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Journal of Archaeological Research, Vol. 10, No. 3, September 2002 (°
The Archaeology of War: A North
American Perspective
Patricia M. Lambert1
This article reviews recent archaeological research on warfare in prestate societies
of native North America. This survey comprises six regions: Arctic/Subarctic,
Northwest Coast, California, Southwest/Great Basin, Great Plains, and Eastern
Woodlands. Two lines of evidence, defensive settlement behavior and injuries in
human skeletal remains, figure prominently in archaeological reconstructions of
violence and warfare in these regions. Burning of sites and settlements also has
been important for identifying the consequences of war and investigating more
subtle aspects of strategy and directionality. Weaponry and iconography have to
date provided important but more limited insights. Although considerable disparities exist between regions in the archaeological evidence for intra- and intergroup
violence, all regions show a marked increase after A.D. 1000. These findings suggest
that larger forces may have been responsible for escalating violence throughout
North America at this time.
KEY WORDS: bioarchaeology; North America; prehistory; warfare.
INTRODUCTION
Our knowledge of prehistoric warfare has advanced exponentially in the last
decade as a result of renewed anthropological interest in war and the development
of new methods for identifying and characterizing its practice and prevalence
archaeologically. A growing body of literature now documents the existence of
warfare in highly variable environmental and social contexts, leaving little doubt
of its existence and prehistoric importance in many world regions (e.g., Billman,
1996; Haas and Creamer, 1993; Hassig, 1992, 1998; Keeley, 1996; Lambert, 1994;
LeBlanc, 1999; Martin and Frayer, 1997; Maschner and Reedy-Maschner, 1998;
1 Department
of Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology, Old Main Hill, Utah State University,
Logan, Utah 84322-0730; e-mail: plambert@cc.usu.edu.
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Milner, 1999; Owsley and Jantz, 1994; Redmond, 1994; Rice and LeBlanc, 2001;
Webster, 2000). The purpose of this article is to synthesize and evaluate the literature on warfare in prestate societies of North America, a region that has figured
prominently in recent archaeological investigations of war origins and causation.
This literature is particularly important to current debates on the causes of war
(e.g., Darkness in Eldorado debate), because it pertains to a time before European
contact and the forces hypothesized to have changed modern prestate societies at
the heart of these debates (e.g., Ferguson, 1995; Ferguson and Whitehead, 1992).
Emphasis is placed on major synthetic works and on prominent case studies that illustrate both the nature of war and the methods used by archaeologists to document
and reconstruct this aspect of prehistoric human interaction.
Chroniclers of European history have long recognized the power and importance of war as a force of change in Western civilization. Homeric sieges, the
conquests of Alexander the Great, the Napoleonic campaigns—all figure prominently in European history and in European and Euroamerican concepts of origin
and identity (e.g., Ferrill, 1997; Keegan, 1993; Keen, 1999). The brief military
history of the United States similarly suffers no shortage of historiography—over
50,000 books devoted to the Civil War alone (Keeley, 1996). Yet, despite oral
histories, historic accounts, and abundant archaeological evidence of its prehistoric and historic prominence at different times and places (e.g., Haas, 1999; Haas
and Creamer, 1993, 1996, 1997; Keeley, 1996; Lambert, 1994; LeBlanc, 1999;
Maschner, 1997; Milner, 1999; Owsley and Jantz, 1994; Rice and LeBlanc, 2001),
the importance of warfare in the development and configuration of indigenous New
World societies has often been downplayed or explained, where present, in terms
of Western contact. This may be due to a general bias among warfare scholars and
military historians towards state-level warfare and the written records kept by or for
state bureaucracies (e.g., Ferrill, 1997; Keegan, 1993; Keen, 1999; Turney-High,
1971; see also discussion in Keeley, 1996). The result, however, is a perception
of human history and behavior that is not reconcilable with extant and emerging
archaeological data.
As other scholars have noted or otherwise documented, the view of a peaceful past in North America is no longer tenable (e.g., Bamforth, 1994; Bridges
et al., 2000; Haas, 1999; Haas and Creamer, 1993; Keeley, 1996; Lambert, 1994;
LeBlanc, 1999; Martin and Frayer, 1997; Maschner and Reedy-Maschner, 1998;
Milner, 1999; Moss and Erlandson, 1992; Owsley and Jantz, 1994; Rice and
LeBlanc, 2001; Wilcox, 1989; Wilcox and Haas, 1994; Willey, 1990). Many North
American societies that make their appearance in written records only in the last
few centuries have long and complex histories that clearly include violence and
war. Assumptions of the preeminence of Western contact in the formulation of
New World social process minimizes the importance of its unique landscapes,
events, trajectories, and solutions even as they obscure recognition of convergent
behaviors that might inform on the causes and consequences of human violence.
Archaeology has an unparalleled capacity to reveal the extent and conduct of
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violence and war precisely because it covers long periods and focuses on a time
before Western European expansion, colonialism, and other processes that altered
the character and trajectory of many indigenous American societies.
For purposes of this review, warfare is defined as “a state or period of armed
hostility existing between politically autonomous communities” (as per Meggitt,
1977, p.10). This inclusive definition does not discriminate between small-scale
forms of engagement, such as raiding, ambush, and surprise attacks, that tend to
characterize tribal warfare (e.g., Boehm, 1984; Chagnon, 1992; Fadiman, 1982;
Keeley, 1996; Meggitt, 1977; Rice, 2001), and the formal battles more typical of
state-level warfare (Keegan, 1993; Keeley, 1996). It is important to include a consideration of the evidence for raiding and other strategies of limited engagement,
because these might well have predominated in the prestate political landscape of
North America (north of Mexico). From a practical perspective, the major concern
with this inclusive definition is how to recognize potentially subtle material manifestations of small-scale war. The different lines of evidence used by archaeologists
to identify and characterize prehistoric North American warfare are detailed in the
following section.
To systematize the presentation of a diverse and not always comparable literature, the review is organized by region and time period. The survey begins in the
western Arctic and moves southward to the Northwest Coast and California before
turning east to the Southwest/Great Basin, Plains, and Eastern Woodlands. Data
are examined chronologically for each region, from the earliest archaeological
evidence of interpersonal violence to that of the early period of European contact.
The type of data brought to bear on the issue of violence and warfare varies considerably by region, both in terms of the history of archaeological investigation and
the archaeological record itself. Despite this variability, however, both shared and
distinct practices and patterns of warfare emerge when regional data are compared,
providing important insights into issues of proximate and ultimate causation.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF WARFARE
Archaeological investigation of warfare primarily relies on four lines of material evidence: settlement data, injuries in human skeletal remains, war weaponry,
and iconography (Lambert, 1994; LeBlanc, 1999; Vencl, 1984; Wilcox and Haas,
1994). The first of these, settlement data, is particularly useful for identifying both
concern with defense and the consequences of failed (or absence of) defensive
measures. The time and material resources people deem necessary for protection
can help define perceptions of threat. Defensive behavior might include a shift in
village location from a valley floor with ready access to agricultural fields to a
steep slope or inaccessible rock shelter requiring greater energy expenditure for
day-to-day living (e.g., Haas and Creamer, 1993). People might aggregate in larger,
more compact settlements, trading other health concerns such as increased disease
exposure and social tensions for safety in numbers (e.g., Haas and Creamer, 1993;
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Maschner, 1992). Walls, forts, towers, moats, and other defensive structures require investment of labor and resources for construction and maintenance, so the
appearance of these features should also correlate with a perceived need for defense sufficient to warrant reallocation of resources to these ends. The burning of
structures, on the other hand, is a common consequence of war (e.g., Hoig, 1993;
Kroeber and Fontana, 1986; Rice, 2001; Thomas, 1981). Archaeological evidence
of burned structures and settlements can therefore help document actual attacks, although other possible causes of burning (e.g., accidental fires, intentional clearing)
must also be considered.
Osteological evidence for warfare includes several classes of injuries that tend
to occur in violent contexts: embedded projectiles or scars from spears, arrows,
darts, or bullets; depressed skull fractures, nasal fractures, tooth fractures, broken
ribs, and forearm parry fractures from clubbing implements; decapitation, scalping,
dismemberment and other signs of trophy taking; more extensive bone breakage,
cut marks, punctures, burning, and related perimortem damage suggestive of torture, corpse mutilation, and/or cannibalism; and more subtle evidence such as carnivore tooth marks or other signs of corpse exposure that suggest unnatural death.
Victim profiles identifying those at risk may help sort out the nature of violence
(e.g., Lambert, 1994; Milner et al., 1991). Similarly, demographic profiles can reveal population-level impacts of war, such as the loss of young males killed in battle
or young women captured by enemies (e.g., Hurst and Turner, 1993; Willey, 1990).
The mere presence of violent injuries in archaeological assemblages is not
sufficient to demonstrate intergroup aggression, but evidence such as multiple victims and trophy taking does strongly suggest lethal intentions and actions beyond
domestic or civil arenas. On the other hand, the absence of such evidence does
not necessarily imply an absence of war: skeletal material may be rare overall,
or it may simply be that no one has looked for this evidence. Reexamination of
extant osteological collections has significantly changed perceptions of prehistoric
violence in several regions of North America (e.g., Bridges et al., 2000; Lambert,
1994; Milner, 1999; Smith, 1997), so the absence of reported cases needs to be
evaluated in light of efforts made to systematically investigate warfare in this way.
Weaponry can be more difficult to interpret in terms of warfare, because
weapons used in human combat may also function in the performance of daily
activities (LeBlanc, 1999; Milner, 1999). However, studied in conjunction with
other lines of evidence, the design and specific use of implements for humandirected violence can often be ascertained. Weapons might be found embedded
in human bone, for example, or matched by size and shape to injuries in human
skeletons. A new and more powerful weapon like the bow and arrow (Blitz, 1988)
may change military tactics and thus the nature and scale of warfare and all of
its material manifestations, so the relatively sudden appearance of a new weapon
in the archaeological record may also constitute a sign of increasing intergroup
aggression.
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Iconography has tremendous potential to provide more intimate and telling
details such as battle scenes, head taking (Browne et al., 1993; Verano et al., 1999),
and war paraphernalia (e.g., Crotty, 2001; Loendorf and Conner, 1993; Schaafsma,
1980, 2000). One problem with iconography, whether it be pictographic accounts
on rock walls or carefully detailed war scenes on ceramic vessels, is interpretation:
do scenes depict real life characters and events or do they represent mythological
characters and sequences that have no basis in real life? Recently, bioarchaeology
has played an important role in validating the historical reality of such scenes (e.g.,
Browne et al., 1993; Verano et al., 1999).
The study of war in different regions of North America has been influenced
by a number of factors, including the local importance of warfare historically,
the interest or disinterest of scholars working in the region, and the condition
and nature of the archaeological record. Individual accounts of forts, palisades,
projectile injuries, scalping, and other signs of intergroup aggression abound in
the literature, but synthetic studies addressing larger issues of scale, chronology,
and causation have only begun to emerge as sufficient data and the tools to analyze
these data become available (e.g., Bridges et al., 2000; Lambert, 1994; LeBlanc,
1999; Milner, 1999). What follows is a discussion of the current status of warfare
studies in some of the major culture areas of North America: Arctic/Subarctic,
Northwest Coast, California/Great Basin, Southwest, Great Plains, and the Eastern
Woodlands. Emphasis is placed on what is known about warfare in each region,
and on the methods and evidence that archaeologists have employed to identify
and characterize its practice and prehistoric prevalence.
WESTERN ARCTIC AND SUBARCTIC
Archaeological studies of warfare in the western arctic and subarctic have
emerged in the literature only in the last 10 years (e.g., Maschner, 2000; Maschner
and Reedy-Maschner, 1998; Mason, 1998; Melbye and Fairgrieve, 1994; Schaaf,
1995), concurrent with reappraisal and recognition of significant warfare among
the Yup’ik and other indigenous arctic societies of the historic period (e.g., Burch,
1974, 1988; Fienup-Riordan, 1994; Reedy-Maschner and Maschner, 1999). The
most systematic work comes from the North Pacific Rim, where ongoing research
on Kodiak Island (Fitzhugh, 1996) and on the lower Alaska Peninsula (Maschner,
2000; Maschner et al., 1997; Maschner and Reedy-Maschner, 1998) has focused
on settlement survey data. These studies have brought to light complex settlement
systems where use and modification of the natural landscape for purposes of defense is clearly evident. Maschner and Reedy-Maschner (1998) identify five types
of defensive sites on the North Pacific Rim: (1) rock islands used for defensive retreat or lookout, (2) the placement of villages in locations that are either defensible
or (3) escapable, (4) construction of refuges or fortifications in association with
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villages, and (5) the construction of refuge villages. On Kodiak Island, defensive
behavior becomes evident in settlement systems around A.D. 300–1100, but most
defensive sites in the region appear to postdate this time period (Maschner and
Reedy-Maschner, 1998; Moss and Erlandson, 1992).
Skeletal evidence for violence in the western arctic is present but sporadic
and disparately distributed in time and space (see Maschner and Reedy-Maschner,
1998). The oldest bioarchaeological evidence of serious violence dates between
1500 B.C. and A.D. 1000 and comes from two sites on Kodiak Island: Crag Point
and Uyak (Hrdlicka, 1944; Simon and Steffian, 1994; Urcid, 1994) in the Gulf
of Alaska. At these sites, disarticulated remains with cut marks, punctures, and
other signs of extensive processing suggest mutilation and possibly cannibalism,
although some deposits have been interpreted as mortuary behavior (see Simon
and Steffian, 1994). Decapitation, scalping cut marks, and perforations at joint
surfaces of postcranial skeletal elements also hint at trophy taking (Maschner and
Reedy-Maschner, 1998; Simon and Steffian, 1994; Urcid, 1994).
Late prehistoric examples of violent injury are rare, but a couple have been
identified in the Aleutian region: a male skeleton with an apparent projectile injury at Peterson Lagoon on Unimak Island (A.D. 1575) and a male mummy from
the north coast of Unalaska Island with a crushing injury to the skull (Maschner
and Reedy-Maschner, 1998). Far to the northeast on the MacKenzie Delta in the
Northern Territories, the disarticulated, defleshed, and broken remains of a minimum of 35 people at the fourteenth-century Saunaktuk site bear witness to lethal
violence on a very different scale (Melbye and Fairgrieve, 1994; Walker, 1990).
Osteological evidence of knife cuts, slash wounds, piercing, gouging, and splitting
of long bones accords well with modern oral tradition of Inuits in the Saunaktuk
region. According to their accounts, at some unspecified time in the past, the
Inuit settlement at Saunaktuk was attacked by Athabaskans while the men were
away whaling. Old men, women, and children were tortured, murdered, and mutilated. Inuit accounts do not describe cannibalism, but body parts and bones do
appear to have been treated in ways consistent with this interpretation (Melbye
and Fairgrieve, 1994). These cases illustrate extremes in the bioarchaeological evidence for prehistoric violence in the arctic—isolated male victims versus a village
massacre—but the dearth of systematic data makes conclusions of frequency and
trends impossible at this time.
Weaponry also has been used to support an interpretation of intergroup violence in this region. Slender arrow points fashioned of basalt provide good evidence
for the appearance of the bow-and-arrow after about A.D. 200 on the lower Alaska
Peninsula. The atlatl has a long history of use in this region and is a superior
weapon in hunting from boats. Terrestrial fauna that might be hunted with a bow
is limited on the lower Alaska Peninsula, so the relatively sudden appearance and
proliferation of this weapon here suggests its use against human targets (Maschner
and Reedy-Maschner, 1998).
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Western Thule expansion on the Alaska Peninsula after A.D. 1000 corresponds
with village aggregation and other evidence for a changing political landscape. The
association between the appearance of new cultural traditions, aggregation, increased use of defensive sites, and increased importance of a weapon generally illsuited (relative to other available technologies) to most subsistence activities in the
region suggest that territorial expansion and border disputes were important causes
of late prehistoric war in the region. Indeed, an Alutiiq (Pacific Eskimo) arrow point
found in the Unangan (Aleut) victim at Peterson Lagoon provides compelling
evidence for prehistoric strife among historically known enemies (Maschner and
Reedy-Maschner, 1998). Mason (1998) has argued that a complex of traits centered
around bow-and-arrow warfare spread out of Asia into North America around A.D.
1150. In particular, the introduction of the sinew-backed bow, a more powerful and
accurate weapon than previous bow technology, could have had a profound impact
on the nature and levels of warfare throughout North America (LeBlanc, 1997;
Maschner, 2000). The timing of events in Arctic cultures may herald a change in
the way war was conducted that quickly spread from Alaska to other regions of
North America.
NORTHWEST COAST
The Northwest Coast of North America, stretching from Yakutat Bay in the
north to the central Oregon coast in the south (Maschner, 1997), has a more extensive history of warfare research than arctic regions, although again the record
has improved significantly with contributions in the last decade or so (Ames and
Maschner, 1999; Coupland, 1989; Cybulski, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1999; Donald,
1997; MacDonald, 1989; Maschner, 1992, 1996, 1997; Moss and Erlandson,
1992; Reedy-Maschner and Maschner, 1999). The ethnographic literature for the
Northwest Coast is replete with accounts of raiding and other forms of warfare
among the Tlingit and other indigenous groups (e.g., Ames and Maschner, 1999;
de Laguna, 1972, 1990), so the prominence of war in this region has never been
subject to the same scrutiny as in regions such as the American Southwest (see
LeBlanc, 1999; but also Haas and Creamer, 1997).
Several sources of information have been used to reconstruct warfare patterns on the Northwest Coast. As in the lower Alaska Peninsula, the most important of these are settlement attributes such as refuge rocks, fortifications, and
less-accessible village locations indicative of concern with defense (Ames and
Maschner, 1999; MacDonald, 1989; Maschner, 1997; Maschner and ReedyMaschner, 1998; Mitchell, 1990; Moss and Erlandson, 1992). In appearance, these
sites are very much like those described for the lower Alaska Peninsula, with natural
precipices, rock walls, and otherwise inaccessible prominences enhanced and/or
used advantageously for defense against attacks by sea. Many of the Northwest
Coast defensive sites have now been dated, so the chronology of their appearance
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and use is well known (Maschner, 1992; Mitchell, 1990; Moss, 1989; Moss and
Erlandson, 1992). Although bluff top site locations can be traced back to 2200 B.C.
in Southeast Alaska (Ames and Maschner, 1999, p. 210; Maschner, 1997), sites
more readily identifiable as defensive appear around A.D. 400–500 and are most
prominent on the landscape between A.D. 800–1300 (Ames and Maschner, 1999;
Maschner, 1997; Mitchell, 1990; Moss and Erlandson, 1992).
Using a GIS (Geographic Information System) to analyze more subtle parameters of settlement choice such as exposure and viewshed on Kuiu Island,
Southeast Alaska, Maschner (1992, 1996, 1997; Maschner and Stein, 1995) has
shown that late prehistoric settlements tend to be located along straight shorelines
with enhanced visibility of open water, an apparent transition from previous preference for convoluted shorelines with good canoe haulouts and productive shellfish
beds. Food remains and village location similarly indicate a change at this time
from subsistence strategies emphasizing foods like herring and halibut obtained
by small task groups to those such as salmon that concentrate at single locals and
can be exploited by whole villages (Ames and Maschner, 1999, p. 216; Maschner,
1992, 1996, 1997; Maschner and Stein, 1995). These shifts are hypothesized to
have minimized the risk of attack during performance of routine subsistence tasks
(Maschner, 1992, 1997), the dangers of which are illustrated by high victim counts
for vulnerable task groups at the entrenched Oneota settlement of Norris Farms
in Illinois (Milner et al., 1991). Both viewshed and subsistence data illustrate the
more subtle lines of evidence that can signal warfare.
Skeletal evidence for warfare is present in the region, but due to a shift
in mortuary practices from burial to aboveground interment on the coast after
A.D. 200, the record is biased against late prehistoric burials and any information
they might provide (Maschner, 1997). The earliest evidence of violent injury,
perhaps in all of North America, dates to the eighth millennium B.C. and comes
from the interior region of the Columbia Plateau near Kennewick, Washington. A
projectile wound in the pelvis of “Kennewick Man” shows signs of healing and
bears witness to at least one violent encounter during the life of this adult male
(Preston, 1997; Slayman, 1997). Other Archaic (10,500–4400 B.C.) skeletons from
the Columbia Plateau also show signs of violence, but small sample sizes make
interpretation of nature and scale difficult (Ames and Maschner, 1999). However,
several sites postdating A.D. 300 have yielded victims of violence, including two
mass graves containing five individuals each, some with embedded stone arrow
points (Chatters, 1989). These cases suggest more serious strife on the Plateau
after this time.
On the coast, skeletal series analyzed by Cybulski (1990, 1992, 1994, 1999;
see also Ames and Maschner, 1999) suggest a long history of violence in at least
some locations. Violent injuries reported for Northwest coast remains include
projectiles embedded in bone, skull and facial fractures, tooth fractures, forearm
and hand fractures from parrying blows to the face and upper body, decapitation (Cybulski, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1999), and scalping cut marks (see Ames and
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Maschner, 1999, p. 190). The earliest cases (3500–1500 B.C.) come from coastal
sites in British Columbia, where violent trauma is evident in 21% of 57 observable individuals (Cybulski, 1994). Although most of these injuries are nonlethal,
reported injuries include a projectile wound in a male dating to 2200 B.C. and several instances of decapitation dating to the end of this time period. Considerable
disparities also exist between samples: violent trauma is almost nonexistent in
remains from the Queen Charlotte Islands and common in those from the central
mainland coast (Ames and Maschner, 1999, pp. 209–210; Maschner, 1997).
A similar rate of violent trauma (21.2%) is evident in remains dating between
1500 B.C. and A.D. 500 (Cybulski, 1994), but this figure also masks important
regional differences (Ames and Maschner, 1999; Cybulski, 1990). Over 32% of
individuals from north-coastal contexts, primarily Prince Rupert Harbor, show
signs of violent trauma, whereas only 6% of those from contemporaneous sites to
the south are thus affected (Ames and Maschner, 1999, p. 210; Maschner, 1997).
Fractures from club blows predominate, but instances of decapitation also are
present (Cybulski, 1999; Maschner, 1997). During those years, large villages began to form and war paraphernalia such as slate daggers and stone clubs appeared in
north coast archaeological sites (Ames and Maschner, 1999; Fladmark et al., 1990;
Maschner, 1997), so alternative lines of evidence support the interpretation that intergroup violence was on the rise in some locations. After A.D. 500, human remains
are rare (Ames and Maschner, 1999), but a small late prehistoric sample studied by
Cybulski (1992, 1994) does exhibit a higher rate of violent trauma overall (28%),
consistent with evidence for increased concern with defense after A.D. 800.
Weaponry also offers important insights into the conduct of war on the
Northwest Coast. In coastal regions, violence antedating A.D. 500 appears to have
primarily involved clubs, implying close hand-to-hand combat (Lowrey, 1999;
Maschner, 1997). After A.D. 200–500, the appearance of small arrow points on the
south coast and tapered bone points on the north coast likely heralds the arrival
of the bow and arrow and a change in the way intergroup violence was conducted
(Ames and Maschner, 1999, p. 200). Recent experimentation with artifact types
found in Northwest Coast sites has shown that tapered bone points, while fragile,
are better able to penetrate the various types of armor used historically by Northwest Coast peoples than points fashioned of slate or other stone. The latter are
more durable, but tend to shatter on impact (Lowrey, 1999). The interpretation of
bone points as war weapons is consistent with archaeological evidence of their
co-occurrence with a subsistence technology dominated by more durable ground
slate artifacts (Lowrey, 1999). Their appearance after A.D. 200–500 thus marks a
change in the tactics of engagement, possibly including development of historically documented types of armor, that accords well with the settlement evidence
of increased fortification and other signs of defensive behavior during the late
prehistoric period (Lowrey, 1999; Maschner, 1997).
Several hypotheses have been proffered to explain Northwest Coast warfare.
These include materialist explanations emphasizing food and other potentially
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scarce resources (Ferguson, 1983, 1984) and Darwinian models emphasizing kin
selection and reproductive fitness (Maschner, 1992, 1997). It is clear from the
ethnographic literature that a wide range of proximate causes, including revenge,
raiding for slaves and women (not mutually exclusive), status, food shortage, and
competition for access to trade and trade routes could lead to war in this region (Ames and Maschner, 1999; Donald, 1997; Ferguson, 1983, 1984; Maschner,
1997; Mitchell, 1984). The origins of war are more obscure, but archaeological and
ethnographic evidence from the northern Northwest Coast suggests that absolute
food shortage was not paramount among them. On the other hand, status clearly
was, at least during the historic period. Wars were often launched by the most powerful groups with resources to support slaving and other activities that had more
to do with power and prestige than with the acquisition of food and other essential
resources (Maschner, 1992, 1997). These are somewhat sobering findings for those
seeking material evidence of war causation here and elsewhere, given the difficulty
of identifying such causal factors archaeologically. Village consolidation and concomitant sociopolitical changes are more readily identified archaeologically as one
of its consequences, however, and as on the Lower Alaska Peninsula, advances in
war technology may have played an important role in this regard (Lowrey, 1999;
Maschner, 1992, 1997; Maschner and Reedy-Maschner, 1998).
CALIFORNIA/WESTERN GREAT BASIN
Research on warfare in prehistoric California has concentrated on the south
coast (Kennett, 1998; Kennett and Kennett, 2000; King, 1982; Lambert, 1994,
1997; Lambert and Walker, 1991; Walker, 1989; Walker and Lambert, 1989),
despite abundant osteological evidence of violent injury and death elsewhere in
the region (e.g., Andrushko et al., 2000; Courville, 1952; Jurmain, 1991; Loud,
1924; Nelson, 1993; Rackerby, 1967; Schenck, 1926; Tenney, 1986; Tyson, 1977;
Wedel, 1941; Wiberg, 1988). Depressed cranial vault fractures and projectile injuries constitute the most common types of violent injury (e.g., Jurmain, 1991;
Lambert, 1994; Nelson, 1993; Walker, 1989), but forearm parry fractures have
also been observed (Jurmain, 1991, 2001; Lambert, 1994; Nelson, 1993), and
forearm mutilation and trophy taking were recently reported for two samples from
the San Francisco Bay area (Andrushko et al., 2000). Defensive sites and structures so apparent in the late prehistoric record of the Arctic, Northwest Coast,
and regions to the east are not so evident in either coastal or interior California
settings, despite the high frequency of skeletal injuries in many samples (e.g.,
Jurmain, 1991, 2001; Lambert, 1994, 1997; Nelson, 1993; Walker, 1989). It may
be that mobility itself constituted one important defensive strategy, one that would
be difficult to document archaeologically. It also may be that defensive structures were somewhat flimsy and thus unrecognizable archaeologically. However,
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historic and ethnographic accounts of California Indian peoples rarely mention
defensive architecture, even where warfare is discussed (e.g., Heizer and Whipple,
1971; Kroeber, 1976), so it seems more likely that the cultural traditions in this
region, as has been documented in the Basin of Mexico (see Hassig, 1998, 1999;
Webster, 2000, p. 74; see also Milner, 1999, p. 122), simply did not call for construction of defensive works, even in times of war.
Recent research in the Santa Barbara Channel area suggests, however, that
careful scrutiny of settlement choice can illicit subtle clues regarding possible
defensive concerns here and perhaps elsewhere in California. Applying methodologies similar to those used by Maschner (1992, 1997) on the Northwest Coast,
Douglas Kennett (1998) used GIS to evaluate settlement behavior on the Northern Channel Islands over an 11,000 year period. His diachronic settlement study
revealed an increased tendency towards the establishment of permanent villages
on headlands and sea cliffs, often with associated backcountry outposts, after A.D.
700. These settlements were apparently situated to maximize views of the coast and
sea, while minimizing visual contact with adjacent coastal villages, thus suggesting increased concern with political autonomy, territoriality, and defense during
the late prehistoric period. As did Arnold (1991) before him, Kennett also found
evidence for settlement disruption and partial abandonment of the islands circa
A.D. 1150–1300, a time period marked by severe drought (Kennett, 1998; Kennett
and Kennett, 2000; Lambert, 1994; Raab and Larson, 1997).
Although settlement evidence from the Northern Channel Islands is provocative, the osteological record of violent injury for the Santa Barbara Channel area
offers more direct evidence of conflict and temporal variation in levels and types of
violence (Lambert, 1994, 1997; Lambert and Walker, 1991; Walker, 1989; Walker
and Lambert, 1989). Data on over 1700 individuals spanning a 7500-year period
from 30 archaeological sites provide a fine-grained diachronic perspective on violence and warfare in hunter–gatherer societies of this region (Lambert, 1994,
1997). Healed cranial vault fractures are present in crania from all time periods
(128/753 or 17% affected), but are most common (25% affected) in those from
sites dating between about 1500 B.C. and A.D. 1380 (Lambert, 1994, 1997; Walker,
1989). Typically small and round, these apparent club injuries affect more males
than females in all time periods, suggesting some form of ritualized violence like
the club fights of the Yanomamo (Chagnon, 1992; Walker, 1989). Healed cranial
fractures were common long before lethal violence became prominent, demonstrating both a long history of social tensions but possibly also the effectiveness of
sublethal mechanisms for constraining them (Lambert, 1994, 1997; Walker, 1989).
Injuries from projectile weapons also have a long history of occurrence in
this region, first appearing in the fifth millennium B.C. Identified based on the
presence of stone or bone spear, dart, and arrow points embedded in bone, bone
scars attributed to these projectiles, or projectiles found lodged in body cavities, projectile injuries are more common in males than females overall (3:1)
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and tend to affect those between the ages of 18 and 40 years. Victims are relatively uncommon in samples antedating A.D. 600, ranging in frequency from about
0 to 5% (Lambert, 1994). Projectile injuries are much more frequent in samples
dating between A.D. 580 and 1380 (Lambert, 1994, 1997; Lambert and Walker,
1991; Walker and Lambert, 1989), affecting 10% (39/402) of the sample from this
time period in frequencies ranging from 0 to 22% for individual sites (Lambert,
1994). Although clustering within and among graves is present (Lambert, 1994,
pp. 141–147), mass graves are rare, suggesting constant but small-scale forms of
engagement that nonetheless resulted in a high death toll over time (Lambert, 1994;
see also discussions in Milner, 1999; Milner et al., 1991). The concentration of
victims in core areas rather than on major cultural (linguistic) boundaries and the
predominance of local and sometimes restricted stone materials in victims with
embedded points further suggests that conflicts primarily involved affiliated groups
(Lambert, 1994). However, the apparent partial abandonment of the islands from
A.D. 1150 to 1300 raises intriguing questions about the nature of island–mainland
interactions at this time.
The causes of this late prehistoric escalation in violence are likely complex
due to synergism among variables such as population size, resource availability,
and political structure. As Kennett notes (1998; Kennett and Kennett, 2000), this
was a time period of increasing consolidation, territoriality, and concern with defense on the Northern Channel Islands. Proxy measures of population size suggest
a general increase through time in the region that positively correlates with increased lethal violence overall (Lambert, 1994). Highly unstable, drought-prone
conditions between A.D. 450 and 1300 (Kennett, 1998; Kennett and Kennett, 2000;
Lambert, 1994; Lambert and Walker, 1991; Raab and Larson, 1997; Walker and
Lambert, 1989) may have been particularly devastating precisely because the population became too large to respond through settlement shifts and other nonviolent
mechanisms for alleviating food and water shortage, a hypothesis supported by human skeletal evidence of unprecedented health stress (Lambert, 1993, 1994, 1997;
Lambert and Walker, 1991; Walker and Lambert, 1989). Both paleoclimatic and
osteological data thus support the interpretation that resource stress and perhaps
mistrust engendered by the sheer unpredictability of annual wild food harvests
(as per Ember and Ember, 1992) were important underlying causes of increased
warfare during these years.
A shift from large to small projectile points in archaeological assemblages
(Glassow, 1996; Moratto, 1984) and in wound contexts (Lambert, 1994) also documents the introduction of the bow and arrow into California after A.D. 500 (see
also Blitz, 1988; Kennett and Kennett, 2000), and it is likely that this weapon
changed how war was conducted here as elsewhere in North America. The decline
in warfare after A.D. 1350 in the Santa Barbara Channel area corresponds with improving climatic conditions, the elaboration of trade systems, and the appearance
of more complex social systems (Arnold, 1992, 1993; Kennett, 1998; Kennett and
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Kennett, 2000; Lambert, 1994, 1997; Lambert and Walker, 1991) that may have
functioned to mitigate disputes and suppress feuding.
Elsewhere in regions such as the San Francisco Bay area, there is abundant osteological evidence for violence and warfare (e.g., Andrushko et al., 2000;
Jurmain, 1991, 2001; Lambert, 1994). There also is considerable linguistic and
archaeological evidence for population intrusions from several adjacent cultural
regions (Moratto, 1984). A relationship between population movement and warfare is likely, but has not to date been systematically investigated. On the eastern
California periphery, historic sources report very warlike behavior among indigenous desert peoples (e.g., Kroeber, 1980; Kroeber and Fontana, 1986; Stewart,
1947), but there appears to be very little archaeological evidence for such interactions. Given the mobility of peoples of this region, the absence of evidence may
well be a product of the archaeological record rather than the absence of war.
SOUTHWEST AND PERIPHERY
The American Southwest has been a primary focus of archaeological research
on warfare in the last decade, and several major synthetic works have recently
appeared in the literature (Haas and Creamer, 1993; LeBlanc, 1999; Rice and
LeBlanc, 2001; Schaafsma, 2000; Turner and Turner, 1999; Wilcox and Haas,
1994). However, despite abundant archaeological and ethnohistoric evidence of
its presence (Haas and Creamer, 1997; Kroeber and Fontana, 1986; LeBlanc,
1999; Linton, 1944), the identification and interpretation of warfare in this region
remains a contentious subject, at least in part due to perceptions based on modern
Puebloan culture (see Haas and Creamer, 1997; LeBlanc, 1999, p. 22).
Several different lines of evidence have been important in reconstructing warfare in the Southwest, providing a somewhat richer and more complete picture than
that available for regions described previously. The archaeological record of the
Southwest is particularly amenable to settlement studies of defensive behavior because preservation is excellent and nonperishable materials such as rock and adobe
were used in construction of buildings, walls, and other structures. Hilltop site location, stockades, and trincheras (dry-laid rock walls; Wilcox, 1979, 1989; Wilcox
and Haas, 1994) dating to the first millennium A.D. (LeBlanc, 1999) establish a
long history of apparent defensive settlement behavior in at least some regions of
the Southwest, although such evidence is not universally accepted (see Fish and
Fish, 1989; Haas, 1999). A hiatus of approximately 250 years in the construction
or use of defensive systems is evident beginning around A.D. 900 (LeBlanc, 1999).
Settlement evidence for serious strife is most abundant from A.D. 1250 to 1400,
during which all regions of the Southwest (Hohokam, Mogollon, Anasazi) appear
to have been fully embroiled in warfare (Billman et al., 2000; Haas and Creamer,
1993, 1996; LeBlanc, 1999; Rice and LeBlanc, 2001; Wilcox, 1989; Wilcox and
Haas, 1994).
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Some of the best settlement evidence for the transition to full scale warfare
after A.D. 1150 comes from Haas and Creamer’s extensive survey work in the
Kayenta Anasazi region of northern Arizona (Haas, 1999; Haas and Creamer,
1993, 1996). Archaeological evidence for warfare during this time here and elsewhere in the Southwest (see also LeBlanc, 1999; Wilcox and Haas, 1994) includes
settlements shifts from valley floors to inaccessible rock shelters, mesa tops, and
other defensible natural land forms; the creation of no-man’s lands; the construction of walls, towers, moats, or other features suggesting concern with defense; the
aggregation of people into larger pueblos or settlement clusters associated with a
defensible pueblo; the protection of potable water sources; and line-of-sight visibility between clusters. Burning of settlements or portions of settlements is also
evident in some contexts and provides more direct evidence of actual attack (Haas,
1999; Haas and Creamer, 1993; LeBlanc, 1999; Rice and LeBlanc, 2001).
Recently, Wilcox et al. (2001b) have taken a unique approach to the study of
warfare patterns during this time period at Perry Mesa on the Hohokam periphery
in central Arizona. Assessing the defensive potential and use of natural geography
from a military science perspective, they make a provocative case for the existence
of a unified, strategic defense system on Perry Mesa in the early thirteenth century
A.D. Their larger study of settlement patterns and the local and regional distribution
of structural burning in central Arizona places Perry Mesa within a larger confederacy, one of a number of “polities” that settlement systematics suggest were at
war during this time of strife throughout the Southwest.
Osteological evidence also has provided a changing perspective on violence
and warfare in the Southwest (see discussions in LeBlanc, 1999; Turner and Turner,
1999; Wilcox and Haas, 1994). The osteological record of violence extends back
at least 2000 years and includes cut marks from scalping (and a few scalps),
other signs of trophy taking, projectile wounds, cranial fractures, body mutilation,
and unburied bodies (e.g., Allen et al., 1985; Baker, 1990; Billman et al., 2000;
Dice, 1993a,b,c; Farmer, 1997; France, 1988; Howard and Janetski, 1992; Lambert,
1999, 2000; LeBlanc, 1999; Luebben and Nickens, 1982; Malville, 1989; Martin,
1997; Martin and Goodman, 1995; Turner and Turner, 1999; White, 1992; Wilcox
and Haas, 1994; Wilcox et al., 2001a). Before A.D. 900, unburied bodies and
other possible or clear signs of violent death are most apparent in the Anasazi
region (Farmer, 1997; Howard and Janetski, 1992; LeBlanc, 1999). LeBlanc (1999,
pp. 142–143) identifies 32 sites with such evidence; while most of these cases
involve a relatively small number of individuals and not all include clear evidence
of violence, others are hard to dispute.
Two of these early sites stand out in terms of number of victims and injury
types: Wetherill’s Cave 7 in southeastern Utah (Farmer, 1997; LeBlanc, 1999;
Hurst and Turner, 1993; Turner and Turner, 1999) and Battle Cave (LeBlanc,
1999; Morris, 1939; Turner and Turner, 1999) in northeastern Arizona. Wetherill’s
Cave 7, a Basketmaker II (A.D. 400?) site in Cottonwood Wash yielded the remains
of at least 92 individuals from a single interment event. Some of the recovered
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bodies have projectile or knife wounds. Many heads and jaws show signs of bludgeoning, and cut marks on some crania suggest trophy taking of heads, scalps,
and ears. Age and sex biases further suggest the capture of some women and children (Hurst and Turner, 1993; Turner and Turner, 1999, pp. 59–65), a common
practice worldwide among warring groups (e.g., Chagnon, 1992; Fadiman, 1982;
Hasenstab, 2000; Otterbein, 2000). The collection from Battle Cave is smaller and
consists of the remains of 11 individuals from a Basketmaker II (ca. 500 B.C.–
A.D. 500) cist deposit (LeBlanc, 1999; Turner and Turner, 1999, pp. 133–141).
Remains include men, women, and children, many exhibiting perimortem cranial
trauma (primarily fracturing). Both cases strongly suggest massacre and document
at least episodic outbursts of serious violence in the northern Southwest early in
the Anasazi sequence.
From A.D. 900 to 1250, various types of injuries are apparent in human remains
(e.g., Lambert, 1999, 2000; Martin, 1997; Martin and Goodman, 1995; Wilcox
et al., 2001a, Appendix 6.3), but one type of trauma prevails in the literature:
disarticulated bodies with cut marks, extensive perimortem fracturing, percussion
scars, and burning (Billman et al., 2000; Turner and Turner, 1999; White, 1992).
The relationship between this evidence and warfare is the subject of continued
debate. Settlement data suggest a hiatus in warfare from A.D. 900 to 1150 (LeBlanc,
1999). However, as many as 40 assemblages of broken and butchered human
remains, each containing one to 35+ individuals, have now been identified and
most date between A.D. 900 and 1200 (see summaries in Baker, 1990; Billman et al.,
2000; Turner and Turner, 1999; White, 1992). These assemblages have variously
been interpreted as evidence of cannibalism (e.g., Billman et al., 2000; Dice,
1993c; Lambert et al., 2000a; Malville, 1989; Marlar et al., 2000a; Nickens, 1975;
Turner and Turner, 1999; White, 1992), violent mutilation without cannibalism
(e.g., Bullock, 1998; Dongoske et al., 2000), witch killing (Darling, 1998), and
mortuary behavior (e.g., Bullock, 1998).
Recent biochemical verification of cannibalism at a twelfth-century site in
southwestern Colorado (Billman et al., 2000; Lambert et al., 2000b; Marlar et al.,
2000a,b) lends credence to the cannibalism interpretation for at least some of these
sites and demonstrates a methodology that may ultimately elucidate behaviors at
many other sites of purported cannibalism. Both LeBlanc (1999) and Turner and
Turner (1999) argue that cannibalism was a strategy used by an expansionist polity
centered at Chaco Canyon to intimidate and control its populace. However, this
explanation has yet to be reconciled with evidence such as the early (A.D. 880–910)
appearance of cannibalism in southeastern Utah (Cottonwood Wash; see Turner
and Turner, 1999, p. 269; White, 1992) before the northerly expansion of Chacoan
influence (Varien et al., 1996), and the concentration of mutilated assemblages in
the Mesa Verde region (Billman et al., 2000; Turner and Turner, 1999, Fig. 3.292)
after the depopulation of Chaco Canyon in the early twelfth century (see Frazier,
1999; Stuart, 2000; Varien et al., 1996). On the southern piedmont of Sleeping
Ute Mountain in southwestern Colorado, corpse mutilation, cannibalism, and
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community abandonment around A.D. 1150 strongly suggest that serious intergroup
violence was important in the formation of at least some of these “cannibalism”
assemblages (Billman et al., 2000a; Lambert et al., 2000a; Marlar et al., 2000a).
Unburied bodies with and without obvious trauma are prominent at some
locations after A.D. 1250 (LeBlanc, 1999; Rice and LeBlanc, 2001), but evidence
for cannibalism is at present less common (Billman et al., 2000; Turner and
Turner, 1999). At Castle Rock, a fortified thirteenth century village in southwestern Colorado (A.D. 1256–1285), the unburied and frequently mutilated remains of
41 individuals were deposited within and outside of structures during a massacre
that terminated site occupation (Lightfoot and Kuckelman, 2001). At Sand Canyon
Pueblo, a contemporaneous fortified pueblo in the vicinity, 20 bodies also were
recovered from nonburial contexts (Bradley, 1992; LeBlanc, 1999; Lightfoot and
Kuckelman, 1995). Four of eight individuals recovered from 5MT9943, a small
village on the southern piedmont of Sleeping Ute Mountain, also appear to have
died violently, as attested to by perimortem cranial trauma and nonformal body
disposal (Lambert, 1999, 2000). These cases are stark testimony to the reality of a
threat so apparent in the extreme defensive measures—population aggregation in
sites and clusters, fortification, village relocation to inaccessible/defensible land
forms— that people begin to take throughout the northern San Juan Basin after A.D.
1250 (Haas and Creamer, 1993, 1996; LeBlanc, 1999; Lightfoot and Kuckelman,
2001). Massacre may also account for the demise of Casas Grandes in northern
Mexico, a large and important cultural center during the fourteenth century. Here,
the skeletal remains of 127 unburied bodies have been recovered (DiPeso, 1974)
from what LeBlanc (1999, p. 252) estimates may have been a massacre of over
1000 residents. If this extrapolation is correct, then Casas Grandes may represent
the largest prehistoric massacre in the American Southwest (LeBlanc, 1999) and
possibly all of native North America.
Weaponry has not been as important in documenting Southwest warfare.
Potential weapons are plentiful, but those specific to war are not as obvious
(LeBlanc, 1999; Wilcox and Haas, 1994). According to LeBlanc (1999), fending sticks, dating to at least A.D. 450, may be one exception. Ethnographic studies
indicate that these clublike, grooved wooden implements were used in conjunction
with the atlatl and permitted the shooter to fend off oncoming darts with one hand
while simultaneously launching spears with the other (Heizer, 1942; LeBlanc,
1999). Thus fending sticks appear to have functioned primarily if not exclusively
in contexts where return fire was expected, which would make them more readily
identifiable as weapons of war.
The potential for iconography to elucidate more elusive aspects of prehistoric
warfare in this region has only recently begun to be realized (e.g., Crotty, 2001;
Farmer, 1997; Schaafsma, 2000). Decapitation and its results first make their appearance in Basketmaker II rock art of the Four Corners region (Farmer, 1997).
Such themes are later apparent to the south in Mimbres pottery (A.D. 1000–1130)
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(LeBlanc, 1999, p. 88). Warfare scenes and shield-bearing motifs in kiva and rock
art appear toward the end of the period of intense violence in the Anasazi region
(Crotty, 2001; Lightfoot and Kuckelman, 2001; Schaafsma, 2000), and may have
been inspired by the artistic traditions of the Fremont to the north (Crotty, 2001).
These iconographic images are more readily acceptable as evidence for war, given
the abundance of archaeological evidence for violence at this time. For example,
a rock art portrayal at Castle Rock pueblo of three human figures engaged in
bow-and-arrow conflict and defense accords well with archaeological and skeletal
evidence for fortification and violent death at the site (Lightfoot and Kuckelman,
2001).
In the eastern Great Basin on the northern Anasazi periphery, evidence for war
exists but has not been systematically assembled. A partial skull from a Fremont
site on the eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake has scalping cut marks on the frontal
bone and documents trophy taking of scalps around A.D. 650–990 in northern Utah
(Larsen and Lambert, 2001; Simms, 1999; Simms et al., 1991). Three skulls and
associated upper cervical vertebrae from the Hysell site, a Fremont village in
central Utah, provide osteological and contextual evidence of violence and trophy
taking at a slightly later date (A.D. 960–1180) (Owsley et al., 1998; Rood, 2001).
Perimortem fracturing from decapitation is present on one skull and mandible, and
on cervical vertebrae of both children and the adult female. The latter also has cut
marks on the face and mandible (Owsley et al., 1998). This material was discovered
below a collapsed pithouse roof, suggesting that the heads were centrally placed
or hung for display (Rood, 2001). To the east at the Turner-Look site in east
central Utah, seven human bone fragments with perimortem damage suggest the
existence of cannibalism in Fremont territory around A.D. 1075 (Turner and Turner,
1999, p. 170–172). Shield images in Fremont rock art overlap in time with this
osteological evidence (A.D. 900–1200; Loendorf and Conner, 1993; Madsen, 1989;
Schaafsma, 1980, 2000), and Fremont defensive sites appeared on the southeastern
Fremont periphery during the twelfth century A.D. (LeBlanc, 1999, p. 192). This
evidence raises intriguing questions about the nature of Fremont interactions and
of intergroup relations on the northern Anasazi frontier.
As in California, environmental explanations for warfare are prominent in
the Southwest, tied to climatic anomalies ca. A.D. 1100–1300 (influencing rainfall
and other growth-season parameters) that impacted corn production and may have
contributed to the abandonment of the northern San Juan by Puebloan peoples
around A.D. 1300 (Billman et al., 2000; Dean, 1996; Haas and Creamer, 1993,
1996; LeBlanc, 1999; Peterson, 1988; Varien et al., 1996). LeBlanc (1999) posits
the Little Ice Age as the overarching cause of escalating warfare here and elsewhere
in North America at this time (for climate data, see also Peterson, 1988). As
elsewhere, one consequence of war appears to have been the evolution of more
complex social institutions (Haas and Creamer, 1993). Warfare continued into
the historic period, but improved climatic conditions, defensive construction, and
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depopulation may explain why it did not again reach the magnitude characterizing
earlier years (Haas, 1999; LeBlanc, 1999).
GREAT PLAINS
Numerous descriptions and accounts attest to the prevalence of Plains
Indian warfare in the centuries following European contact (e.g., Axelrod, 1993;
Biolsi, 1984; Brown, 1971; Ewers, 1975, 1994; Goodrich, 1997; Grinnell, 1910,
1956; Hoig, 1993; Neihardt, 1932; Owsley, 1994; Owsley and Berryman, 1975;
Robarchek, 1994; Secoy, 1953; Smith, 1989; Taylor, 1975). Until recently, however, studies of prehistoric and protohistoric warfare in this region have been more
limited (e.g., Caldwell, 1964; Owsley and Berryman, 1975; Willey, 1982; Willey
and Bass, 1978; Zimmerman et al., 1981), leaving questions of the antiquity and
causes of Plains warfare open to debate.
Human remains provide some of the best archaeological evidence for intergroup violence in this region, including most notably scalping and other forms of
mutilation, projectile injuries, and skewed sex ratios (e.g., Miller, 1994; Neiburger,
1989; O’Shea and Bridges, 1989; Owsley and Berryman, 1975; Owsley et al.,
1977, 1999; Owsley and Jantz, 1994; Willey, 1982, 1990; Willey and Bass, 1978;
Willey and Emerson, 1993; Williams, 1991; Zimmerman and Bradley, 1993). Defensive settlement features, including ditches, earthen embankments, palisades,
and lookouts also are common in some areas and time periods (e.g., Bamforth,
1994; Brooks, 1994; Holliman and Owsley, 1994; Michlovic and Schneider, 1993;
Willey and Emerson, 1993; Zimmerman and Bradley, 1993), and structure burning
and site abandonment are notable at massacre sites (Bamforth, 1994; Holliman and
Owsley, 1994; Zimmerman and Bradley, 1993).
Evidence for warfare in archaeological sites antedating A.D. 950 is minimal
(Blakeslee, 1994; Brooks, 1994; Owsley, 1994). A few cases of scalping have
been reported, including two from Archaic sites on the northern Plains (Owsley,
1994; Tiffany et al., 1988; Williams, 1994). Although these hint at an early origin
for practices such as counting coup, fortification and other signs of warfare are
largely absent at this time (Blakeslee, 1994; Brooks, 1994). Fortification, village
abandonment, and evidence of violent injury are much more apparent in the archaeological record after A.D. 1200, particularly on the northern Plains at major
cultural boundaries (Bamforth, 1994, 2001; Owsley and Jantz, 1994). The movement of populations both southward (Extended Middle Missouri) and northward
(Initial Coalescent), perhaps in consequence of drought in the thirteenth century
that threatened the livelihood of agriculturalists in a way it never had their foraging
and horticulturalist forebears, appears to have brought several groups into contact
and competition with each other and with the resident population (Initial Middle
Missouri) during the late prehistoric period (Bamforth, 1994, 2001; Blakeslee,
1994; Holliman and Owlsey, 1994; Owsley, 1994).
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Although the scale of engagement appears to have varied considerably, evidence for the massacre of whole villages attests to the virulent nature of some
late prehistoric warfare on the northern Plains. At the Fay Tolten site, a fortified
Initial Middle Missouri (A.D. 950–1250) village on the Missouri River in central
South Dakota, limited data recovery suggests such an attack. Of five unburied
bodies recovered from the floor or features of the only two houses excavated at
the site (6%), two had been partially burned while fleshed, one had a perimortem
projectile injury, and one (a child) had been scalped a short time before the final attack (Holliman and Owsley, 1994). Although most of the village remains
unexcavated, the sampled portion extrapolates to a massacre of some note.
At Crow Creek, a large Initial Coalescent village in South Dakota with a
terminal occupation around A.D. 1325,2 such extrapolation is unnecessary (Willey,
1990; Willey and Emerson, 1993; Zimmerman and Bradley, 1993; Zimmerman
et al., 1981). Here, a mass deposit containing the remains of a minimum of 486
men, women, and children was discovered in 1978 in a fortification ditch that partially surrounded the entrenched village. Most of these bodies had been mutilated,
and many showed signs of exposure before interment. At least 89% of 415 identified frontal bones had cut marks indicative of scalping, and 41% of 101 identified
skulls had round or ellipsoid depression fractures from round and axelike clubbing implements. Decapitation and possible tongue removal by humans also was
evident by anatomical placement of cut marks on occipital bones, cervical vertebrae, and mandibles. Hands and feet may also have been purposefully removed,
although carnivore damage also suggests scavenger activity. Isolated bones and
body parts in various other contexts (Willey, 1990; Willey and Emerson, 1993),
as well as burning of all identified structures (Bamforth, 1994), support the annihilative intent of the attack. However, a pronounced bias against 15–24 year old
females, as well as the act of burial itself, suggests that some people may have
survived through capture or escape (Willey, 1990; Willey and Emerson, 1993).
In scale, the Crow Creek massacre is unparalleled anywhere in prehistoric North
America, except possibly that at the broadly contemporaneous center at Casas
Grandes described above.
Contemporaneous sites on the southern Plains in Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle have not produced evidence for similar levels of strife, although there is both
archaeological and osteological evidence for violence during the late prehistoric
period, particularly on the western frontier of this region (Bovee and Owsley, 1994;
Brooks, 1994; Owsley et al., 1999). Evidence of conflict includes possible lookout sites and burned structures, and skeletal injuries such as healed and unhealed
perforations, embedded arrow points, scalping cut marks, and depressed cranial
2 Bamforth
(2001) has recently pointed out that tree-ring dates from the Crow Creek site cluster in the
early 1400s, suggesting that the massacre may have occurred a century later than generally believed.
Two other tree-ring dates fall in the early 1500s, further indicating a later, postabandonment occupation.
Bamforth notes that, unlike A.D. 1325, the fifteenth century date corresponds to a period of drought
in the Dakotas and may help explain why the Crow Creek massacre happened.
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vault fractures. Some osteological evidence in contemporaneous populations of
central Oklahoma also suggests violence, but the victims are fewer in number.
Overall, the archaeological evidence for late prehistoric violence on the southern
Plains suggest small-scale raiding, with some evidence for intertribal conflict in
frontier regions of northern west Texas (Brooks, 1994; Bovee and Owsley, 1994).
Osteological evidence indicates that violence continued into the protohistoric
and historic periods on the northern Great Plains and involved both Indians and
Euroamericans (Bamforth, 1994; Gill, 1994; Owsley, 1994). Lack of evidence for
large-scale loss of warrior-age males and small victims counts overall compared to
sites like Crow Creek are consistent with small-scale raiding as the primary form of
engagement (Owsley, 1994). However, more serious violence continued to erupt on
the frontier, as archaeological discoveries at the Larson site (1750–1785) in South
Dakota reveal. Remains of 71 people were found on house floors and scattered
about this village, and musket balls, metal arrowheads, and extensive burning
attest to the nature of their demise (Bamforth, 1994; Owsley et al., 1977). As at
Crow Creek, there was evidence of crushing blows to the head and face, scalping,
decapitation, missing hands and feet, and disembowelment (Owsley et al., 1977).
Intergroup violence also escalated on the southern Plains at this time, but was not
as pronounced (Brooks, 1994).
During the historic period, proximate causes of Plains Indian warfare included
prestige, revenge, competition, and European-induced impacts such as the introduction of the horse and gun (Biolsi, 1984; Robarcheck, 1994). Explanations for
warfare in the prehistoric period emphasize drought and population movement that
brought distinct tribal peoples into contact, resulting in ethnic tensions and competition for essential resources (Bamforth, 1994, 2001; Blakeslee, 1994; Brooks,
1994; Owsley, 1994). As described above, there is good archaeological evidence
for territorial warfare. At Crow Creek, osteological evidence of poor health suggests that intertribal competition may have been motivated by resource stress, not
simply by distrust or prestige seeking (Bamforth, 1994, 2001; Zimmermen and
Bradley, 1993).
EASTERN WOODLANDS
The Eastern Woodlands, the vast region east of the Mississippi River, may
offer the most profuse and diverse archaeological record of North American warfare outside of Mesoamerica (Haas, 1999; Milner, 1999). With a few notable exceptions (e.g., Larson, 1972), however, this disparate literature has only recently
begun to be incorporated into regional overviews and evaluated in terms of broad
trends and causal explanations (Bridges et al., 2000; Milner, 1999; Smith, 1997;
Steinen, 1992; Steinen and Ritson, 1996). In a recent JAR review, Milner (1999)
has synthesized and analyzed numerous individual accounts of violent trauma and
archaeological evidence of stockades to portray broad temporal and geographic
trends throughout the region.
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Using counts of sites with embankments, ditches, and linear arrangements of
postmolds to quantify defensive construction, Milner (1999) demonstrates a rapid
transition during the eleventh century from unfortified to fortified villages throughout the Eastern Woodlands. This occurred several hundred years after the introduction of the bow and arrow into the region (Blitz, 1988), so it cannot be tied to a
change in weapon technology, although wound frequencies do indicate that fighting
increased after its appearance (Milner, 1999). Fortification strongly correlates with
population aggregation and the appearance of buffer zones, features of emergent
chiefdoms that characterized Eastern Woodland society during the late prehistoric
period (e.g., Anderson, 1994; DePratter, 1991; Hudson, 1997; Milner, 1999).
Osteological evidence of intergroup violence long predates the appearance
of stockades and other signs of fortification. Evidence for some form of war has
been reported at a number of Archaic sites (e.g., Bridges et al., 2000; Milner,
1999; Smith, 1997; Walthall, 1980). In western Tennessee, for example, projectile wounds, scalping, and/or limb dismemberment in 2.3% (all males) of 439
interments from Archaic contexts (6000–1000 B.C.) strongly suggest intergroup
aggression (Smith, 1997). In northern Alabama, embedded spear points in 2.7%
of individuals (four males and three females) at the late Archaic (4000–1000 B.C.)
Perry site similarly imply intergroup hostilities (Bridges et al., 2000). Violent
trauma appears to have declined after this time (but see Seeman, 1988), but increased again after A.D. 500 and peaked during the millennium preceding sustained
European contact (Milner, 1999).
Most Eastern Woodland sites with evidence of violent trauma contain only
a few victims, mostly males (112 of 140 adult victims examined in Milner’s survey), suggesting a pattern of warfare that emphasized feuding and small-scale
raiding (Milner, 1999). There are some exceptions, however. At Pinson Cave in
Alabama, the remains of 44–100 people deposited in the cave around A.D. 1040
suggest the possibility of massacre, although the evidence—7 projectile points embedded in bone and 50 scattered throughout the remains—is more circumstantial
(Bridges et al., 2000). At Koger’s Island, a smaller Mississippian center in northern Alabama, four mass graves containing 5–8 individuals each also indicate more
serious intergroup aggression. Six individuals from these graves had perimortem
scalping cut marks and one had an unhealed depression fracture, supporting the
hypothesis that all of the associated individuals in these mass graves died violently.
High rates of trauma (cranial and postcranial fractures, scalping) here and at other
small to mid-sized settlements in the Deep South suggest that risk of violent injury and death was greater at these locations than at large centers like Moundville
(Bridges et al., 2000).
To the north on the Mississippian periphery in west-central Illinois, the high
toll of constant albeit small-scale raiding is evident at the Norris Farms site. At
least 16% (43) of 264 inhabitants of this fourteenth century Oneota settlement died
violently, as indicated by embedded projectile points, scalping cut marks (n = 14),
decapitation (n = 11), and carnivore damage (n = 30) from corpse exposure prior
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to interment (Milner et al., 1991; Milner and Smith, 1990). The relatively equal sex
ratio of victims and the frequent association of same-sex individuals in multiple
graves, coupled with evidence for preexisting debilitating conditions in many, suggest that these were opportunistic killings of vulnerable adults (Milner et al., 1991).
Presumably, this constant onslaught reflects efforts of resident Mississippians to
oust Oneota intruders from the north (Milner, 1999; Milner et al., 1991; Milner
and Smith, 1990). Although there is no evidence for a massacre on the scale of
Crow Creek, Norris Farms appears to represent another form of deadly intergroup
violence in indigenous North America.
The archaeological record also provides some evidence of hostile interactions
between natives and early European intruders to the south in La Florida. Although
osteological evidence of sword injuries at the sixteenth century King site in Georgia
(Blakely and Matthews, 1990) has recently been disputed (Milner et al., 2000),
good evidence of such wounds is present in an early historic sample from the
Tatham Mound in northern Florida (Hutchinson, 1996; Larsen, 1997). A gunshot
wound in a male from Mission San Luis de Talimali (A.D. 1656–1704) is additional, albeit rare, osteological evidence of conflict involving European weapons
and probably European perpetrators during early years of Spanish contact in the
Southeast (Larsen et al., 1996).
Proximate causes invoked for indigenous warfare in the Eastern Woodlands
include revenge, status, political struggles, and competition for productive farmlands, deerskins, and other essential or valuable resources (e.g., Gramley, 1977,
1988; Hasenstab, 2000; Larson, 1972; Milner, 1999; Steinen, 1992). Climatic factors such as cooler temperatures associated with the Little Ice Age about A.D. 1400
may also have played a role, particularly as these would have impacted larger,
more sedentary agriculturalist populations in more risky environments. Whatever
its causes, however, both settlement and osteological data strongly suggest that
warfare was important in the formation and maintenance of chiefdom societies in
the late prehistory of this region (Milner, 1999).
CONCLUSION
Perceptions of prehistoric warfare in the Americas are rapidly changing as
archaeological research aimed at elucidating patterns and prevalence of war focus
increased attention on this aspect of life in prestate societies. In the last 10 years,
regional studies aimed at generating systematic data and/or synthesizing extant
case studies have begun to be conducted for regions throughout North America.
These studies are providing new perspectives on temporal and geographic patterns
of war and peace through the quantification of evidence for settlement defense and
burning, violent injury, war weaponry, and iconographic representations of war.
What warfare patterns are currently discernible in the archaeological record
of North America? It is clear that people participated in some level of warfare
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in all major regions covered in this review. How war was conducted appears to
have varied in accordance with local traditions, technology, economy, and political system. Various parameters of the physical environment, such as topography,
resource distribution, and rainfall likely also influenced when, where, and how war
was conducted. Most of the archaeological and osteological evidence suggests that
relatively small-scale engagements predominated, involving a limited number of
aggressors and resulting in relatively few victims per encounter. Quantitative analysis of victim frequencies reveals, however, that even this low-level warfare could
result in very high death tolls overall, particularly for certain sex and age classes
(e.g., Bridges et al., 2000; Jurmain, 2001; Lambert, 1994, 1997; Milner et al.,
1991). In addition, mass graves and/or large numbers of unburied bodies showing
signs of trauma are known from several regions and document outbreaks of highly
lethal, genocidal violence. Large-scale massacre is best known at sites on the
northern Great Plains (Crow Creek, Fay Tolten, Larson), but apparent massacres
also have been identified at sites in the northern Southwest (Wetherill’s Cave 7,
Battle Cave, Castle Rock, Sand Canyon Pueblo) and southern Southwest (Casas
Grandes), the Canadian Arctic (Saunaktuk), and possibly in the Southeast (Pinson
Cave). As Milner notes (1999), it is likely that other such outbreaks occurred, but
were not preserved because no one survived to bury the dead.
Chronological evaluation of the North American data highlights some important temporal trends. Violent injuries are present in many skeletal assemblages
antedating A.D. 500 and include projectile wounds, fractures from clubbing implements, and scalping. There is considerable variability within and between regions
in the frequency of these injuries, however, which suggests that variability in local
social and environmental conditions may be key to understanding outbreaks of violence and war in these early years. Defensive settlement systems are not as obvious
before A.D. 500 if they are present at all, a pattern that is likely meaningful in terms
of levels of war and/or the way in which it was conducted. This situation began to
change around A.D. 500 with the appearance of defensive sites and an increase in
the frequency of injuries attributable to violence in some regions. Fortification and
other signs of defense are most evident throughout North America between A.D.
1000 and 1400 (see also Haas, 1999). The relative frequency of violent injuries
shows a corresponding increase, and most of the massacres listed above date to
this period.
Posited explanations for this pan-North American escalation in warfare include critical population threshhold (e.g., Haas, 1999), global impacts of the Little
Ice Age (e.g., LeBlanc, 1999), and technological innovations such as the introduction of the bow and arrow (e.g., Blitz, 1988) and sinew-backed bow that changed the
way war was conducted (e.g., Maschner, 1992, 2000; Mason, 1998). As described
above, all find some evidence in the archaeological record of North America.
We know that technological innovation accompanied increasing warfare overall.
However, it is difficult to determine if new weapons led to increased warfare
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or spread in consequence of existing strife. At some level, it seems likely that
the continent-wide escalation was related to changes in the relationship between
human populations and the resources on which they depended. We know population density and absolute population size had increased in at least some areas,
and climatic indicators further suggest that major climatic anomalies (Medieval
Wurm/Little Ice Age) well documented in Europe (Lamb, 1995) may have had
profound impacts on North America as well (LeBlanc, 1999). Major warming
or cooling, coupled with changing patterns of precipitation, would certainly have
changed the abundance and distribution of resources, although it is important to
keep in mind that impacts on different areas could have varied significantly. Even
if some populations fared well, however, negative impacts on others could have
had far-reaching consequences through population displacement and/or the adoption by some groups of more aggressive strategies for resource acquisition. In
any event, if larger forces such as these were ultimately responsible for escalating violence during the late prehistoric period, then it is important to recognize
that cultural boundaries typically used to define research projects and objectives
may obscure rather than facilitate a complete understanding of war in any given
region.
With the growing recognition of war as an important force in population
dynamics and political transitions in prestate societies has come a recognition that
both the presence and absence of war needs verification. Neither can be assumed,
and good methodologies can and should be used to assess both. Clearly, answers
to questions of the causes and consequences of human violence reside in a proper
understanding of when and how it occurred and, most importantly, why.
Productive avenues of future research include programs directed at further
elucidating temporal and geographic patterns of prehistoric war in the Americas,
ideally constructed to test hypotheses derived from current theories on war and
its practice in ancient North America and elsewhere. As demonstrated by studies
discussed in this review, increasingly sophisticated and usable GIS technology
offers a powerful means for characterizing both larger patterns of war and more
subtle aspects of strategy, and we likely will see greater applications in these
areas. A major philosophical hurdle has been overcome: the lack of recognition
of war as an important social process in prehistoric North America. We are now
in the position to creatively investigate the history and practice of indigenous
North American warfare and, more importantly from the perspective of larger
significance, to seek out its causes and the role it played in the development of
New World social process.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank Gary Feinman and T. Douglas Price for their invitation
to write this article. I have wanted to pull the North American warfare literature
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together for several years now, and this was just the encouragement I needed
to do so. Thanks are also due to Clark Larsen, Jon Moris, Steven Simms, and
four anonymous reviewers, whose detailed comments and suggestions made this a
better paper. Angela Hampton and Lara Sadler Petersen helped with the assembly
and cross-checking of biobliographic references, and I am grateful for their hard
work and conscientious attention to detail.
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