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

20The Copan Ritual Caves Project launched a study in 1991 designed to reassessthe chronology and utilization of Gordon’s Cave #3. Further excavations and areanalysis of the ceramic material revealed that the cave’s most intense use occurredduring the Classic period (Brady 1995). This ceramic analysis also disproved the“supposed hiatus in cave use between the Middle Preclassic and Late Classic” (Brady1995:34). An excavation in the first chamber uncovered six burials. This indicates thatthe cave’s role as an ossuary was not limited to the third chamber (Brady 1995:36).Furthermore, Brady (1995) interprets the uncremated remains of several children sixyears and younger as possible offerings for the cremated adults deposited in this thirdchamber. The palynological, skeletal, and artifactual evidence from Cave #3 point to astyle of ritual cave use similar to one utilized in the Guatemalan highlands (Brady 1995).Barton Creek CaveBarton Creek Cave site consists of a large river cave and a group of 15 residentialmounds located in near Barton Creek in the Cayo District, Belize. Investigations of thesite were concentrated on the cave itself. Within the first 450 m of the cave, most of thecultural material was concentrated on ten ledges above the underground river (Owen2002:64). Six of these ledges contained human remains, whereby a minimum number of31 individuals were estimated from the skeletal sample deposited on these ledges.Ceramic and non-ceramic artifacts were also found with the skeletal remains; however,there is no evidence to suggest that these represent grave goods per se (Owen 2002).Several lines of evidence suggest that the individuals represented in the skeletal samplewere sacrificial victims, not individuals interred in the cave for purposes of continued