PRIMITIVE MAN'S DIET IN THE MESA VERDE AREA.
by
Dwight W. Rife, M.D.

One of the most frequent questions asked by visitors to the Mesa Verde is, "What did the Cliff Dwellers eat?"

When one studies carefully the kitchen middens and refuse heaps of the early pueblos, the answer in the main is not difficult. The results of these studies together with the finding of food caches and a study of existing fauna and flora of the region tell a fairly complete story, and seem to show the cliff dwellers must have had a fairly well balanced diet.

Such a diet, according to our present knowledge of dietetics should include carbohydrates, proteins, fats, mineral salts, the vitamines, and water. There is no reason to believe that the ancient inhabitants of this area suffered from a restricted diet which did not contain these necessary elements, except perhaps temporarily in times of stress or shortage of food.

Proposed studies to show the effect of a strictly corn diet on skeletal growth and dentition seem unnecessary from the fact that a primitive man as well as modern man, if left to himself will ordinarily eat a sufficient variety of foods to maintain a decent and adequate nutritive balance, nothwithstanding the present day hue and cry of avitaminosis.

The cliff dweller, being a sedentary agriculturist and an occasional hunter, had for his main article of diet yellow corn. Recent studies show that yellow corn contains in addition to the necessary elements, vitamin "A" in abundance, contained in the yellow pigment, carotene, also found in carrots.

To go into a detailed description of food stuffs eaten by the cliff dweller and enumerate the food values contained therein would be laborious and outside the scope of this paper. It suffices to list additional articles of the diet.

The fruit of the yucca and possibly a paste of the seeds was eaten. Certainly pinon nuts were harvested and eaten through the winter. Roots and shoots of the various plants contributed to the cliff dweller diet, notably the bulbs of the Sago or Mariposa Lily. Various berries, which are native to the area, might well have been eaten, fresh and dried. The seeds of certain grasses were dried, and made into a mealy paste, to be cooked on hot flat stones. Beans were raised and eaten in large quantities. Squash and edible gourds, possibly a variety of pumpkin, to mention a few more, and the cliff dweller travelled long distances to barter or mine salt with which to season his dishes.

While confections and sugars as we know them today were then unknown there must have been wild honey, sweet saps and wild fruits, and the thin syrupy juice of the ripe yucca to furnish available sweets.

Wild game, which contains a good supply of mineral salts, especially calcium, was eaten in abundance. Venison, mountain sheep, rabbits, all fell before the cliff dweller's arrows and hunting sticks. Possibly wild ducks and other game birds were prized as delicacies even as today.

While it is common knowledge that the cliff dweller domesticated the wild turkey, it is not thought that this bird was eaten, as these turkeys were housed carefully and treated with reverence, even as the modern pueblos do.

With a people as intelligent and leisurely as the ancient pueblos one can only conjecture the ingenuity displayed by these people in discovering and cooking many food substances of which we have no trace at present.

For a description of the methods of preparation of the corn, beans and other food stuffs of the pueblos, the reader is refered to "Zuni Broadstuffs' by Frank H. Cushing.

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