Ancestral Pueblo Turkey Management at 5MT1905: Evidence for Confinement of Turkeys within a Pueblo II Roomblock in Southwest Colorado

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The human-turkey relationship is an important aspect of Ancestral Pueblo history and has been the focus of recent research in the US Southwest and Northwest Mexico. One of the most important turkey management approaches employed by Ancestral and modern Pueblo peoples involves confinement (i.e., penning or tethering). The central Mesa Verde region, located in Southwest Colorado, is one area where Ancestral Pueblo confinement strategies need further clarification. At the Haynie Site (5MT1905), an AD 850-950 early PI village and AD 950-1150 Chaco Great House located in this area, there is evidence for turkey containment within a Pueblo II period (900-1150 CE) masonry surface room. Excrement staining, a turkey dung matte, gizzard stones, and eggshell concentrated in a distinct and likely stockaded portion of the room all suggest reuse of domestic spaces as loci for turkey confinement. This poster provides one example of human management of turkeys in a village setting during the early Pueblo II period in the central Mesa Verde region, adding additional context to the existing body of work assessing Ancestral Pueblo-turkey relationships.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53476