Additional Evidence for Cannibalism in the Southwest: The Case of LA 4528

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Abstract
About A.D. 950, 11 persons of a small Anasazi settlement on Burnt Mesa north of the San Juan River, New Mexico, were butchered, mutilated and possibly roasted. The group's mixed remains were left strewn over a pithouse floor. Nearly all the bones were smashed and splintered. Some of them were burned, some show cut marks, and all exhibit greenstick breaks. Cannibalism is the most reasonable explanation for the patterned destruction. Starvation or necessity, rather than ritual or religious configuration, seem to best explain why the cannibalism occurred.