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

58Cueva de El DuendeOne hundred forty five identifiable skeletal elements were excavated from Cuevade El Duende (CD). This figure represents the sample on loan from Guatemala as wellas the material reported in Wright’s unpublished notes (1994). Figure 8 is a graphicalbreak down of the seventy-five bones represented in the sample I examined; theadditional material is not included in the NISP histogram. The most abundant skeletalelements were rib fragments, accounting for more than half of the entire sample (51percent). One complete rib and two rib head fragments account for at least three ribs.The other rib fragments do not suggest that 35 separate ribs are represented in thissample, insomuch as that several rib fragments may constitute the same rib(s), whichmay, in turn, belong to the same individual. Vertebral fragments and phalanges of thehand were also common skeletal elements found throughout the cave, each accountingfor eight percent of the sample. Portions of long bones and cranial material were alsopresent, but in relatively smaller quantities. The additional material not examined in thisstudy consisted largely of smaller elements, i.e. rib and vertebral fragments, and bones ofthe hands and feet (see Appendix I).Four operations were conducted in Cueva de El Duende, whereby artifactual andhuman skeletal material was excavated and collected. The first operation (CD1)consisted of excavations at the cave entrance and just beyond this entrance. Cranial andpost-cranial material representative of an adult and subadult was recovered from thisoperation. A fragmentary right mandible with intact permanent teeth and an uneruptedthird molar is good evidence of a child at least 12 years of age (Ubelaker 1978). Other