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

27sex assessments difficult for a large proportion of the sample. However, I was able toassign a probable sex for a number of skeletal elements based on skeletal landmarksdiscussed by Steele and Bramblett (1988), i.e. greater sciatic notch of the pelvis, gonialangle and overall robustness of the mandible, etc. I also used metric dimensions toassess the sex of adult skeletal elements, whenever possible. I based age estimates onseveral skeletal characteristics: overall bone size, epiphyseal fusion in long bones, tootheruption, and cranial suture closure (Bass 1995, Johnston 1962, McKern and Stewart1957, Ubelaker 1978). Good preservation of the skeletal material was crucial in accurateage and sex estimates.The entire skeletal sample represents both adults and subadults. A “subadult” isa general categorical term that includes infants (0-2 years), young children (3-5 years),older children (6-12 years), and adolescents (13-24 years) (Steele and Bramblett 1988).For this particular collection, most of the smaller skeletal elements were categorized assubadults because these bones could not be placed in a specific age group. However,evidence of epiphyseal fusion, dental eruption, and cranial suture closure wasdocumented in the inventory of the skeletal sample, and used in the age estimation of afew children and adolescents. Several adult males and females were also identified fromthe deposits of skeletal material. The demographic information gleaned from this largeskeletal sample is especially important in the interpretation of who and why theseindividuals were being deposited in these caves.The estimation of the minimum number of individuals for each cave deposit isimperative in an accurate interpretation of the possible depositional activities