Integrating cross-collections research and archival study: new insights on macaws and parrots from Chaco Canyon, NM

North American archaeology is increasingly embracing the study of existing museum collections to fulfill longstanding ethical obligations to document curated materials and to avoid unnecessary excavation of archaeological sites. Working with collections from historic excavations in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, this article confronts some of the challenges of collections-based research and demonstrates the benefits of overcoming them. Chaco was the center of a regional network that developed in the northern U.S. Southwest between AD 800 and 1150. Frequently referenced is the presence of nonlocal macaws and parrots, brought in and raised within the canyon. The foundation of our understanding of these birds, however, remains shaky. The research presented here integrates a zooarchaeological reanalysis with legacy data and archival documentation from more than 130 years of archaeological exploration. It provides a revised number of individuals, diachronic and spatial perspectives on deposition, evidence for the practice of curation, and insight into the care that birds were afforded. The construction of osteobiographies refocuses attention on these birds as living beings rather than as objects leveraged in trade and social status. Though often complex and time-consuming, working across multiple collections—both artifactual and archival—has the potential to provide new insights from “old” data.