As the object of my scientific study, I've chosen coprolites. It's not a common choice, but to a paleonutritionist and archaeoparasitologist, a coprolite—a sample of ancient feces preserved by mineralization or simple drying—is a scientific bonanza.
Figure 1. What was the nature of the people who occupied much of the Colorado Plateau for two and a half millennia up until about 1300 A.D.? Commonly known by the Navajo term Anasazi, the Ancestral Pueblo were considered the "peaceful people" until they were accused of cannibalism in the 1990s. The answer is more than academic, as their descendants still occupy the southerly reaches of the Ancestral Pueblo domain. The author has studied hundreds of Ancestral Pueblo coprolites—dried or fossilized feces—and has found all but one to contain residues of a diverse mixture of plant matter, both domesticated and wild, and meat. Only one shows evidence of cannibalism. Should that single sample be used to condemn an entire culture? The human effigy shown here is from Pueblo III culture, circa 700-1100 A.D.
The Art Archive/Southwest Museum/Pasadena/Laurie Pratt Winfrey
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