>X-Sender: [log in to unmask]
>X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.3 (32)
>Date: Thu, 02 Apr 1998 21:34:40 -0700
>To: [log in to unmask]
>From: "Brian W. Kenny" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Cut-In-Two Man
>
>
>From: Kevin Jones <[log in to unmask]>
>
>Thursday, April 2, 1998
>Mummies Might Have Been Made by Anasazi
>BY LEE SIEGEL Salt Lake Tribune
>In the late 1800s and early 1900s, archaeologists and plunderers excavated
>mummies of dozens of ancient Anasazi Indians buried in caves and rock
>shelters in southeast Utah and other Four Corners states. Experts have
>believed they were mummified naturally by the area's dry climate. But a
>Peruvian physician-anthropologist said Wednesday that decades-old
>photographs and reports of two mummies from Utah and Arizona provide
>evidence the Anasazi people sometimes mummified their dead intentionally.
>"The Anasazi practiced artificial mummification,'' Guido Lombardi said at
>the annual meeting of the Paleopathology Association, one of three
>anthropology groups meeting in Salt Lake City this week. ``This suggests
>the Anasazi had a more complicated society than previously thought.'' The
>Anasazi -- ancestors of modern Hopi, Zuni and other Pueblo tribes -- have
>been viewed as an egalitarian society, yet intentional mummification
>suggests some Anasazi held a higher rank than others, said Lombardi, an
>anthropology doctoral student at New Orleans' Tulane University. ``This is
>the first time I've seen this evidence brought to the scientific
>community,'' said University of Nebraska anthropologist Karl Reinhard, who
>wrote a chapter on Southwest mummies in the book Mummies, Disease and
>Ancient Culture. After hearing Lombardi, Reinhard said: ``I'm going to have
>to rewrite the chapter,'' which now says, ``Mummification was not
>intentional for most North American prehistoric cultures.'' Utah State
>Archaeologist Kevin Jones expressed skepticism: ``I would not be surprised
>to find there may have been some attempts at manipulating a corpse to
>preserve it. But I don't believe from what I've heard there's very much
>evidence to go on.'' Evidence of intentional mummification was convincing
>to Bernardo Arriaza, an anthropologist at the University of Nevada, Las
>Vegas, and organizer of the Third International Congress on Mummy Studies,
>which will meet in Chile next month. ``To me it's not a surprise,'' Arriaza
>said, noting mummification was practiced by ancient Alaskan Aleuts and by
>South American prehistoric cultures. Intentional mummification by the
>Anasazi shows the practice occurred throughout the Western Hemisphere, said
>Lombardi, a physician who previously studied mummies in his native Peru.
>Jones said the Anasazi lived in the Four Corners from the time of Christ to
>the late 1200s or early 1300s, when they abandoned southern Utah and
>Colorado's Mesa Verde
>and moved farther south. In the 1890s, Richard Wetherill -- a rancher,
>explorer, amateur archaeologist and artifact plunderer -- led expeditions
>into Utah's Grand Gulch, 30 miles southwest of
>Blanding. In a cave there, he found a mummy named Cut-in-Two Man because
>the body had been cut through the hips and abdomen, then sewn together with
>twine of braided human hair. Glass-plate photos taken by Charles Lang
>during Wetherill's expeditions are stored at Tulane University, where
>Lombardi studied them. He displayed photos of Cut-in-Two Man on Wednesday.
>Wetherill once wrote Cut-in-Two Man was the victim of a knife wound, and
>the sewing was a crude surgical attempt to save him. Lombardi said it is
>more likely Cut-in-Two Man was eviscerated and sewn together after death to
>mummify his remains. ``No one would survive a wound like that,'' Lombardi
>said, adding that Cut-in-Two Man also ``was much better preserved than
>other mummies.'' He also noted Wetherill
>found dismembered arms and legs from other people placed around the mummy
>like offerings, also suggesting an intentional ceremonial ritual. Winston
>Hurst, an archaeologist in Blanding, agreed Cut-in-Two Man wasn't surgical
>patient, but added: ``You'd have a hard time proving they [the Anasazi]
>were eviscerating for intentional mummification.'' Lombardi also studied
>old photos and archaeologist Alfred Kidder's 1919 report on a mummified
>``trophy head'' found in a cave in northeast Arizona. The skull had been
>removed from the head, then the face and scalp sewn back together, Lombardi
>said. The head also had an elaborate hairdo and face painting, indicating a
>case of intentional mummification largely overlooked since 1919, Lombardi
>said. Jones, however, said intentional mummification ``is not necessarily
>the only interpretation for a skinned head and a guy sewn back up.'' He
>cited controversial arguments the Anasazi may have practiced cannibalism.
>Jones said the mummies should be studied directly to confirm claims
>preservation was intentional. Lombardi agreed. He believes the trophy head
>is stored at Peabody Museum in Massachusetts, while Cut-in-Two Man may be
>at New York's American Museum of Natural History. Reinhard said
>sophisticated postmortem processing of the head and Cut-in-Two Man both
>indicate intentional mummification and ``ceremonial use of the dead.''
>Intentional mummification ``is highly probable,'' agreed pathologist Arthur
>Aufderheide, a mummy expert at the University of Minnesota in Duluth.
>Lombardi said Wetherill's view that Cut-in-Two Man underwent crude surgery
>reflected his biased opinion that native people were incapable of
>sophisticated mummification. `We failed to appreciate the richness and
>complexity of these early groups,'' said University of New Mexico
>anthropologist Jane Buikstra. During their visit to Salt Lake, Lombardi and
>Arriaza planned to visit the Summum church, which has mummified pets and
>signed up numerous people who want to be mummified after death at a cost of
>$35,000 to $200,000.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
|