HMN 2026: How Ancient Puebloans kept macaws and parrots in great houses for ceremonial use

In a recent study, Dr. Katelyn Bishop conducted a zooarchaeological and archival data reanalysis of macaws and parrots recovered from Chaco Canyon to better understand their depositional contexts, material associations, and the human-bird relationship of the ancient Puebloans.

The study, published in the journal KIVA, reveals that most parrots were likely restricted to great houses, where they were intentionally deposited in rooms with plastered walls and thermal features, where they likely served important cultural and ceremonial roles.

History of macaw and parrot research at Chaco Canyon

Chaco Canyon was inhabited from the mid-800s to around the mid-1100s. During this time, thousands of archaeological sites were created, including larger pueblo sites called ‘great houses’ and smaller pithouses, known as “small sites.”

“…there are many sites in Chaco Canyon, the vast majority of which have not been excavated. Out of a dozen ‘great houses’ (large, multi-storied pueblos of masonry construction), only two have been completely or nearly completely excavated, to say nothing of the more than 1,000 smaller pueblos and pithouse sites throughout the canyon and its surrounding mesa tops,” explained Dr. Bishop.

Within these excavated sites, the remains of macaws and parrots have long been the subject of much discussion, often centered on how they were procured or why they were valued.

“…based on ethnographic and ethnohistoric accounts, scarlet macaws have associations with the sun, the sky, rain, rainbows, salt, and the south. They factor into directional symbolism, where they represent or stand in for the southern direction. Their red color associates them with the sun, and their multiple other colors (primarily blue and yellow) to the rainbow, and consequently to the rain. Their feathers have been used for centuries; they feature in many Pueblo stories, and multiple pueblos have or have had a macaw or parrot clan,” explained Dr. Bishop.

“While 19th and 20th-century ethnographic accounts give insight into their symbolic associations, contemporary Pueblo communities remain the experts on the current and past importance of scarlet macaws.”

Yet few attempts have been made to examine the bird remains themselves, with the last ‘complete’ analysis of these birds having been published over 50 years ago and containing several inaccuracies and limited contextual information.

Reanalysis of the Chaco macaws and parrots

To address this knowledge gap, Dr. Bishop conducted a comprehensive reanalysis of all macaw and parrot remains from Chaco Canyon, identifying a total of 45 birds. Of these, 42 were macaws, and three were thick-billed parrots, none of which were historically native to the region. Physical zooarchaeological analysis, however, could only be conducted on 38 birds, as four macaws and all three thick-billed parrots could not be located.

It was found that the birds came from five sites across Chaco Canyon, namely the great houses Pueblo Bonito, Pueblo del Arroyo, Kin Kletso, and Una Vida, as well as 29SJ 1360.

The majority of birds were recovered from Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon’s most famous great house. A total of 35 macaws and two thick-billed parrots were recovered from this site. Most were recovered from the site’s earlier “northern arc” section, particularly Room 38, which contained the remains of 14 scarlet macaws, two of which had been intentionally buried in a subfloor pit.

The remaining 12 were recovered in a 10-inch thick layer of droppings against the east wall, suggesting the presence of perches or possibly some form of partitioning. The birds had been acquired over a 250-year period and included individuals as young as 11–12 months to over 25 years in age.

Another key location was Pueblo Bonito’s Room 249A, which featured an adobe-plastered shelf covered in bird droppings and food remains, indicating birds were kept on a perch in the room, which was accessed through a roof hatch.

The remaining birds were recovered in small numbers or in isolation at the remaining four sites.

Insights into ancient bird-keeping practices

The findings revealed that none of the 2,481 bones had any evidence of having been butchered, indicating birds were unlikely to have been intentionally disarticulated and were likely deposited whole. Additionally, an interesting trend in which magpie remains were deposited alongside scarlet macaws was noted, possibly reflecting color symbolism or their shared ability to mimic human speech.

Most birds were recovered from large, plastered rooms with thermal features, indicating care was taken to keep them warm.

Dr. Bishop notes that this macaw study was part of a broader analysis of all avian remains from Chaco Canyon.

“Many other types of birds were important to Chaco’s inhabitants, including turkeys, eagles, hawks, cranes, doves, pigeons, woodpeckers, quail, and songbirds of many different kinds. Birds, as a class of animal, seem to have been extremely significant. I’m looking forward to focusing on those relationships between people and types of birds other than macaws.

“With regard to the macaws specifically, I think a better understanding of skeletal pathology is needed. There are a number of pathological markers on macaw remains, but our understanding of the cause of some of these pathologies is lacking. There has been a tendency in prior discussions of the Chaco macaws to assume that these birds were mistreated, and I don’t think that that’s necessarily or inherently true.

“I think there is a great deal of evidence for the many ways that these birds were cared for, provided for, and valued.”

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