Zooarchaeology in the Southwest: Ritual Consumption and Faunal Resources at Ridge Ruin Pueblo

Summary

The greater Sinagua region spans a distinct convergent geographical and cultural setting which provides a range of resources. Ridge Ruin is a prominent Sinaguan site occupied during the transition from the Pueblo II to Pueblo III period. In 1941, John MacGregor published a bulletin summarizing the results of his Winona Village and Ridge Ruin excavations. In MacGregor’s report and in the few publications on Ridge Ruin since, the majority of research has concentrated on the famous burial of the Magician. MacGregor’s lengthy bulletin includes only a brief summary of the faunal analysis, which combined a small sample of faunal data from both Ridge Ruin and Winona Village excavations and provides minimal detail about faunal use in the sites. In this paper, I summarize and interpret the results of a recent analysis conducted on the long curated Ridge Ruin faunal assemblage from the Museum of Northern Arizona. Additionally, this analysis provides a preliminary discussion regarding whether the faunal remains reflect the previously established interpretation that Ridge Ruin was a ritual site, as evidenced by the focus on the Magician burial.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage