Paleonutrition and Paleopathology of the Salt River Hohokam: A Search for Correlates

Abstract

Recent excavations at the Phoenix area Hohokam sites of Grand Canal Ruins, Casa Buena, and La Ciudad yielded 163 non-cremated human skeletons representing both the pre-Classic and Classic periods. Several conditions associated with nutritional stress were observed in these remains including dental caries, wear and calculus formation, antemortem tooth loss, enamel hypoplasia, porotic hyperostosis, rickets, bladder stone disease and short stature. Some of these conditions reflect weaning and infectious disease stress occurring in childhood, rather than adult nutritional inadequacies. Only dental canes, wear and calculus formation, and antemortem tooth loss could be used to measure the effect of the Hohokam dietary regime on adults. The paleopathological evidence preserved in these remains does not appear to negate the idea that the Hohokam possessed a rich and varied diet as proposed by archaeobotanists, but does suggest nutritional irregularities occurring in early childhood.