Diet, Migration and Social Changes: The Preclassic Burials of Ceibal

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Preclassic Maya Social Transformations along the Usumacinta: Views from Ceibal and Aguada Fénix" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Ceibal-Petexbatun Archaeological Project uncovered 43 burials with a minimum number of 58 individuals that date from the Middle Preclassic to the Protoclassic period (ca. 700 BC-AD 200). These remains have the potential to provide valuable insight into the processes of political centralization and social inequalities in the Maya lowlands. By analyzing stable isotopes contained in ancient human remains, two specific questions will be explored: 1) How were social inequality and political centralization reflected in dietary practice? 2) How were changes in social inequality and political centralization associated with migrants and external relations during the Preclassic period? To address these questions, this presentation will discuss the preliminary results of a multi-isotopic analysis made on 43 burials from Ceibal. Carbon and nitrogen isotopic data will be used to examine whether changes in social inequality and political centralization were accompanied by those in the diet during the Preclassic period. Oxygen, strontium, and lead data will be analyzed to test whether Ceibal attracted more migrants or there were more hostile external relations during the periods of growing political centralization and social inequality.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Preclassic Maya Social Transformations along the Usumacinta: Views from Ceibal and Aguada Fénix

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25119