HUMAN SKELETAL REMAINS OF THE ANCIENT MAYA IN THE ...

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1CHAPTER I<strong>IN</strong>TRODUCTIONCaves have been used as functional spaces for hundreds of thousands of years.The archaeological record illustrates that caves provided shelter to our earliest ancestors.Other lines of evidence have demonstrated that caves served a purpose beyond that ofprotection and shelter against the elements. The cultural role of the cave as sacred spacehas manifested itself on a global scale. The ancient Maya were a people that assignedsacred and ritual significance to the subterranean world. Over the decades,archaeological efforts have procured an abundance of artifactual and skeletal materialfrom numerous caves in the Maya area. This intentional deposition of material clearlyillustrates the importance of the cave in the Maya worldview. Ceramic found in thesecaves provide evidence for early use, dating to the Late Preclassic (300 BC-AD 250) andextending into the Early and Late Classic periods (AD 250-900) (Coe 1999).This thesis will focus on the role of caves in the Maya world, and specifically thetreatment and disposal of human remains in caves. The main objective of thisinvestigation is to illustrate the sacred significance of these caves through a quantitativeanalysis of one of the largest collections of human skeletal material procured from anysystem of caves in the Maya area. A large proportion of the skeletal sample wasrecovered from five caves associated with the Maya site of Dos Pilas in Guatemala(Figure 1). Skeletal remains were also collected from a sixth cave located underneath____________This thesis follows the style and format of the American Journal of PhysicalAnthropology.
2Fig. 1. Map of the Petexbatun region in Guatemala. The sites of Dos Pilas and LasPacayas are associated with several caves (After Wright 1994:Figure 3.1).the site of Las Pacayas 12.5 km southeast of Dos Pilas. Information on the taphonomicconditions of the cave, the age and sex distributions of the sample, as well as thecalculation of the relative skeletal element frequencies and estimates of the minimumand probable number of individuals for each cave will be used to interpret who theseindividuals were, and how their remains came to be deposited in these caves.The data collected from this skeletal analysis will be used to evaluate thefollowing hypothesis: the caves associated with Dos Pilas do not represent simple bone
Page 1 and 2: HUMAN SKELETAL REMAINS OF THE ANCIE
Page 3 and 4: iiiABSTRACTHuman Skeletal Remains o
Page 5 and 6: vACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThis research was
Page 7 and 8: viiCHAPTERPageIV SITE DESCRIPTIONS
Page 9 and 10: ixLIST OF FIGURESFIGUREPage1 Map of
Page 11: xiLIST OF TABLESTABLEPage1 Caves of
Page 15 and 16: 4prove or disprove my hypothesis. T
Page 19 and 20: 8Caves are also known to share an o
Page 21 and 22: 10Artifactual materialThe artifacts
Page 23 and 24: 12activities, which included bloodl
Page 25 and 26: 14represented. A ceramic analysis r
Page 27 and 28: 16based on the identification of th
Page 29 and 30: 18when a structure is placed over o
Page 31 and 32: 20The Copan Ritual Caves Project la
Page 33 and 34: 22sacrificial victims. The identifi
Page 35 and 36: 24CHAPTER IIIMATERIALS AND METHODSS
Page 37 and 38: 26InventoryMy analysis began with a
Page 39 and 40: 28responsible. A precise methodolog
Page 41 and 42: 30After rounding up to the highest
Page 43 and 44: 32and subadults are differentiated
Page 45 and 46: 34demonstrate the practice of inter
Page 47 and 48: 36Implements such stone tools may h
Page 49 and 50: 38of the young woman involved the r
Page 51 and 52: 40Fig. 3. Caves of the Petexbatun.
Page 53 and 54: 42I) consisted of an excavation in
Page 55 and 56: 44Cueva de Río El DuendeCueva de R
Page 57 and 58: 46excavation uncovered evidence of
Page 59 and 60: 48Fig. 6. Complete map of Cueva de
Page 61 and 62: 50these remains were recovered by m
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52Dos Pilas as a dominant polity in
Page 65 and 66:
54Fig. 7. Map of Cueva de Los Quetz
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56CHAPTER VNISP AND MNI - AN ANALYS
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58Cueva de El DuendeOne hundred for
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60feet were the most common skeleta
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62estimates indicate that Cueva de
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64skeletal elementpedal phalangemet
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66TABLE 4. MNI for Cueva de Río El
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68five rooms in Operation CNP2. Roo
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70CNP2-24-1CNP2-26-1CNP2-27-1CNP2-2
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72modification was one of the more
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74result from a small sample size,
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76material examined in this study,
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78TABLE 7. MNI for Cueva de Sangre.
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80MNI considered material from 41 l
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82CS9-06-1CS11-03-2CS11-03-3CS11-03
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84Three hundred and fifty meters of
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8626 individuals (Table 9). I ident
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88calculated an MNI at the level of
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90TABLE 11. MNI for Cueva de Los Qu
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92the operation and the cave seem m
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94between these two types of activi
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96represent the sample with evidenc
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98The second group consists of eigh
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100One of the deeper cut marks was
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102CNP2-07-1/18A complete left femo
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104occur throughout the bone. The f
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106The identification of human-made
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108harsh effects of the active envi
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110did not affect this particular b
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112TABLE 12. NISPs, MNIs, and PNIs
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114processed for secondary burial (
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116in mind that this and the many o
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118an adult male recovered from an
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120Cueva de Los QuetzalesThe skelet
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122some doubt. These assessments ba
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124CHAPTER VIIICONCLUSIONSThe infor
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126LITERATURE CITEDAnderson AH. 196
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128Brady JE, Rodas I. 1995. Maya Ri
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130Johnston FE. 1962. Growth of the
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132Pohl M, Pohl J. 1983. Ancient Ma
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134Pre-Columbian Archaeology. Oxfor
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APPENDIX IINVENTORY FOR CUEVA DE EL
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CD2-01-8B pelvis R complete ischium
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APPENDIX IIINVENTORY FOR CUEVA DE R
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CNP2-07-1/10 femur L prox.1/2 shaft
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CNP2-12-1/13 humerus R dist.1/2 sha
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CNP2-20-1/11 femur L nearly complet
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CNP2-26-1/1 long bone ? 4+ fragsCNP
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CNP2-28-1/35 mandible L no teeth &
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APPENDIX IIIINVENTORY FOR CUEVA DE
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CRM4-03-1/1 tibia R shaft frag, cor
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CS1-77-2/3 sacrum A anterior aspect
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CS2-11-1/2 radius R complete shaft,
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CS5-07-1/11 frags ? 7 fragsCS5-07-1
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CS9-02-1 B7 tibia L prox.2/3 shaft,
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CS9-04-1/3 tibia R prox.1/2 shaft,
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CS9-06-1/14 femur L complete shaft,
Page 179 and 180:
CS11-05-1/3 long bone ? 15 fragsCS1
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CS11-05-1 grp.B/1 vertebra A centru
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CKP2-03-1/10 femur L complete shaft
Page 185 and 186:
CKP2-04-1/3 femur L dist.1/2 shaft,
Page 187 and 188:
CKP9-06-1 tibia R CKP 62-63; prox.1
Page 189 and 190:
CQ1-10-11 upper I2 R root is formin
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