For about ten years off and on I earned my keep as a professional archaeologist. While I didn’t find any buried treasure or fight any Nazis, I did run across my fair share of strangeness out in the wilderness. My most memorable series of surveys took me to the badlands and pine forests of North-Central New Mexico where I helped to document a blood soaked tale four centuries old.
When thinking of the prehistoric Southwest, many people likely picture the solemn ruins of Mesa Verde and the abandoned great houses of Chaco Canyon. The Ancestral Pueblo, also known as the Anasazi, are iconic members of the rich history of the desert states. There are also the Mogollon, the Hohokam, and the more modern Pueblo tribes whose culture and history paint vivid pictures across the Four Corners. Somewhere in between, often overlooked and lost to the fog and fire of time, are the Gallina People.
Exactly who these people were is still something of a mystery. They were clearly related to the Anasazi, as shown by their use of sacred Kivas and similar building styles, but exactly where they came from has not been satisfactorily discerned. What we can tell is that these people lived extremely violent lives. In fact, nearly every set of human remains has shown signs of violence, including caved in skulls and broken necks.
But why? There are a number of theories that do their best to account for the violence seen in the Gallina territories.
The first of theories involves the idea of witchcraft, something that has also been brought up in cases of cannibalism among the Anasazi. This theory maintains that houses and structures were burned and destroyed during an exodus in order to stop personal effects from being used in black magic and evil ceremonies. Whether true or not, this migration does not appear to have been voluntary.
The biggest body of evidence for the forced removal of these people comes from the sheer number of very clearly murdered people. A broken neck seems to be the most popular style of execution, while broken skulls and burned bodies are also present. Many of the bodies are found within the desecrated ruins of structures.
Whether or not this was some sort of civil war or an actual case of genocide, is unclear. However, during the 1200’s when the Gallina were present, the Southwest appears to have undergone a period of drought. This harsh climate could have been just the fuel needed to set ablaze the prehistoric world.
As with so much of archaeology, there is little to actually go on. Sandstone bricks, ornately woven baskets and sandals, projectile points and broken pottery; all artifacts used by experts to piece together the past but don't provide more than a fragment of the full story. While research continues, the mystery of what happened so long ago in the badlands of New Mexico may never truly be solved.
-Logan Whitney
