other ecology simulation a scarlet nexus

In contrast, at Paquimé in northern Mexico, 630 km south of Chaco, 322 scarlet macaws were recovered, along with pens and eggshells that demonstrate a breeding program ( 15), a conclusion supported by isotopic analysis ( 51). Moreover, no evidence of breeding pens or macaw eggshells has been reported from Bonito. These age groups should be well-represented in a breeding population. Of the 34 scarlet macaws from Chaco analyzed by Hargrave ( 5), only a single macaw may have reached breeding age, and no nestlings or juveniles (<4 mo) were found. The large number of macaws in a single room and the layer of guano are unparalleled in the northern SW, but faunal analysts have concluded that macaws were not bred at Pueblo Bonito or elsewhere in the northern SW ( 5, 29). Considerable evidence, including the persistent use of room 33 as a burial crypt for 200–250 y, suggests that the northern section of Pueblo Bonito was central to much of the ritual activity throughout the long occupation of the great house ( 23, 46). This problem is particularly acute in the earliest set of rooms constructed in the northern portion of the pueblo ( Fig. Pueblo Bonito was occupied for at least 300 y, and tree-ring dates for individual rooms are rarely sufficient to date the complex depositional sequences typical of most rooms. This discovery demonstrates that Chaco archaeologists have been overly reliant on tree-ring dating and ceramic type frequencies for dating materials deposited in great house rooms. These dates revealed that burials 13 and 14 from room 33, suggestive of elite status, were interred between the late eighth and the mid-ninth centuries, 200 y earlier than the post-A.D. 1040 architectural florescence in Chaco Canyon.ĪMS 14C dates of human skeletal remains from Pueblo Bonito ( 16), however, indicate that tree-ring dating alone is insufficient to identify the age of all prehistoric activities within great houses. 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. 1040–1110) to which they are commonly attributed.

Most of the macaws date before the hypothesized apogeal Chacoan period (A.D. New AMS 14C-dated scarlet macaw remains from Pueblo Bonito demonstrate that these birds were acquired persistently from Mesoamerica between A.D. Scarlet macaws are known markers of social and political status among the Pueblos. 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. Chaco was a prominent prehistoric Pueblo center with a dense concentration of multistoried great houses constructed from the 9th through early 12th centuries. High-precision accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) 14C 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.

Other ecology simulation a scarlet nexus