title: Early procurement of scarlet macaws and the emergence of social complexity in Chaco Canyon, NM.
abstract: High-precision accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) (14)C dates of scarlet macaw (Ara macao) skeletal remains provide the first direct evidence from Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico that these Neotropical birds were procured from Mesoamerica by Pueblo people as early as ∼ A.D. 900-975. Chaco was a prominent prehistoric Pueblo center with a dense concentration of multistoried great houses constructed from the 9th through early 12th centuries. At the best known great house of Pueblo Bonito, unusual burial crypts and significant quantities of exotic and symbolically important materials, including scarlet macaws, turquoise, marine shell, and cacao, suggest societal complexity unprecedented elsewhere in the Puebloan world. Scarlet macaws are known markers of social and political status among the Pueblos. New AMS (14)C-dated scarlet macaw remains from Pueblo Bonito demonstrate that these birds were acquired persistently from Mesoamerica between A.D. 900 and 1150. Most of the macaws date before the hypothesized apogeal Chacoan period (A.D. 1040-1110) to which they are commonly attributed. The 10th century acquisition of these birds is consistent with the hypothesis that more formalized status hierarchies developed with significant connections to Mesoamerica before the post-A.D. 1040 architectural florescence in Chaco Canyon.
authors.affiliation: Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024; awatson@amnh.org plog@virginia.edu djk23@psu.edu.
authors.forename: Adam S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Watson
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904; awatson@amnh.org plog@virginia.edu djk23@psu.edu.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Plog
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802;
authors.forename: Brendan J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Culleton
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019;
authors.forename: Patricia A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Gilman
authors.affiliation: Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138;
authors.forename: Steven A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: LeBlanc
authors.affiliation: Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024;
authors.forename: Peter M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Whiteley
authors.affiliation: Department of Ornithology, Division of Vertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024.
authors.forename: Santiago
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Claramunt
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802; awatson@amnh.org plog@virginia.edu djk23@psu.edu.
authors.forename: Douglas J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Kennett
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001106:Archaeology / Q000379:methods; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000378:metabolism; D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D017753:Ecosystem; D005580:Fossils; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010311:Parrots / Q000378:metabolism*; D055110:Radiometric Dating; D012863:Skeleton; D012931:Social Environment; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes
keywords: Chaco Canyon; archaeology; scarlet macaws; sociopolitical complexity