Isotopic Evidence of Animal Management and Long-Distance Exchange at the Maya Site of Ceibal, Guatemala

Summary

Animal management and resource exchange are essential to the development of state-level societies. Archaeological evidence for these activities has been particularly difficult to track in the Maya area, but recent advances in isotopic research may allow a novel opportunity to observe these practices. This study reviews new evidence for animal management and long-distance exchange at the lowland site of Ceibal, Guatemala, a large Maya community occupied throughout the Preclassic and Classic periods (c. 1000 B.C. - A.D. 900). Evidence for animal diet and husbandry practices is assessed using stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes, while the presence of non-local animals at the site is evaluated using strontium, oxygen, and lead isotopic data. Lead isotopic testing has not been used to assess human or animal movements in the Maya region previously, and so this is the first such study to incorporate its use in the Maya lowlands.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Applications of Isotope Research in Zooarchaeology

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