FACES OF THE MESA VERDE PEOPLE
by
Betty Yelm

In the Museum at Mesa Verde National Park the average visitor will look at skulls of the ancient cliff dwellers perhaps study them closely noting especially the deformation on the back of the skulls, and condition of the teeth. A few doctors, after close scrutiny, will inquire about diseases. Some careful observers will be astonished at the head size and shape, and on looking directly at the faces of the crania, timidly ask if these people, in a degree resembled white man, or the modern Indian of the Southwest, for the reason that they expect something far different. Because we look so much at a person's face to judge him, his personality, his attractiveness, or lack of it, we find that facial appearance is important to the average individual.

On the basis of measurements and indices taken on some 15 Mesa Verde skulls, sent to the University of Denver for study in January 1934, I shall try to reconstruct a general picture of the Cliff dwellers' facial type. This study is based entirely on the measurement of bones, the framework of the face and head. To reconstruct the superficial skin covering would take expert anatomists who study carefully the musculature. From the bone measurements and indices, however, a great deal can be told. In any group ancient or modern, in which there has been very little introduction of new blood, the face and skull types tend to be the same among the various individuals. For example, a long head and a long face generally go together as found in the Basket Maker people; or a long-headed group may have short broad faces as is found among the Cro-Magnon people of many thousand years ago in southern Europe, and among some eskimos.

Based on the indices¹ of this framework, then, we shall endeavor to give a very general description of the Cliff Dweller appearance. All of the skulls that could be completely studied, 12 in number, were brachycephalic or very broad-headed with the exception of one female, not very deformed, who appeared to me mesocephalic or medium in head type. Broad-headedness in these skulls in particular would be accentuated by the deformation on the back of the head due to the use of the cradleboard in infancy. In addition to being broad these skulls were also relatively high (hypsicephalic), or one might say, probably had a very high forehead. According to scientific usage, the forehead is not included in the face, but because of the common acceptance of the forehead as a part of the face it will be included in the general description as to its relative width. Let us see what were the facial types of these deformed-skulls.

1. N.B. - Definition of Index. - "The ratio, or formula expressing the ratio of one dimension of a thing to another dimension. In craniometry, the dimension which is normally longer is usually taken as a base (equal to 100), the index being derived by multiplying the normally loss dimension by 100 and dividing the result by the normally greater." — Webster's New Internat. Dict. of the English Language. G.C. Merriam & Co., Springfield, Mass. 1933.

The following table gives a description, for the 12 individual Mesa Verde skulls according to classification of indices (not presented here) of Wilder.²

2. Wilder, H.H. - A Laboratory Manual of Anthropometry. P. Blakiston's Son & Co., Philadelphia. 1920. pps. 66,67.

The table shows that face types in these people ranged from short and broad to long and narrow. We find long narrow noses in short broad faces and vice versa. Male skulls A, E, and I have correlating face and nose types, being thus more harmonic from an esthetic viewpoint. We find however, that the majority, or seven skulls, had medium broad faces, while the main tendency in nose type was to be short and broad. Eight of the skulls presented very narrow foreheads in relation to the breadth of the cranium, but this may be due mainly to posterior deformation which tended to widen the skull as a compensation for the inhibited growth in the back. Prognathism, wherein the jaws project beyond the upper part of the face, was marked in one male and two females, all-having short broad noses. The correlation of broad short noses with prognathism is often the case with a primitive type or a mixture wherein the older type is sometimes evident. Orthognathism, wherein the profile is nearly vertical, was found in a male and a female and is represented by the word "none" under prognathism. The majority, however, were moderately prognathic or mesognathic.

From this short study it appears that these Pueblos were a mixed group as to their facial type such as are the white man and many primitive groups of today, such as the Navajo and the modern Pueblo Indians of the Southwest. Tendencies for face types, head, etc., to group in certain categories can be shown only by measurements of large numbers of skulls.

Although from these few measurements we cannot be definite, we may draw some conclusions as to how these people might have looked if we could have walked through one of the villages when they were there. We would note that most of the faces were fairly broad with foreheads which would be narrow in appearance due to the extreme width of the skulls. Noses would range from very short and broad to long and narrow, with tendency to be the former. Degree of prognathism on the living individual, except to the eye of an expert, would not be detected unless very pronounced. If we judge further by the Pueblo Indians of today, who are believed to be descendants of the ancients of this San Juan region, we could say that skin color ranged to dark brown, eyes brown to black, and hair generally black and straight, and this would give us a fair idea of the general appearance.