Taos Valley Mortuary Practices: A Regional and Diachronic Perspective

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©Catrina Banks Whitley, 2012 DO NOT CITE OR REPRODUCE FIGURES OR CHARTS WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR

Taos Valley Mortuary Practices: A Regional and Diachronic Perspective

Catrina Banks Whitley, Ph.D., RPA

Presented at the 77th

Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology,

Memphis, TN., April 20 ,2012

Session: Mortuary Practices in the American Southwest: Patterns and Inferences from Regional

Databases, Organizers: Gordon Rakita and Mason Thompson, Chair: Sophia Kelly

ABSTRACT: Mortuary practices for the Taos Valley in the Northern Rio Grande are presented

in a diachronic perspective. Assessment focuses on the pithouse to pueblo transition,

emphasizing the distinct difference in mortuary practices between these periods. Identification of

broader patterns in mortuary practices may be significant in identifying migratory groups,

religious systems, ritual, and group identity since mortuary ritual tends to be conservative. The

mortuary practices are weighed against other sub-regions of the southwest in order to elucidate

comparison between the regions, including diachronic differences. The paper will also highlight

challenges to regional and diachronic comparisons.

Introduction

In many societies the dead must be formally separated from the living through specific religious

acts. Death was, and sometimes still is, viewed as a transition to another existential state and

burial practices may represent a change in the careful and conscious thought out activity in

which the dead are both remembered and forgotten. There is cross-cultural evidence that world

view and philosophical beliefs structure mortuary practices, possibly more than social relations,

reflecting attitudes about the soul’s journey to the afterlife (Carr 1995:112). Ritual is an essential

component to the process of burying an individual and assisting that person in their journey from

this realm to the next. Facilitation of this process, in some cultures, requires the proper items and

method of burial to insure their safe passage, and also to insure the living is safe during this

liminal stage (Whitley 2011).

In the American Southwest, fear of the dead and that the deceased need food for their journey,

which typically takes four days, are consistent features mentioned in the ethnographic literature

regarding Puebloan people. Specific ceremonies and rituals are described by Ortiz (1969) and

Parsons (1996) discussing the process required for ushering the deceased’s departure.

“[S]eparating the dead from the living and preparing the deceased for the journey he has to

make, whatever his destination, are the general and outstanding funerary traits of all the Pueblos,

since all fear sickness or death through the dead by whom they would be well quit” (Parsons

1996:74). Ethnographic data in Parsons (1996) and Ortiz (1969) indicate food is required for the

journey and burial ritual described by Ortiz (1969) specifically identifies the use of ash, smoke,

and charcoal as symbols that create a boundary between the living and the deceased. Parsons

(1996:106), as well, discusses how ash is used as an aid in separating a person from dangerous

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influences. Mortuary ritual is a conservative practice and not easily altered, therefore, if burying

an individual is a ritualistic procedure designed to remove the deceased from the living and then

usher them to the next world, attitudes toward the deceased and this process should not only be

present in the material culture, but also change depending upon each societies’ views and

attitudes regarding the deceased and how distinct that separation needs to be in order to protect

the living.

In order to assess potential differences in mortuary practices, I will first discuss the sites with

which I am most familiar, the Taos Valley. Then, I will expand the research to include numerous

additional regions to look for patterns across the greater southwest.

Taos Burial Practices

Valdez Phase – AD 1000-1200

Valdez/Developmental Phase burials in the Taos Valley are rather internally homogenous.

Bodies are placed on the floor of the pithouse and the floor is devoid of household items,

indicating abandonment. Pithouses with floor burials typically had no evidence of roof collapse,

suggesting the roof was dismantled before burial and the fill consisted of relatively unstratified

sand, silt and fine gravels or sandy loam soil. Burials were also present in the lower fill (Whitley

2009, 2011).

There is only one reported midden burial, LA 2742, from this period, however, midden deposits

were not regularly excavated and there is the potential for bias. The grave was dug into sterile

sediment and covered by organic deposits and a cairn. Pollen analysis reveals the soil from

under the cairn and directly around the body differed from the surrounding midden deposits

(Boyer et al. 1994).

Talpa Phase – Pot Creek – AD 1200-1350

The southern half of Pot Creek was extensively explored, with excavations occurring in the

roomblocks, sub-floor contexts, plazas, kivas, middens, and non-feature extramural locations.

Due to the extensive exploration of the site, excavation bias in encountering human remains is

low. The following description applies to all burials, except those excavated in 1957/58 which

only described the mortuary complex as “buried in trash midden”, and a child burial in Kiva D

interpreted by Fowles (2004) as part of a ritual deposit.

Of the 49 burials that had at least some stratigraphic data recorded, 32 had pits dug into sterile

sediment or were laid upon sterile sediment (Whitley 2009, 2011). In 3 of these 32 cases, pits

were dug through the trash deposit until sterile soil or adobe wash was encountered. Once

placed upon the sterile soil, the body was covered with ash, charcoal and trash, and then had a

layer of cobbles or one or more slabs placed upon the body. The number of cobbles or slabs

varied per individual, with few excavators recording the number placed on the body. Ash and

trash accumulation occurred for a period of time over the burial. In many cases, walkways or

adobe wash layered on the midden location and trash accumulation only began again with the

placement of another burial (Whitley 2009).

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In five instances, adobe borrow pits were used for burial. In each instance, the burial followed

the same pattern with burial at the base of the adobe borrow pit, then ash and trash and one or

more slabs and/or cobbles were placed on the body, with further accumulation of trash on top of

the body. In no instance was the trash accumulation dug through to place a burial in the adobe

borrow pit (Whitley 2009, 2011). After a period of time, trash ceased to accumulate in the

borrow pits and they were utilized as ground stone production areas and chipping stations. Once

the Great Kiva was constructed, the plaza area was plastered. In roomblock three, several burials

are located underneath the eastern rooms. In each case, these burials were placed on sterile soil,

with midden accumulation followed by room construction.

Mortuary practices in the Taos Valley are, for the most part, internally consistent within each

period; however patterns shift significantly between phases (Figure 1). If mortuary practices are

conservative, what would usher such a significant shift in the location and context of burial

methods? Various hypotheses include: 1) there may have been a significant shift in ideology

and social organization as groups coalesced from dispersed pithouse locations to the single

occupation at Pot Creek Pueblo, requiring new means for separating the living from the deceased

since a group could no longer move away after burial;

2) there is an ideological shift occurring across the Northern Rio Grande resulting in an increase

in burying individuals in the midden deposits; 3) the abrupt shift could signify a migrating group

into the valley.

Comparisons

In order to understand how the Taos Valley practices fit within the greater southwestern patterns,

I chose to compare burial location and burial fill with sites in the San Juan/Colorado area,

Mimbres, Jemez, and Central Northern Rio Grande. Data I used for comparison were gathered

from site reports that listed contextual information by individual or by percentages (Hewett 1905,

1953; Lightfoot and Etzkorn 1993; Hayes and Lancaster 1975; Gilpin et al. 2007; Rocek and

Speth 1986; Stodder 1987; Peckham 1966; Martin et al. 2001; Palkovich 1980), the southwest

mortuary database (Mimbres data from Gilman and Livesay, and ALP data from Stodder), data

provided by Nancy Akins on LA 3333 and 1051 (Akins 2011 and personal communication), and

data from Robin Cordero on the Jemez area (Cordero 2010). Data with complete contextual

information by individual is difficult to find and some site choices/regions were simply based

upon the availability and completeness of data. However, a larger proportion of burials from the

San Juan/Mesa Verde area, with Mimbres as a comparison, were used due to the controversy

over potential migration of that region into the Northern Rio Grande area (Figure 2).

Admittedly, more sites should be added for a more complete understanding of the patterns.

Burial Location

The physical separation of the dead from the living is more easily identified through location,

simply because this information was recorded with more frequency and accuracy in early

excavations. Rather than code burials as extramural or intramural, I chose to quantify specific

locations from which I could calculate the percentage of the burials located in areas completely

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separated from the living unless the living needed or chose to go to that spot and those housed in

locations which are used by the living for daily activities (Whitley 2011). Burials that are

located in rooms or plazas still in use versus those located in trash mounds and abandoned rooms

that are not within the regular working sphere of the living and are visited only during certain

activities suggest different concepts regarding the separation of the living from the dead. If

rituals, dances, food preparation, and sleeping are conducted in the same space occupied by the

deceased, then the separation of the dead from the living is minimal. However, if the deceased

are placed in abandoned rooms or circumscribed “trash middens” that are only occasionally

visited, the deceased and the living have a greater amount of not only physical but symbolic

separation.

It must be noted before continuing, that excavation biases may influence the percentages

reflected in the mortuary patterns, due to site damage or to excavation preferences focusing more

on roomblocks and/or plazas, and that the data presented is limited and needs to have numerous

data sets added to garner a more comprehensive understanding about diversity or homogeneity in

mortuary practices. Burials were categorized as (Whitley 2011):

1) off-site (off-site) - outside of any cultural occupational levels

2) extramural pit (non-living space) – burials in extramural pits outside plaza and midden

locations

3) abandoned rooms (non-living space) - indicating in abandoned room fill, roof fall, or

on the floor of a pithouse, kiva, or structure

4) midden/refuse deposits (non-living space)- which includes burials adobe borrow pits

and general midden deposits

5) plaza (living space) - indicating the burial pit was cut through the floor of a plaza and

burial occurred during the use life of the plaza; and

6) room floor/sub-floor pits (living space) - indicating the burial pit was dug through the

floor of the room during the rooms use life.

Looking at diachronic and spatial trends, it is interesting to note that the Northern Rio Grande

and the San Juan are on differing trajectories. The Rio Grande, particularly north of Santa Fe,

trends toward an increase in midden burials. Though my two sites do not make a trend, Nancy

Akins will explore this trend and region in more detail next, hopefully still supporting this

assertion. In the upper and lower San Juan regions, midden burials were quite frequent AD 600-

900, however, in contrast, the number of living space burials increases with little to no burials

found in the midden deposits post AD 1000 (Figure 3). Arroyo Hondo stands out in the Northern

Rio Grande with a propensity for burying individuals within living spaces. This count includes

plaza burials. Very few midden or abandoned room/structure burials are present. The lower

frequency of midden burials may be predicated on the concentration of excavations on the

roomblock and plaza structures. But, even if the midden had been excavated, what is clear is that

alternative locations to midden deposits were heavily utilized at Arroyo Hondo, unlike other

Northern Rio Grande sites such as Pot Creek Pueblo, LA 3333, and LA 1051.

Cochiti, Arroyo Hondo, sites in the Totah La Plata Valley, and Dolores all have plaza burials,

which are included in the count of “living space” (Figure 4). It is unknown if this represents a

cultural choice, or appears in conjunction with site layout. If Mesa Verde area individuals did

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move into the Northern Rio Grande in the late 1200s to early 1300s, their choice in burial

location is mainly evident at Cochiti and Arroyo Hondo, and, perhaps, LA 3333, but not in the

region at or north of Santa Fe.

This patterning exemplifies that there are trends by region and time and that there is a misnomer

that midden burials are the preferred burial location in the American Southwest. This data also

reveals that there are varying concepts of how far removed an individual needs to be from the

living. Some groups chose to abandon structures with the deceased placed on the floor, or to

place the dead in midden or extramural locations outside the everyday work space of the living

inhabitants. Cochiti, for example, even went as far as to place people outside the site perimeters.

Others, however, chose to keep the deceased in close proximity, placing them under their floors

while still residing in the structure or in pits next to mealing bins and food storage cists.1

Burial Fill Type

Fill deposits are the most difficult contextual data to obtain, as most reports simply note the

burial was in midden or under a floor and in the earliest reports, it is even more difficult to obtain

any data other than the burial was intramural or extramural. When we look at burials in

abandoned rooms or middens, it is no surprise that the burial pit was filled with midden –like

deposits since, in many instances, the locations were used for refuse deposits. However, burial

in a structure may not always determine the type of sediments placed within the fill of the grave.

As is evident in the Taos Valley Developmental Phase burials, the bodies were laid on the floor

and the fill consisted of wash or water lain sediments, at times unstratified, suggesting cultural

filling of the lower portion of the pithouse (Figure 5). These pithouses, however, were not used

subsequently as midden dumps and later burials were not in midden. The most informative on

this subject, however, are the burials at Arroyo Hondo. Even though the majority of the burials

occurred under floors or in plaza areas, with some in existing, adobe lined storage pits, most

contained midden fill, which suggests a choice to use charcoal, ash, and cultural material.

Interestingly, the only reported cases I could find of turkey dung fill are at Pindi Pueblo and

Arroyo Hondo (Stubbs and Stallings 1953, Palkovich 1980). Mimbres burials were filled with

gravel or a combination of gravel and soil.

The Duckfoot site burials are also interesting because they were placed in midden and the burials

that was dug to sterile sediments (Lightfoot and Etzkorn 1993).2 Evidence of technical choice in

fill is present in one burial that was placed at the edge of the midden and dug completely into

sterile soil. In this case, midden deposits were scraped into the fill rather than the pit being filled

with the sterile soil dug for the burial placement.

It must be emphasized that midden fill may not always be redeposited fill from the burial pit

excavation. There is evidence from LA 2742 in Taos that there is a difference in pollen types

between the burial pit and midden deposits (Boyer et al. 1994). Additionally, Akins and Lakatos

1 Dr. Gilman (personal communication) indicated that the majority of burials in the Mimbres area occurred in

abandoned roomblocks. Thus, many, if not all, of the burials listed in Figure 4 as being in living space under floor may need to be moved to the non-living space category. This difference is being investigated and subsequent papers and publications will reflect any new information on this pattern. 2 This pattern is also seen at LA 1051 as well as Pot Creek (Akins 2011; Whitley 2009, 2011).

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(2004), at LA 391, have been able to identify that the burial fill contains greater diversity in

burned plant material than the surrounding midden. This suggests a thought out technical choice

in the type of deposits and sediments being placed on the body.

Recommendations

While the data show a regional difference in preferences in burial location and that fill may also

be a technical choice, it would be informative to take each site and mark the burial location with

the type of structure to look for patterns in preferences. It may prove informative to determine

whether the burials within roomblocks are at sites with or without developed midden deposits.

There may be a preference of using the surface structure rooms as middens without fully

developed middens in proximity to the site. Depending upon the patterns, it could require a

reinterpretation that the burials in abandoned rooms are simply in “new midden” locations. Thus,

only the location of the midden has moved, and the individuals are still, technically, being buried

in the same type of location.

Conclusions

The analysis of burial location and burial fill in a diachronic and regional perspective has

revealed that long held concepts that burials in the Southwest occur in middens has been

challenged. There is great diversity not only in the location of burial but also the type of

sediment or cultural fill chosen to cover that individual. Each of these suggests differing

ideology regarding the placement of the dead and the method necessary for separating the

deceased from the living. However, the diachronic and spatial comparison need to be widened to

reveal patterns that could identify migrants or whether changes in mortuary ritual simply

represent shifts in ideology through time. A meta-data set that includes detailed, site specific

information on burial location and burial fill would be a significant contribution to investigating

this line of questioning.

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Figure 1. Mortuary Practices in the Taos Valley based upon burial location. The number in

parentheses is the n of the sample and the range of dates is the AD date range.

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Figure 2. Site Locations within the American Southwest.

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Figure 3. Burial location comparisons between the Northern Rio Grande and the San Juan. The

number in parentheses is the size of the sample and the range of dates is the AD date range.

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Figure 4. Burial location comparisons across the southwest. The number in parentheses is the

size of the sample and the range of dates is the AD date range.

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Figure 5. Burial fill comparisons across the southwest. The number in parentheses is the size of

the sample and the range of dates is the AD date range.

Taos Valley Mortuary Practices: A Regional and Diachronic Perspective

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