Physical anthropologist Christy Turner first came to MNA in 1955 as a summer assistant in photography from the University of Arizona. His fiance, Jacqueline A. Turner, a University of Arizona geology student, also worked at MNA that summer. Christy’s interests included ceramics and physical anthropology and during the summer of 1957, he gave a seminar on the growth of the human foetal skeleton. After their marriage, Christy and Jackie again worked for MNA during the summers on the Glen Canyon Project in 1958, 1959, and 1960.
He was listed as an MNA Associate during the 1960s as he and Jackie continued to spend their summers at MNA. By 1970, he was an MNA Research Associate with the title of Dr. Christy Turner, having received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Christy and Jackie were frequent visitors to MNA during most summers through the mid-1990s, scheduling visits around their international travel while they did ground-breaking studies on the human skeleton. Jackie died in 1996. In 1999, their seminal work was published as Man Corn: Cannibalism and Violence in the Prehistoric Southwest. Christy is a Regent’s Professor at Arizona State University.
Adams, William Y., Alexander J. Lindsay, Jr., and Christy G. Turner II. Survey and excavations in Lower Glen Canyon, 1954-1958. Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin 36, 1961.
Turner, Christy G. II. “A human skeleton from the Cohonina culture area.” Plateau, vol. 31, no. 1, 1958.
—. “Mystery Canyon Survey, San Juan Co., Utah, 1959.” Plateau, vol. 32, no. 4, 1960.
—. Petrographs of the Glen Canyon region: styles, chronology, distribution, and relationships from Basketmaker to Navajo. Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin 38, 1963.
—. “Physical anthropology of Curtain Cliff Site.” Plateau, vol. 33, no. 1, 1960.
Turner, Christy G. II and Maurice E. Cooley. “Prehistoric use of stone from the Glen Canyon Region.” Plateau, vol. 33, no. 2, 1960