Turkey Husbandry at Pueblo Bonito and Its Relationship to Turkey-Human Interactions in Chaco Canyon

Summary

Domestic turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) husbandry at Chaco Canyon has been the subject of considerable debate. Previous research has argued, among other things, that turkeys were rare in the Canyon (Akins 1985); that turkeys first were a source of feathers for ritual and ceremonial activities, and only later treated as food (Akins 1985; Badenhorst et al. 2016; Windes 1977); that local wild turkeys were not present in Chaco Canyon and domestic turkeys were imported from the Four Corners region (Vivian et al. 2006); and that local domesticated and/or wild turkeys were husbanded within the canyon (Grimstead et al. 2016; Speller 2009; Speller et al. 2010). In this paper, we use turkey bone and turkey eggshell remains recovered during the 2013 re-excavation of Room 28 at Pueblo Bonito to address some of these controversies. Our results suggest that turkeys were likely husbanded at Pueblo Bonito (and possibly elsewhere at Chaco as well), and that site excavation histories may be biasing our interpretation of the turkey-human story at Chaco Canyon.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 19876