The Role of Rare Animals During the Pueblo IV Period: Evidence of Ritual at Sapa’owingeh (LA 306)

Summary

Examining the relationships between humans and animals during the Classic period contributes to our understanding of life in the Northern Rio Grande region and the larger Pueblo world. Utilizing ethno-historic and archaeological evidence for the use of mammalian and avian fauna, this poster demonstrates the significance of rare animals from midden, room, and kiva contexts from the ancestral Tewa site Sapa’owingeh (LA 306). Ritual fauna in the Southwest were often carnivores and birds. Species at Sapa’owingeh documented as ritually important in the ethno-historic record of the Southwest included: bear, wolf, beaver, golden and bald eagles, a semi-articulated red-tailed hawk skeleton, a semi-articulated badger skeleton, as well as several articulated and semi-articulated turkey skeletons. By studying faunal remains and comparing the data to the ethno-historic record, archaeologists have the ability to elucidate both complex and subtle ritual behaviors not readily seen through the analysis of other materials alone.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage