WUPATKI PUEBLO: A STUDY IN CULTURAL FUSION AND ...

flux In the Sinagua area, when many new groups Joined the
local Slnsguia. folk, and burial practices were variable. Sev­
eral sites9 such as Winona Ruin, the Piper site, and Wilson
Pueblo have cremations as well as burials. By 1120, however,
while northern Anasazi burials were still normally flexed,
burials were virtually all extended in the Sinagua region.
Only In sites of considerable cultural mixture, such as Wu­
patki, Nalakihu, and Juniper Terrace, were both extended and
flexed burials found (Stanislawskl 1963: 308-19). The variety
of burial forms at Wupatki is thus additional evidence of the
cultural contacts and ohange in this area of the Southwest,
and is one more suggestion of Chacoan contacts in the Sinagua
area at this period. It should also be noted that Hopi area
peoples began to bury their dead in an extended position only
after 1200-1300, perhaps under the influence of Sinagua immi­
grants, a suggestion of the early Sinagua influence upon the
Hopi Mesa peoples. Later, of course, the Hopi again reverted
to their traditional burial position of flexure.
Physical type
Considering the limited information at hand concerning
four skulls, it can be said that at least two male skeletons
had occipital deformation of the skull, a Sinagua trait
(Reed 1950s 124), and one or two were undeformed. Some tooth
decay is revealed, and the capacity of the skulls seems to
have been about 1350-1^00 cc. The skulls were markedly brachy
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