Bioarchaeological Analysis of Preclassic Human Remains Recovered from a Lime Kiln, El Mirador, Guatemala

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Recent Multidisciplinary Investigations in the Mirador Basin, Guatemala" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper presents the preliminary findings pertaining to the exhumation and bioarchaeological examination of a collection of Preclassic period human remains recovered from a lime kiln in El Mirador Basin, Guatemala. The disarticulated and fragmented skeletal remains of nine individuals were compressed into a roughly 10 cm layer that was atop a sterile bed of ash and buried beneath a pile of limestone. Both males and females ranging in age from a subadult to older adults were included in the kiln. While bone preservation was better than that that characterizes most Basin sites, postmortem weathering and erosion damaged most joint surfaces and precluded the full assessment of pathology and trauma. The analysis was in large part limited to cranial fragments, dental remains, and long bone diaphyses. The evidence indicates that the remains were deposited into the kiln while fleshed and thermal alterations of the elements suggests that the kiln or accompanying rocks were hot. The articulation of body segments but the absence of discrete patterns of individual interments suggest perimortem disarticulation. This is supported by the presence of perimortem fractures.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Recent Multidisciplinary Investigations in the Mirador Basin, Guatemala

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33517