletons of two individuals are on the floor of Room 36, a
Pueblo III surface room associated with Kiva V (i.e., R5). An older adult male is
44

roughly in the centre of the room, supine with knees flexed to the northwest, and he is accompanied by four Mesa Verde Black-on-white mugs. A young adult male with two Mesa Verde Black-on-white mugs is in the southwest corner of the room, also supine but with knees oriented to the southeast.
At first glance, O’Bryan’s (1950:Fig.25 p. 66) plan map of 5MV34 burial locations at Site gives the impression that there are a substantial number of primary depositions within the surface rooms of this medium-sized, multiplecomponent residence. Potentially, such a distribution provides a second site that is reasonably comparable to Wallace Ruin mortuary patterns, in addition to
Site 5MT3. In actuality, once these depositions are sorted by temporal period and the bone clusters from disturbed depositions are eliminated from consideration, the Pueblo III surface room population identified in Table 5.10 involves just seven individuals in five rooms. This is the only P3MLD habitation with a primary burial in all three surface room contexts, yet no room has more than one MCT. Overall, 5MV34 mirrors the Pueblo III preference for a subfloor mortuary location in terms of surface room contexts, but it is not notably similar to Wallace Ruin regarding the frequency of floor depositions.
Table 5.10: The distribution of Pueblo III primary burials in
Site 5MV34 surface rooms.
Residence Room ID
Room
Fill
Room
Floor
Room
Subfloor
1
2
5MV34.1
5MV34.1
5MV34.5
5MV34.5
5MV34.5
Total
36
43
5
9
13
32 1
1
2
2
1
4
45

Much of Spruce Tree House (5MV640) had been despoiled and plundered for vessels and other artefacts prior to Fewkes’ (1909) efforts in the early 1900s to excavate and stabilise the site in as an interpretive resource for the newlyestablished Mesa Verde National Park. During two decades of looting, an incalculable number of mortuary contexts were removed or disturbed. A rare exception to this early-days information void is provided in the first scholarly des cription of the site by the botanist Gustav Nordenskiöld (1979 [1893]), who records the discovery of the skeletons of three infants on the floor of a sealed room (Room 9) that he did not excavate entirely. Some 15 years later, Fewkes
(1909: Mortuary Room) located the skeleton of a fourth individual, an adult of undetermined sex with unspecified grave goods, when he completed the excavation of this chamber. In his report, Fewkes refers to the infants located by
Nordenskiöld, then goes on to say:
Evidently the doorway of this room had been walled up and there are indications that the burials took place at intervals, the last occurring before the desertion of the village. The presence of burials in the floors of rooms in
Spruce-tree House was to be expected, as the practice of thus disposing of the dead was known from other ruins of the Park; but it has not been pointed out that we have in this region good evidence of several successive interments in the same room.
Unfortunately, Fewkes provides neither evidence nor arguments for this interpretation, and it is by no means certain how to interpret “in the floors” as opposed to “on the floors.” This is not a typographical error since he repeats this phrase in his report on Cliff Palace (1911). Possibly, it implies a succession of floors or use surfaces. On the other hand, this descriptor could refer to what are now termed subfloor burials. Conservatively, all four of the Room 9 burials are assigned a surface room floor context.
46

During formal archaeological investigations, Brisbin and Brisbin (n.d.) located the semi-flexed skeleton of an adult male with a Mesa Verde Black-on-white vessel on a surface room floor of Ida Jean Pueblo (5MT4169). A less compelling hearsay account raises the possibility that one or more primary depositions in another surface room were located during pot-hunting endeavours. For some decades, non-professional collectors targeted the contents of several surface rooms of Ida Jean Pueblo. When archaeologist Joel
Brisbin undertook research excavations in the early 1970s, he sought out information regarding what had been found or observed previously. Brisbin located an individual who provided scant details regarding the, alleged, discovery of a “burial room” in the 1940s or 1950s from which numerous pots were removed. Since Ida Jean Pueblo is on private land, both the intrusions and the acquisition of this collection would have been lawful. Apparently, there are no records that can substantiate this claim, nor are there any additional details.
All parties involved in the acquisition of this assemblage are now deceased.
However, Brisbin was permitted to photograph 13 Mesa Verde Black-on-white bowls and jars. This photograph, now in the possession of the Anasazi Heritage
Center, is labelled in Brisbin’s handwriting: “a collection of vessels removed in mass from a burial room on the S. east corner of NMc #8. This was done 25 to
30 years prior to the beginning of our excavations.” The use of the term “burial room”, along with the number of pots in the assemblage, raises the possibility that multiple individuals were deposited in one or more rooms at Ida Jean
Pueblo after AD 1180.
Brisbin’s information is construed here as a legitimate possibility since there would have been scant impetus by the owner of the pots to misrepresent their provenance. The acquisition of Ancestral Pueblo pots was less controversial in
47

the 1970s than just a decade later, regardless of where obtained, and there was, apparently, no underlying financial motive. Still, this information is too sketchy to be included in formal tabulations or statistical analyses.
Accordingly, even when including the depositions of less certain mortuary provenience, a surface room floor mortuary location is rare in P3MLD domiciles, whether calculated by frequencies of residences (5%), burials (4%), or in comparison to other mortuary context types. Of the 10 potential MCT, only a subsurface structure subfloor context is less common than a room floor location when calculated by residences; however, the room floor context shares this penultimate position with the subsurface structure floor MCT. By order of the most to least common MCT by primary burials, the room floor and subsurface structure fill contexts share the 8 th position. In contrast, the room subfloor MCT is the third most common MCT by number of burials whereas the room fill MCT is in fourth position. Both of these context types are in second position when calculated by residence, but, as discussed below, they may actually hold third and fourth positions by both burials and residences.
Regardless of which rankings are correct, room fill and subfloor depositions are decidedly more prevalent than those on a room floor, occurring at roughly twice the rate of floor MCT however these figures are calculated. That the subfloor depositions outnumber floor burials is particularly noteworthy. Billman (1998) explicitly mentions that entire room subfloor areas were excavated to sterile in the investigations of the Ute Piedmont sites at Cowboy Wash, but the extent of subfloor excavations, if any, is not described for several P3MLD sites (Prudden,
1914; 1918; Martin, 1929; Leubben, 1982; Nordby, 1974). Thus, whilst it is clear that both fill and floor contexts at those sites are completely investigated, it may
48

be that some subfloor depositions have been overlooked. If so, the numerical discrepancy between the room floor versus subfloor contexts may be even larger. Keeping in mind that the P3MLD mortality profile follows the expected trends for non-antibiotic societies, it seems that this increase in the use of surface room fill and floor contexts is to some extent concomitant with a moderate decline in the use of residential middens.
When considering all surface room mortuary contexts, 32% of the residences have a primary deposition in at least one of the three potential MCT, comprising
55 primary depositions from 20 different domiciles. In four residences, as well as non-residential Ida Jean Pueblo, a primary deposition is recorded in a room floor location only. However, one of these is Spruce Tree House, and it is entirely likely that burials would have been located in other MCT if the site had not been so badly looted prior to the commencement of formal excavations.
Eight residences have varying combinations of two different surface room MCT.
The non-residential use of Wallace Ruin involves the use of floor and subfloor locations; possibly, the infant in rubble fill was deposited after the Pueblo III use of the site. Residence 5MV34.5 is the only domicile in which a Pueblo III burial is present in all three surface room categories.
Other Residential MCT
An extramural midden location is again favoured whether calculated by residences or by primary depositions. Subsurface burial pits are in second position by frequency of burials but only a middle ranking by residence. Yet, since several Pueblo III sites are villages, the extramural midden and burial pit rates are skewed by a method that allocates primary depositions in such loci by
49

site rather than by residence. Considering the 15 depositions in graves at Site
5MV1229, arbitrary re-assignment of two burials to each of its eight houses essentially doubles the number of residences and thereby elevates this context into second position over the surface room fill and subfloor locations, each of which is represented by 12 domiciles. A comparable adjustment for burials located in village middens would produce similar results, though whether these adjusted frequencies would attain the levels observed in Pueblo II sites is questionable given the Pueblo III shift to the use of surface rooms.
As detailed in Table 5.7, depositions associated with subsurface structures are in a variety of locations, including kiva main chambers, kiva corner rooms, southern recesses of kivas, ventilator shafts, mealing rooms, pit rooms, and tunnels. Unlike P2MLD depositions, there is at least one primary deposition in each of the three vertical structure proveniences. In regard to the three major residential components, primary depositions are observed in surface room contexts more often than in subsurface structures, whether counted by residential units (28:23) or, especially, by number of primary burials (55:35).
However, this P3MLD burial population is definitely skewed towards disposal in an extramural zone MCT versus an intramural location (165:90).
Multiple MCT per residence
Although slightly more than half (27) of the P3MLD residences have primary burials in a single MCT, a few domiciles have as many as five. Possibly, given their potential use of an extramural midden or subsurface burial pit context, a few households in villages and hamlets may have made use of six or seven
MCT. One-third of the depositions in single-context residences are in a midden; the remainder are distributed fairly evenly across a wide range of contexts, with
50

no MCT numbering more than three. Those residences in which depositions are observed in two or more MCT are identified in Table 5.11, with no adjustments made for site-based allocations for middens and graves.
Midden contexts dominate the distribution in multiple-MCT residences, even without arbitrary, but probably realistic, allocations of midden and grave MCT.
The distributions in domiciles with three or five MCT are too small for pattern analysis, and that of the residences having four MCT is just large enough to be suggestive. The majority of the residences have burials in two MCT. This distribution is the only one of sufficient size for credible inferences. Even so, apart from the typical preference for an extramural midden burial location, there is no particular pattern of use for either the 2 MCT or 4 MCT distribution.
It is not surprising that residences with three or more MCT are situated in multicomponent sites. The range of MCT used is most pronounced in the Site 5MT3, a complex which is unusual in the Mesa Verde region in terms of size and longevity (Wilshusen and Mobley-Tanaka, 2005:4). This small village, or hamlet, consists of three large Pueblo II domiciles, or Houses, which were subsequently overlain by nine Pueblo III residences. A substantial number of Pueblo III depositions were intruded into abandoned or obscured architectural structures or features, either deliberately or perhaps unintentionally. For example, 12 of the 18 P3MLD burials in a storage feature are from 5MT3, but several of these depositions are in bell-shaped storage pits constructed during the Pueblo II occupation of this hamlet (Mobley-Tanaka, 2005). As most P3MLD residences are single-component sites, they have no such pre-existing features available for use as a Pueblo III mortuary location.
51

3 MCT
5MT10991
5MT3.65
4 MCT
5MT3.17
5MT3.27
5MT3.73
5MV1285A
5MV34.5
5 MCT
5MT3.46
Table 5.11: The distribution of Mesa Verde region mortuary context types, by P3MLD residence or site* in which more than one category is observed.
Residence
Room
Fill
Room
Floor
Room
Subfloor
Substr
Fill
Substr
Floor
Substr
Subfloor
Other
Arch.
Storage
Feature
Burial
Pit
Ext.
Midden
2 MCT
5MT1.B
5MT1.C2
5MT1.E
5MT10991.R1
5MT3.5
5MT3.99
5MT765.1004
5MT9943
5MTUMR, S7
5MT2343/45
5MT2346
5MV1200.B
5MV1228
5MV1229A
5MV1452
5MV34.1
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Distribution of mortuary context types by localities
Geographic Localities
At least one mortuary context type is observed in four of the five geographic localities as defined in this study, and they occur in numbers consistent with estimated Pueblo III population densities (Varien 1999a). With few exceptions,
52

these contexts occur in the western and southern parts of the study area. No primary depositions are observed in the River Locality, and each of the five
MCT observed in a Valley Locality residence are confined to the expansive
Mitchell Springs Ruin Group. Although a single surface room floor context is identified in Table 5.12, this entry refers to the deposition in a 5MT10991 test trench that is potentially on a subsurface structure floor. The Canyons Locality
(CL) has the greatest number of MCT observed, and the only type missing is a surface room floor context. In slight contrast, each surface room MCT is observed in the Mesa Locality (ML), but no primary depositions have been found in a subsurface structure floor or subfloor context. Most of these ML residences are in the large cliff-dwelling villages at the southern end of Mesa
Verde, including Spruce Tree House (5MV640) with its four presumed floorassociated depositions, but Site5MV34 is situated just two or so km from its north rim.
Table 5.12: The distribution of Mesa Verde region Pueblo III mortuary contexts per geographic and cultural locality, by P3MLD residence or site*.
Mortuary Contexts
Types
S. Room Fill
S. Room Floor
S. Room Subfloor
CL ML RL UL VL Total LVG 2LL 7LL 24LL Total
5
0
6
7
3
5
Geographic Localities
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
1^
0
12
4
12
0
0
0
Lakeview Localities
0
0
0
0
0
0
11
3
10
11
3
10
Sub. Structure Fill
Sub. Structure Floor
Storage Feature
Sub. Burial Pit*
Extramural Midden*
Total
4
1
Sub. Structure Subfloor 3
Other Architectural 6
5
4
6
40
2
0
0
2
2
3
9
33
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
2
0
1
1
0
3
10
0
1
0
0
0
1
2
5
7
4
3
9
9
8
20
88
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
^ Does not include non-residential mortuary use of Wallace Ruin and Ida Jean Pueblo.
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
5
1
2
8
6
8
11
65
5
1
2
8
6
8
11
65
Possibly, the comparatively low number of total MCT observed in the Ute
Locality (6/10) is related to the small size and limited occupation spans of these
53

ten P3MLD residences. As evidenced at Site 5MT3, since hamlets and villages tend to be more enduring than farmsteads (Varien, 1999a), they provide more opportunities for the use of abandoned buildings and extramural features for mortuary purposes. However, the equivalent large villages of Cowboy Wash
Pueblo (5MT7740) and Yucca House (5MT4359) of the Ute Locality are unexcavated. In addition, the slightly reduced range of MCT selected may also reflect differences in domicile size, construction materials or possibly community tradition. In the UL, farmsteads generally follow Pueblo II architectural characteristics, typically involving an earthen pit structure accompanied by a small roomblock (Billman and Breternitz, 2006). For example, a child at Site
5MT8651 is in pit cut through the floor of a one or two-room building. This is the only primary deposition in a surface room context of any type in the P3MLD residences of the Ute Locality. The lack of a room floor deposition in this geographic locality is not remarkable given the paucity of this MCT in more populated regions of the MVR. However, the absence of primary depositions in surface room fill is notable since it is contrary to the trends observed in CL and
ML residences, but this again could be due to the dearth of full-fledged roomblocks. Perhaps, the use of abandoned surface rooms for rubbish and mortuary purposes at Sites 5MT3 and 5MV34 may have been less of a logistical constraint than in Ute Locality farmsteads. As a case in point, such contexts at
5MT3 are also non-existent prior to the construction of its numerous masonry surface rooms. A third possibility is that the absence of primary depositions in a surface room fill or subfloor location, as well as other MCT, reflects cultural or social difference between inhabitants of the UL versus other MVR communities.
Errickson (1994:497-498) submits that the high proportion of Chuska Black-on-
54

white sherds within the small sites of the Cowboy Wash community points to an immigration of individuals from the Chuska Mountains of northern Arizona.
Lakeview Localities
The Pueblo III mortuary contexts discovered at Wallace Ruin and Ida Jean
Pueblo of the Lakeview Group involve a non-residential use of these former great houses. No MCT are recorded in a residential site within the 2 km
Lakeview Locality or the 7 km Lakeview Locality, including during archaeological surveys. The full complement of mortuary context types is present in residences located within the 24 km Lakeview Locality. Surface room floor contexts are the third least common location, surpassing only subsurface structure floor and subfloor locations. Notably, surface room fill and floor contexts are three to four times more common than a room floor location.
Nearly 75% (65/88) of the MCT observed in the P3MLD are within this largest
Lakeview locality, though most are situated near its perimeter. The more significant concentrations are in either the Yellow Jacket community or amongst the cliff-dwelling villages near the southern end of Mesa Verde. The 22 primary depositions distributed amongst the Mitchell Springs Ruin Group (5MT10991 and 5MT10991, Ruin 1), 5MV34 and 5MV499 are rare exceptions to this spatial pattern. Each of these individuals died after AD 1180, based on the associated
Mesa Verde Black-on-white vessel or sherds, but tree-ring dates and ceramic seriation indicate that all four of these residential sites were abandoned by the early AD 1200s (O’Bryan, 1950: 74-75; Lister, 1964:88; Wheeler Smith,
2009:128).
Demographic Structure
Age
55

Of the 255 primary depositions that populate the P3MLD, the skeletal remains of 222 are in sufficient condition for an estimation of age. The distribution of these individuals by age class and mortuary context type is depicted in Table
5.13. As with the P2MLD burials, individuals in the Indeterminate Adult age group are re-allocated to fine-grained Adult categories on a proportional basis for frequency analysis. Fortunately, most of the MCT have two or fewer IA burials, and those of unknown age or sex are also uncommon apart from those in the midden MCT. With these adjustments, the mortality curve depicted in
Figures 5.5a-c is generally consistent with trends observed in pre-antibiotic populations.
Table 5.13: The distribution of Pueblo III primary dispositions from P3MLD residences or site*, by age class and mortuary context type.
Mortuary Context Type I C T YA MA OA IA U Total S:A
Surf. Room Fill
Surf. Room Floor
Surf. Room Subfloor
10
3
9
3
1
5
0
0
1
4
1
7
1
0
0
1
2
0
1
2
2
1
1
0
21
10
24
13:7
4:5
15:9
Sub. Structure Fill
Sub. Structure Floor
3
2
Sub. Structure Subfloor 1
Other Architectural 6
1
1
0
5
2
0
0
1
1
1
2
1
0
0
1
1
1
0
0
0
2
0
0
2
0
1
0
0
10
5
4
16
6:4
3:1
1:3
12:4
Storage Feature
Burial Pit*
2
9
4
7
3
1
4
5
4
2
0
0
1
8
Midden* 16 16 11 12 8 2 20
Total 61 43 19 37 16 6
Does not include the non-residential use of Ida Jean Pueblo or Wallace Ruin
40
0
2
28
33
18
34
113
255
9:9
17:15
43:42
123:99
The 27% frequency of infants is within the normal range for such societies as is the 55% frequency of subadults. Although the P3MLD Young Adult frequency of 27% is less than the DAP rate of 40%, it is higher than the more typical 19% rate of occurrence in the P2MLD burial population. There is no physical
56

evidence suggestive that the death of any of these individuals is related to violence, but even lethal wounds can leave no trace on the skeleton (CJK’s new book?). Possibly, this result is somewhat inflated by the proportional reallocations of adults of indeterminate age.
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Fig 5.5a
I C
T
Age Groups
YA
P3MLD, N=222
Surf. Room Fill, N=20
Surf. Room Floor, N=9
Surf. Room Subfloor, N=24
MA OA
P3MLD, N=222
Sub. Structure Fill, N=10
Sub. Structure Floor, N=4
Sub. Structure Subfloor, N=4
Other Architectural, N=16
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Fig. 5.5b
I C T
Age Groups
YA MA OA
57

70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
P3MLD, N=222
Storage Feature, N=18
Sub. Burial Pit, N=32
Ex. Midden, N=85
Fig 5.5c
I C T
Age Groups
YA MA OA
_______________________________________________________________
____________
Fig 5.5a-c. Mortality profiles of P3MLD primary burials from residential sites per age class and grouped mortuary context types. The P3MLD mortality curve provides a comparative and integrative benchmark.
Surface Rooms
As shown in Figure 5.5a, each age structure for the three surface room MCT generally follow the peaks and valleys of the P3MLD mortality curve. The dearth of individuals in the Middle and Old Adult categories may also be slightly inaccurate in that the Indeterminate Adults in the room floor and subfloor MCT could belong to either, or both, of those age groups. The subfloor age structure could be particularly biased by the use of a strict proportional scheme by which the two IA burials are re-allocated to the already well-populated Young Adult category. As uncertain as these adult distributions may be, it is evident that all three surface room contexts contain a similar but disproportionately high numbers of infants. Yet, though their 50% frequency in the room fill MCT is nearly twice that of the Infant representation in the P3MLD age structure, this rate is still within the normal range for pre-antibiotic societies.
Although adolescents are the only age group that is not represented in either of the two floor contexts, and are present in just six MCT, this dearth could be due
58

to sampling error given the scarcity of teens (19) in the entire P3MLD population. It is unlikely that their absence from most surface room and subsurface structure contexts is due to differential preservation, especially given the number of infants in these locations. A further consideration is that one or both of the floor-associated individuals of undetermined age might be in his or her teens.
Even with low numbers of adolescents, the Subadult:Adult age distribution
(32:21) is weighted towards youngsters, who comprise 60% of the depositions in surface rooms. In comparison, even though extramural zone subadults outnumber those from intramural contexts (54), the 51% frequency of these 69 individuals is the lowest rate of occurrence of the three residential components.
All told, this age-related evidence thus suggests that, following the adoption of masonry architecture, surface rooms came to be viewed as a desirable alternative mortuary location, particularly in the case of infants but for persons of all ages as well during Pueblo III times.
Other Residential MCT
The subsurface structure profiles provided in Figure 5.5b are the most divergent of three residential components, probably due in part to the very low numbers of burials in the floor and subfloor contexts. Most notably, the subfloor context involves the use of mealing rooms only, and the only individuals observed comprise a mature adult and an infant interred with one of the two young adults.
That this adult-dominated age grouping is in some way associated with the sex of these individuals is addressed in the section which follows.
In contrast, although almost every age class is represented in the Other
Architectural MCT, the age structure is definitely weighted towards infants and
59

subadults less than 15 years of age. There are no burials of undetermined age in this MCT. Logistical constraints, such as the dimensions of small architectural features, are not a factor. Of the 16 primary burials, three are within a southern recess, one is in a ventilator shaft, three depositions are in tunnels, one burial pit partly intrudes into former post holes, one subsurface burial pit intrudes into a mealing room wall, and seven individuals are on the floor or in the fill of a kiva corner room. Even though it has fewer subadults than either the surface room or extramural residential components, the S:A age distribution (22:12) equates to a subadult frequency of 65%, which is the highest rate of occurrence of the three residential zones. This result is in large measure due to the presence of six subadults in a single kiva corner room at Site 5MT765 (Sand Canyon
Pueblo). Of the 15 completely excavated corner rooms, only this one contains primary burials. Possibly, this usage may involve the practice of a single family or household.
Essentially, the three MCT age structures of the extramural component ( Fig.
5.5c
) generally adhere to the P3MLD distribution. Counter to surface room fill and subfloor age structures, the extramural midden context contains proportionately fewer infants than the P3MLD rate of occurrence, and moreover, they occur at the same frequency as children. To some extent, this deviation from the P3MLD and Latin American mortality structures could represent the differential preservation of infant bones in intramural versus extramural contexts. Although fill deposits can accumulate in unroofed buildings, a reasonable inference is that skeletal preservation differences between the cartilaginous bones of infants versus the ossified elements of older individuals would, in many cases, be less of a factor in intramural locations as opposed to the often extreme climatic conditions that affect extramural middens in
60

southwest Colorado. Yet, P2MLD infants in extramural deposits occur at the expected rate of a typical pre-antibiotic profile, so an explanation of differential preservation is by itself inadequate. In similar vein, young adults are present in the P3MLD profile at about the expected rate, but, as with infants, their rate of occurrence is lower than would be expected in a residential midden whilst higher in surface rooms and subsurface structures.
Potentially, storage features were not deemed an appropriate burial location for infants or children. With only two infants observed, this is the only MCT age structure in which infant mortality occurs at the lowest frequency. Moreover, the
Infants group is the only age class that is not represented by a single primary deposition in an extramural storage pit. One infant was deposited in sequence within the trashy fill of a bell-shaped storage pit at residence 5MT3.75. In
Karhu’s view (2000:188), this multiple interment involved the initial deposition of a young adolescent of immature skeletal development, followed by a mature adult of ambiguous sex. An infant aged 1 to 2.5 years is above the level of the adolescent at the level of the adult’s shoulder, but it is not certain if this youngster was placed before or after the adult. It is thus unclear if this infant’s mortuary locus is related to a cultural consideration involving storage features, or, rather because of his or her social relationship with one of the other two individuals. The second infant is in a vessel that was built into the floor of a surface room. This individual is allocated to the storage feature MCT since archaeologists commonly infer that such vessels functioned as an intramural storage feature. However, the other possibility is that the buriers considered this locus to be equivalent to a subfloor pit.
61

Although the number of children (4) in a storage pit MCT is consistent with older age groups, it may be that storage features were not considered the appropriate burial location for individuals of this age under normal conditions. Only one deposit unquestionably involves a child as the single occupant of a bell-shaped pit. A second child and a young adult female constitute a double burial in a storage pit that is associated with a Site 5MT3 mealing room (Karhu, 2000:19,
192), but the identity of this MCT is ambiguous. From Karhu’s description, it is probably a subsurface storage pit that intruded into mealing room fill, but there is a chance that it is actually a subsurface structure subfloor pit. Even if it this is an intrusive pit, this child may have been placed with the young adult because of a familial or social relationship rather than due to cultural considerations. At
Site 5MT9943, the articulated corpses of the third and fourth children and a young adolescent were eventually deposited in a subsurface storage pit after lying in an exposed location. Each of these individuals has peri-mortem skeletal trauma, consistent with evidence that this and other residences in the Cowboy
Wash area suffered a violent attack. Even though corpse disposal was delayed, the probable association of grave goods provides grounds to identify this grouping as a multiple primary burial deposit. However, given their cause of death, this pit may have been construed simply as an expedient location under very challenging social conditions. This is a distinct possibility since it is the only storage pit with primary depositions of the more than twenty such features in this multi-component cluster of sites (Billman and Robinson, 2003; 2005a;
2005b). Thus, if the single child in the bell-shaped storage pit represents mortuary location decisions under normal conditions, then the use of storage pits is definitely skewed towards individuals older than 12 years of age.
62

Otherwise, these results provide no compelling evidence that the age of the deceased played a major role in the selection of nine MCT types or groupings by age group or in terms of the relative frequency of subadults. At least one infant and one young adult is observed in every MCT, whereas a minimum of one child and one middle or old adult burial is present in eight of the ten potential locations. The rather flat shape of the midden mortality curve is perhaps the result of the increased use of surface rooms locations for infant depositions.
Sex
Skeletal development and condition were sufficient for a determination of sex for 82 of the 109 primary depositions judged to be of adequate skeletal development and condition. This 44:38 sex distribution, which is documented in
Table 5.14, includes two possible males and eight possible females. The
P3MLD sex ratio of 116 is just slightly skewed toward males. This result thus differs slightly from the more balanced sex ratios observed in small-scale societies (Weiss, 1973:58), but it is quite similar to the overall, normalised score of 110 that Sheridan reports for Pueblo Grande Pueblo (2001:197).
Unfortunately, as with the P2MLD results, the reliability of the P3MLD figures is questionable since sex determinations for 27 individuals aged 15 or older either were not or could not be made and, moreover, the age and sex of 32 more burials is unknown. Not surprisingly, most of the individuals of undetermined sex are from an extramural midden context where preservation conditions can be quite poor. The problem of sample size is compounded by the inability to determine the sex of all associated depositions of mature skeletal development.
As a result, it is often difficult to judge the extent to which the sex of the
63

deceased was significant in the selection of a particular MCT. While it is imperative that these limitations are kept in mind, there are indications that the segregation by sex was a factor in at least one residential component.
Table 5.14: The distribution of P3MLD primary dispositions of mature skeletal development by age, sex and mortuary context type.
T
Mortuary Context Type
M F
YA
M
YA
F M
MA
F M
OA
F
IA IA
M F
Total M:F
Sex
Ratio
Surf. Room Fill 3 1 1 1 6 2:4
Surf. Room Floor 1 1 1 1 4 3:1
Surf. Room Subfloor 4 2 2 8 6:2
Sub. Structure Fill
Sub. Structure Floor
Sub. Structure Subfloor
Other Architectural
1 1
1
2
1
1
1 1
1 3
1
3
3
0:3
0:1
0:3
1:2
Storage Feature
Sub. Burial Pit
Extramural Midden
Subtotal
Undetermined Sex
Total
1 1 2 2 6 3:3
1 4 1 1 1 4 1 13 9:4 225
4 7 4 5 2 1 1 7 4 35 20:15 133
0 7 17 17 8 6 3 2 16 6 82 44:38 116
3 4 3 1 16 27
10 38 17 6 38 109
Analysis of the P3MLD sex distribution by age class provides additional insights regarding differential mortality and mortuary location decisions concerning individuals older than about 15 years of age. There are no male adolescents, but it is possible that at least one male is present amongst the three teens of undetermined sex and five others whose sex is unknown because of poor skeletal preservation or unreported data. The Young Adult age group seems to contain a disproportionately high number of individuals, but the sex ratio is a completely balanced 100. Regardless of the categories of the four burials whose sex could not be determined, this result suggests that risk factors in young adulthood, in general, affected males and females equally even if the
64

specific types of risk, such as childbearing, varied by sex. This balanced pattern is also present in the Middle and Old Adult age groups, each of which contains few burials of undetermined sex. In contrast, the Indeterminate Adult sex ratio of
127 is skewed towards males, but this score is extremely suspect since this group includes 16 individuals whose sex could not be determined. Indeed, considering only the individuals in the specific Adult age groups (YA, MA, OA) the sex ratio of 112 (28:25) is still weighted towards males, but, once again, the presence of 61 individuals of undetermined sex in these age groups means that the representativeness of this distribution is questionable. At face value, these patterns suggest that there is no segregation by sex in terms of the P3MLD residential mortuary program as a whole or during adulthood. Unfortunately, evidence quality means that only provisional inferences can be drawn regarding mortuary location decisions and the sex of adolescents. That adolescent males would be specifically singled out for burial at a location beyond residential boundaries is an unlikely scenario, and also inconsistent with evidence from
Grasshopper Pueblo (Hinkes, 1983) and Pueblo Grande (Sheridan, 2001).
Whether an egalitarian approach to mortuary decisions applies to even younger individuals cannot be determined because of methodological limitations.
Surface Rooms
Three males and one female are associated with a surface room floor, but this
MCT also has one Indeterminate Adult of unknown sex and another individual of unknown age and sex. In contrast, the four females outnumber the two males in the room fill MCT, but this category also contains one individual of unknown sex and age. The room subfloor MCT is also dominated by males, although this
65

6:2 distribution could be more, or less, emphatic since this context also includes an adolescent and a young adult of ambiguous sex.
Although each of these MCT has fewer than 10 individuals of determined sex, the total surface room distribution of 11:7 is sufficient for calculation of a normalised age ratio. The score of 157 captures a significant skew towards males, but in such a small sample, the presence of four individuals for whom a determination of sex could not be made means that this score is insecure.
However, even if all four burials are female, the ratio of males to females would be balanced at most.
Other Residential MCT
No P3MLD mortuary context type contains just males, but all of the mature depositions in the three vertical subsurface structure contexts consist of females, possible females, or individuals for whom a determination of sex is not made. Two females and one male are in the Other Architectural MCT, but the male is in a burial pit that cuts into the wall of mealing room of the 5MT3.27 residence. Possibly, this was a deliberate decision to associate this male with this structure, but it is equally likely that this Pueblo II wall was no longer visible from the ground surface by the time of the Pueblo III deposition. If this association was accidental, then the subsurface burial pit is the more appropriate MCT allocation.
Each of the four structure MCT contain no more than three burials of unknown sex, but the pooling of data for this residential component provides a sex distribution of 1:9 and thus a normalised sex ratio of 11. Such a result documents an extreme skew towards females, but it may not be accurate. Of the ten depositions in subsurface structure fill, three are females, three are of
66

undetermined sex, and the remaining individuals comprise three infants and a child. The only mature individual on a subsurface structure floor is female, but this MCT also includes an individual of unknown age and sex. The other two burials in this MCT consist of two infants and a child. The sex determinations of the three burials in a structure subfloor context are the most certain. At Site
5MT3, a mature adult probable female (Karhu, 2000:29) and a young adult female are in separate pits cut into the floor at opposite sides of the same mealing room in residence 5MT3.27. At nearby 5MT3.46 domicile, a young adult female and an infant are a double burial in a mealing room subfloor pit.
Thus, only the structure subfloor MCT can be said to lack a male or possible male with any confidence. So, even if all four individuals of undetermined sex are actually male, the 5:9 distribution and sex ratio of 56 would still be significantly skewed towards females.
The extramural residential component has more males than females, as demonstrated by the 32:22 distribution by sex. This sex ratio of 145, in which males constitute nearly 60% of the burials whose sex could be determined, is still not quite as skewed towards males as is the case for the surface room residential component. However, the extramural MCT has 19 individuals of unknown sex in addition to another 29 burials of unknown age and sex. The juxtaposition of allocations based on sex is particularly problematic with the storage feature MCT. The 3:3 distribution is balanced, yet a determination of sex could not be made for 40% of the burials in this context type. Subsurface burial pits contain a slightly larger sample size (16), of which the sex of three burials is unknown. The 225 sex ratio is extremely skewed towards males, but since the sample size is small, it could be a much reduced 129 if the three individuals of undetermined sex are female. The midden sex ratio of 133 is
67

perhaps more reliable since sample size is less of a problem. This result points to a male-dominated use of extramural midden, but this result is again quite provisional since this MCT contains 12 adults of unknown sex and 27 individuals of undetermined age and sex.
Assuming that the sex ratios by residential component are reasonably accurate, the best case for segregation by sex involves the association of females with subsurface structure MCT. If the MCT allocation of the male from 5MT3.27 is incorrect, then there are no males amongst this group of burials whose sex could be determined. Some 30% of the individuals in this MCT are of unknown sex, but assuming that each one is male and including the Other Architectural
Male, the sex distribution (6:9) is still substantially weighted towards females.
Only the three depositions in the structure subfloor MCT can be said to lack a male or possible male with confidence. Thus, although there are only nine females in the subsurface structure MCT, the potential symbolic association of a mortuary location within a mealing room location is addressed in Chapter Y.
DISCUSSION
The diachronic approach utilised in the preceding sections provides essential information from now robust databases regarding the types, frequencies and distribution of mortuary contexts used in the Mesa Verde region at the time of the Pueblo II occupation of Wallace Ruin and then its re-use during the Pueblo
III Period. This endeavour also contributes essential information regarding the age and sex of the deceased by mortuary context type per temporal period.
Comparison of the major trends between these chronological periods is worthwhile on two accounts. Primarily, such analyses can hone in on evidence
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of perpetuation or change in mortuary location choices through time or locality, information which is needed to complete the falsification of Hypothesis Two. In addition, the appraisal of demographic data may confirm, or dismiss, the possibility that segregation by age or sex was a factor in the use of storage features and subsurface locations.
Setting the problem of small sample sizes aside, the juxtaposition of mortuary context type use by both residences (Fig. 5.6 ) and primary burials (Fig. 5.7) demonstrates relatively little change in the frequencies of observed mortuary locations from the Pueblo II to the Pueblo III Period. These results indicate scant difference in the prevalence of surface room floor MCT by temporal period, but there are four moderate diachronic variations pertaining to the use of surface room fill and subfloor contexts, storage features, and the extramural midden.
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Mortuary Context Types
Pueblo II
Fig 5.6: The diachronic changes in frequency of P2MLD versus P3MLD Mesa
Verde region mortuary context types by residence or site*.
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70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Mortuary Context Types
Fig 5.7: The diachronic changes in frequency of P2MLD versus P3MLD Mesa
Verde region mortuary context types by primary burials.
The use of a surface room floor mortuary context is consistently rare in the
Mesa Verde region, however calculated. Of the 100 residences of the P2MLD and P3MLD datasets having at least one primary burial, just seven have a primary burial deposit on a surface room floor. Five of these residences are fairly typical Ancestral Pueblo dwellings, but the Pueblo II depositions at
Wallace Ruin and Ida Jean Pueblo are associated with a residential component of a Chaco great house. Moreover, these two sites are the only ones with floor burials from both the Pueblo II and Pueblo III Periods, and also the only ones in which a primary burial is present in more than one surface room. Potentially, these particular circumstances apply to Haney Ruin of the Lakeview Group as well.
Pueblo
II
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With such small numbers, the slight difference in the rates of occurrence of the surface room floor MCT by time period is not surprising. Even though the 4% rate of occurrence of Pueblo III burials is twice that of Pueblo II burials, there are just 10 floor depositions from a Pueblo III residential site. There is even less disparity in the frequency of room floor MCT by temporal period when evaluated by occurrence by residence. The Pueblo III 5% frequency just edges the 4% rate of the Pueblo II Period. The inclusion of the purported mortuary evidence from Haney Ruin of the Lakeview Group makes no difference in this comparative analysis since both Pueblo II and Pueblo III burials are said to be present in the surface rooms of this third Chaco great house.
Excluding the Pueblo III burials from Wallace Ruin and Ida Jean Pueblo, the15 burials on the floor of a residential surface room are from seven sites, and as shown in Figure 5.8, most of these are at some distance from the Lakeview
Group and from each other. Mitchell Springs Pueblo is just beyond the perimeter of the 7 km Lakeview Locality, and the remaining four domiciles are at least 10 km apart each other, and at least 20 km walking distance from Wallace
Ruin, in the Mesa Verde geographic locality. Wallace Ruin and Ida Jean Pueblo are the only two sites that are in close proximity, though Haney Ruin would constitute another such site if the unsubstantiated mortuary information is accurate.
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Fig. 5.8: The locations of Mesa Verde region Pueblo II and Pueblo III residences with a surface room floor mortuary context, by geographic and cultural locality.
In contrast to this persistently infrequent use of surface room floors for a mortuary locus, the evidence from surface room fill and subfloor contexts indicates a noticeable, though still low-level, change between the Pueblo II and
Pueblo III Periods. As discussed previously, a case can be made that the decrease in the frequency of use of the extramural midden in the Pueblo III
Period is essentially offset by the increase in the depositions in a surface room fill and subfloor MCT. Karhu (2000:32) draws attention to this juxtaposition at
Site 5MT3, but she offers no motives for this moderate shift in location selection. In the view of Mobley-Tanaka (2005:51), it is reasonable to interpret rooms containing a substantial amount of rubbish as abandoned, and that furthermore, this use of abandoned rooms is specifically related to the availability of masonry rooms in the Pueblo III era as opposed to the less substantial jacal buildings of the Pueblo II Period.
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An alternative perspective is offered here, in which the more pertinent association involves cultural fill rather than architecture. As depicted in Table
5.15, the re-allocation of primary depositions demonstrates that a trashy fill context is highly preferred regardless of location within a residence. The number of P3MLD burial pits associated with trashy fill is artificially low given that numerous depositions in graves at the large village sites are allocated to an extramural midden context. Nevertheless, the total P3MLD frequency is unchanged regardless of how burials are allocated between these two extramural MCT.
Table 5.15: The distribution and frequencies of Pueblo II and Pueblo III primary burials associated with a rubbish deposit, by mortuary context type.
Mortuary Context Type
P2MLD P3MLD
Number %, N=228 Number %, N=255
Extramural Midden
Surf. Room Fill
Storage Feature
Sub. Structure Fill
Sub. Burial Pit
Other Architectural
Total
159
3
5
6
2
175
0.70
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.01
0.77
113
21
14
10
7
2
167
0.44
0.08
0.05
0.04
0.03
0.01
0.66
Thus, of the 255 P3MDL primary depositions, 167 are covered by or intruded into rubbish, or have ashy, trashy fill mixed with the soils used for interments.
This revised 66% rate of occurrence almost equals the 70% frequency observed for Pueblo II midden depositions, and it is similar to total P2MLD frequency of 77% for all trash-associated MCT locations. When one includes the recovery factors that especially affect midden depositions, the similarity of these results is rather remarkable since it is not consistent with current scholarly perceptions (Kuckelman and Martin, 2007; Martin and Akins, 2001; Schlanger,
73

1992). Possible symbolic implications regarding a mortuary location and ashy, trash fill are addressed in Chapter X.
Possibly, even though subfloor depositions are not associated with rubbish, the use of a surface room subfloor location may also be associated with masonry building fabric. As a case in point, when considering the large number Pueblo II and Pueblo III primary burials from 5MT1 (13) and 5MT3 (79) of the Yellow
Jacket community, the use of a subfloor MCT only occurs after the construction of masonry roomblocks. However, that these room subfloor occur in seven sites scattered across the MVR indicates that the choice of this context type is not specific to the practices of a single community.
The rise in frequency of use of storage features during Pueblo III times is primarily related to the use of abandoned Pueblo II bell-shaped pits in multicomponent sites. As discussed previously, the selection of this MCT at Site
5MT9943 may not represent mortuary location decisions made under normal domestic conditions. Assuming so, seven of the 11 Pueblo II or Pueblo III residences with a storage feature MCT are at Yellow Jacket Hamlet, and, for the most part, they involve Pueblo III depositions in Pueblo II storage pits. It thus appears that the variation in frequency of the storage feature MCT by temporal period is largely influenced by the practices of a specific community.
Moreover, since most of these pits contained trashy fill, it is possible that this deposition location was selected because of the nature of the fill rather than due to an architectural association.
Primary Burials and MVR Great Houses
Few great houses have been excavated in the MVR, regardless of whether their construction is of Chacoan or local derivation. Besides Wallace Ruin, the only
74

such buildings in which significant research excavations have been conducted within surface rooms consist of Escalante Ruin (Reed, 1979), Far View Ruin
(Fewkes, 1916) and Lowry Ruin (Martin, 1936). Less extensive work has been undertaken at Ida Jean Pueblo (Brisbin and Brisbin, n.d.) and Albert Porter
Pueblo (Ryan, 2004). Other than the primary burial depositions at Wallace Ruin and Ida Jean Pueblo, no Pueblo II or Pueblo III primary burials have been located within these large, monumental buildings. In addition, a substantial building at Mitchell Springs that may have been a Chacoan great house was mechanically razed to below ground level by looters prior to the instigation of formal archaeological research (Wheeler Smith, 2009:1), but there is no oral tradition to suggest that primary burials were located within its rooms either.
Age-Sex Structure
The pooling of demographic evidence from P2MLD and P3MLD burials, which is detailed in Tables 5.16 and 5.17, does not alter the patterns described in the diachronic analyses, in which the age structures generally follow the trends observed in non-antibiotic societies. In fact, since most of the minor contexts contain small numbers of P2MLD primary depositions, the overall demographic patterns are close approximations of the P3MLD profiles. Surface room floors are slightly biased towards infants and children, but the presence of at least five adults argues against age sorting for this MCT as a fundamental, MVR mortuary practice. The storage feature MCT is shy of infants, but sampling bias and differential preservation perhaps offer more plausible scenarios than age grading. Possibly, the inclusion of the sole infant in the subsurface structure subfloor MCT is due to a social relationship with the adult female with whom he or she is interred.
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The total proportion of males to females is remarkably balanced, but this result is decidedly uncertain given that the sex of 47 primary depositions 15 years of age or older is undetermined. Males are slightly more common in surface room floor and subfloor locations, but comparatively more females are in surface room fill. The overall surface room sex ratio of 130 is skewed towards males, but not enough to suggest that surface rooms, per se, were viewed as the more appropriate location for males. However, even though the grouping of Pueblo II and III data from subsurface structures raises the normalised sex ratio from 11 to 19, this result still represents a sex distribution that is very strongly skewed towards females.
Table 5.16 The pooled distribution of P2MLD and P3MLD primary burials, by age class and mortuary context type.
Mortuary Context Type I C T YA MA OA Total S:A % S
Surf. Room Fill
Surf. Room Floor
Surf. Room Subfloor
11
6
11
5
2
7
0
0
1
5
2
9
1
0
3
3
3
1
25
13
32
16:9
8:5
19:13
0.64
0.62
0.59
Sub. Structure Fill
Sub. Structure Floor
4
2
Sub. Structure Subfloor 1
Other Architectural 11
Storage Feature
Sub. Burial Pit*
Extramural Midden*
Total
2
12
7
17
54 39
114 87
0
7
1
2
3
0
0
1
3
2
22
32
3
1
2
3
6
16
56
103
1
0
1
2
7
8
55
78
5
3
0
0
0
0
16
31
17
8
4
24
25
55
242
445
8:9
4:4
1:3
19:5
12:13
31:24
115:127
233:212
0.47
0.50
0.25
0.76
0.48
0.56
0.48
0.52
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Table 5.17: The distribution of P2MLD and P3MLD primary burials of mature skeletal development by age, sex and mortuary context type.
Mortuary Context Type
Surf. Room Fill
Surf. Room Floor
Surf. Room Subfloor
T
M F
YA
M
YA
F M
MA
F M
OA
F
IA
M
3 1 1 1 1
1
4 2 1 1
1 1
1
1
3
IA
Total M:F
F
7
4
12
2:5
3:1
8:4
Sex
Ratio
40
300
200
Sub. Structure Fill
Sub. Structure Floor
Sub. Structure Subfloor
Other Architectural
1 2 1
1
2
2
1
1
1
2
1
2
2
8
4
3
4
1:7
1:3
0:3
1:3
14
33
0
33
Storage Feature
Sub. Burial Pit
Extramural Midden
Subtotal
Undetermined/AM Sex
Total
1 1 2 2 2 1 9 4:5 80
2 4 4 2 1 6 4 23 12:11 109
2 10 15 13 17 11 4 5 23 13 113 61:52 117
2 14 25 31 23 18 7 10 36 21 187 93:94 99
8
24
5
61
5
46
1
18
28
85
47
234
A primary goal of this investigation is to ascertain the relative frequency of the practice of floor burial in Mesa Verde region during the Pueblo II and Pueblo III periods. Thus, the Supplemental dataset consists of negative data from 37
Pueblo II and III sites at which no primary depositions were located. These sites are categorised as extensively excavated or adequately excavated, during the complete excavation of at least two surface rooms; these sites are hereafter referred to as the.
Section in progress…..estimate 3 pages?
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0,10
0,08
0,06
0,04
0,02
0,00
0,18
0,16
0,14
0,12 by P3MLD Site
(35)
W/Supplemental
Site (45) by P3LD Residence
(85)
W/Supplemental
Residence (96)
S. Room Fill
5/12
S. Room Floor
4/5
S. Room Subfloor
6/12
Conclusions
Overall, there is no strong evidence that that sex of the deceased was a significant consideration in the selection of a mortuary location for P2MLD or
P3MLD residences. Furthermore, the sites with middens containing several primary depositions provide no evidence for the intentional spatial segregation of the dead by age or sex (Karhu, 2000; Hayes and Lancaster, 1975; Lister,
1966; Swannack, 1979). Finally, although the skeletal elements are frequently displaced or missing, usually due to denning animals or looters, accidental intrusions during a subsequent deposition are rare, and there is no indication that a skeletonised corpse was deliberately disturbed by Ancestral Puebloans.
P2 there is more variety in the selection of mortuary locations for females. P3?
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