Tracing mortuary trends at Cahal Pech using Stable Isotope data

Summary

Recent research focusing on environmental change in the Belize River Valley during the Classic period provides clear evidence for deteriorating conditions during the Late Classic period. These findings help explain shifts in socio-political and religious systems, as well as fluctuations in population distributions of the Late Classic and Terminal Classic Maya. Some archaeological research suggests complete abandonment of ceremonial sites occupied by the Maya elite. Mortuary practices can be used to identify changes in the socio-political and religious systems of the living population, and this paper employs archaeological and biological data from burials at Cahal Pech, a medium sized ceremonial site in San Ignacio, Belize. Specifically, stable isotope values from bone and teeth will identify geographic origin and diet/status of burials from the Late Preclassic to Terminal Classic periods, including intrusive burials that occurred after central ceremonial structures were abandoned. Integrated with other biological data and burial context, these data will be employed yo discern whether Cahal Pech was occupied during the Terminal Classic, albeit by a much smaller population, or was used primarily as a ceremonial burial site during this time.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Exploring Two Thousand Years of Human Habitation in the Belize Valley: Situating Cahal Pech in Lowland Maya Prehistory

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