Author: Christina Gwyn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Anthropology
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
Mortuary patterns among the Maya are quite diverse, and have been studied for many years. The scope of what is understood about Maya burial treatment has widened with the discovery of more skeletal remains at Maya sites. Field reports as well as skeletal remains were analyzed to determine the mortuary patterns and burial practices from the Classic period burials at the Maya site of K’axob. Age was determined mostly from dental wear and tooth eruption patterns, and sex was determined based on measurements from the femurs and tibiae when intact bones were found. The aspects of burial practices that were observed included age, sex, number of interments, type of interment, burial position, ceramic complex, offerings, location, and orientation. From the analysis of the Classic period burials and the comparison to those from the Preclassic at K’axob and the Classic at a nearby site, Nohmul, the mortuary patterns and burial practices were determined to be generally consistent with those of the lowland Maya area. In the Classic period burials at K’axob, the most common interments were single, primary interments, and of these the most common burial position was extended/supine. Private interments dominated public interments and of the individuals for whom age and sex could be determined, adult males were the most common group. Evidence for ancestor veneration was also found in forms of burial placement, instances of multiple, secondary interments, as well as grave goods.
Author: Matthew Piscitelli
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Belize
Languages : en
Pages : 254
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Book Description
Author: James T. Watson
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
ISBN: 1646420136
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 310
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Book Description
Ancient Southwestern Mortuary Practices chronicles the modal patterns, diversity, and change of ancient mortuary practices from across the US Southwest and northwest Mexico over four thousand years of Prehispanic occupation. The volume summarizes new methodological approaches and theoretical issues concerning the meaning and importance of burial practices to different peoples at different times throughout the ancient Greater Southwest. Chapters focus on normative mortuary patterns, the range of variability of mortuary patterns, how the contexts of burials reflect temporal shifts in ideology, and the ways in which mortuary rituals, behaviors, and funerary treatments fulfill specific societal needs and reflect societal beliefs. Contributors analyze extensive datasets—archived and accessible on the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR)—from various subregions, structurally standardized and integrated with respect to biological and cultural data. Ancient Southwestern Mortuary Practices, together with the full datasets preserved in tDAR, is a rich resource for comparative research on mortuary ritual for indigenous descendant groups, cultural resource managers, and archaeologists and bioarchaeologists in the Greater Southwest and other regions. Contributors: Nancy J. Akins, Jessica I. Cerezo-Román, Mona C. Charles, Patricia A. Gilman, Lynne Goldstein, Alison K. Livesay, Dawn Mulhern, Ann Stodder, M. Scott Thompson, Sharon Wester, Catrina Banks Whitley
Author: Stacy Marie Drake
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 482
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Book Description
In this dissertation I address common trends in ancient Maya burials recovered through excavations of the Programme for Belize Archaeological Project (PfBAP) in northwest Belize. The scope of this research includes 123 individuals (of the approximately 150 individuals that have been recovered through PfBAP excavations) from 12 different archaeological sites and 1,200 years of prehistoric Maya society (spanning from 400 B.C. until A.D. 900). My examination combines osteological and contextual information from these human burials in a bioarchaeological analysis of Maya mortuary practices. Biological sex, age at death, grave type, body positioning, grave goods, and other characteristics are compared across three main categories represented in the data: Site Type, Time Period, and Geographic Region. Additional data comparisons included in this dissertation consider the various burial characteristics mentioned above by sex and age at death of the decedents. By collecting and compiling 25 years’ worth of PfBAP burial data, this analysis successfully identified various trends in Maya burial practices in northwest Belize, many of which present opportunities for further research in the regard for life and death among these prehistoric peoples of Central America.
Author: Andrew K. Scherer
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 1477300511
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 324
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Book Description
From the tombs of the elite to the graves of commoners, mortuary remains offer rich insights into Classic Maya society. In Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya: Rituals of Body and Soul, the anthropological archaeologist and bioarchaeologist Andrew K. Scherer explores the broad range of burial practices among the Maya of the Classic period (AD 250–900), integrating information gleaned from his own fieldwork with insights from the fields of iconography, epigraphy, and ethnography to illuminate this society’s rich funerary traditions. Scherer’s study of burials along the Usumacinta River at the Mexican-Guatemalan border and in the Central Petén region of Guatemala—areas that include Piedras Negras, El Kinel, Tecolote, El Zotz, and Yaxha—reveals commonalities and differences among royal, elite, and commoner mortuary practices. By analyzing skeletons containing dental and cranial modifications, as well as the adornments of interred bodies, Scherer probes Classic Maya conceptions of body, wellness, and the afterlife. Scherer also moves beyond the body to look at the spatial orientation of the burials and their integration into the architecture of Maya communities. Taking a unique interdisciplinary approach, the author examines how Classic Maya deathways can expand our understanding of this society’s beliefs and traditions, making Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya an important step forward in Mesoamerican archeology.
Author: Anna Novotny
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Belize
Languages : en
Pages : 531
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Book Description
This research focuses upon the intersection of social complexity and leadership among commoners in complex societies as expressed through mortuary ritual. I study how ideology, materialized through treatment of the deceased body, was a potential source of power among commoners in ancient Maya society and how this materialization changed through time. Mortuary data are drawn from mid-level settlements of the Belize River Valley, located in western Belize within the eastern Maya lowlands. The primary research question addresses whether mid-level leaders in the Belize River Valley targeted certain human bodies for ancestral veneration through tomb re-entry and ritual interaction with skeletal remains. The ritual-political strategy of mid-level leaders is measured using archaeothanatology, an analysis of grave taphonomy based on forensic data, to reconstruct cultural beliefs about death based on treatment of deceased bodies, radiogenic strontium isotope analysis to reconstruct residential history, and analysis of dental metrics to assess biological kinship. While preservation of osseous material was poor, results indicate that the frequency of disarticulated and secondary burials was higher in eastern structures than in other locales, although eastern structures were not the only loci of these types of deposits. Overall, it does not seem like secondary burials were regularly and purposefully created for use as ritual objects or display. Radiogenic strontium isotope data enrich this analysis by showing that eastern structures were not a burial locale exclusive to individuals who spent their childhood in the Belize Valley. Data from upper-level eastern structures also suggests that within that part of society local birth did not guarantee interment in a local manner; perhaps the social network created during one's life shaped treatment in death more than residential origin. Biological distance analyses were inconclusive due to missing data. Comparison of mortuary practices to nearby regions shows distinct mortuary patterning across space and time. This is consistent with reconstructions of ancient Maya sociopolitical organization as regionally diverse and moderately integrated.
Author: James L. Fitzsimmons
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 0816541523
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 261
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Book Description
Scholars have recently achieved new insights into the many ways in which the dead and the living interacted from the Late Preclassic to the Conquest in Mesoamerica. The eight essays in this useful volume were written by well-known scholars who offer cross-disciplinary and synergistic insights into the varied articulations between the dead and those who survived them. From physically opening the tomb of their ancestors and carrying out ancestral heirlooms to periodic feasts, sacrifices, and other lavish ceremonies, heirs revisited death on a regular basis. The activities attributable to the dead, moreover, range from passively defining territorial boundaries to more active exploits, such as “dancing” at weddings and “witnessing” royal accessions. The dead were—and continued to be—a vital part of everyday life in Mesoamerican cultures. This book results from a symposium organized by the editors for an annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The contributors employ historical sources, comparative art history, anthropology, and sociology, as well as archaeology and anthropology, to uncover surprising commonalities across cultures, including the manner in which the dead were politicized, the perceptions of reciprocity between the dead and the living, and the ways that the dead were used by the living to create, define, and renew social as well as family ties. In exploring larger issues of a “good death” and the transition from death to ancestry, the contributors demonstrate that across Mesoamerica death was almost never accompanied by the extinction of a persona; it was more often the beginning of a social process than a conclusion.
Author: Jill L Baker
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315418436
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 179
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Book Description
Studies of mortuary archaeology tend to focus on difference—how the researcher can identify age, gender, status, and ethnicity from the contents of a burial. Jill L. Baker’s innovative approach begins from the opposite point: how can you recognize the commonalities of a culture from the “funeral kit” that occurs in all burials, irrespective of status differences? And what do those commonalities have to say about the world view and religious beliefs of that culture? Baker begins with the Middle and Late Bronze Age tombs in the southern Levant, then expands her scope in ever widening circles to create a general model of the funeral kit of use to archaeologists in a wide variety of cultures and settings. The volume will be of equal value to specialists in Near Eastern archaeology and those who study mortuary remains in ancient cultures worldwide.
Author: Dianna Gail Bolt
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 166
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Book Description
Author: Micaela Nerio Obledo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1444
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Book Description
This dissertation presents an analysis of Preclassic period (1000 B.C. - A.D. 250) funerary attributes of three Maya sites in northern Belize, Central America: Colha, Cuello, and K'axob. The dataset is comprised of 133 interments from Colha, 131 interments from Cuello, and 98 interments from K'axob for a total of 362 Preclassic interments. Analysis has been conducted on a suite of 12 variables representative of this dataset and their interrelatedness: age, sex, artifact material type, artifact material form, cranial orientation, burial position or posture, functional designation of architecture in which an interment is placed, presence or absence of indications of burning, presence or absence of red mineral pigmentation, functional designation of artifacts, presence or absence of a cross motif, and presence or absence of a head cover (vessel covering the cranium). This research project has four main objectives: 1) provide a structured presentation of Preclassic interment data for Colha, Cuello, and K'axob, 2) present a thorough and cogent analysis of the interrelatedness of the suite of variables abovementioned, 3) document any significant trends and anomalies that are evidenced within the funerary attributes of these sites, and finally 4) to offer an interpretation of those patterns and deviations seen within the analysis as they relate to intrasite and intersite social differentiation and dynamics through the Preclassic. The analysis within this volume demonstrates that the elaboration and variation of interment attributes increase over time in Preclassic at the three sites of study. This is paralleled by a development of ritual and ceremonial architecture for public activities. Differential access to materials and forms is indicated throughout the Middle, Late and Terminal Preclassic, with the level of disparity between the apparent elite and non-elite increasing over time. Adult males are generally accompanied by higher numbers and a greater variety of goods than are females and subadults. This indicates a power and/or status differential between the two sexes and age groups, with male adults being the most highly esteemed individuals within the social stratification system. This study demonstrates the dynamic and multifaceted material representations with which Preclassic Maya of Northern Belize expressed their identity in death.
