Terminal Classic Practices Reflected in Diet and Geolocation: The B-4 Peri-abandonment Deposit at Xunantunich, Belize

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This study applies isotopic analyses of carbon (ẟ13Ccoll) and nitrogen (ẟ15Ncoll) from bone collagen, with carbon (ẟ13Cap), oxygen (ẟ18O), and strontium (87Sr/86Sr) to faunal remains excavated from a peri-abandonment deposit at the ancient Maya site of Xunantunich during the Terminal Classic period. Peri-abandonment deposits represent a distinct phenomenon in the Late-to-Terminal Classic Maya society, a time of social and environmental changes. Peri-abandonment deposits reflect a wide variety of materials: utilitarian ceramics to broken tools, animal remains, items associated with burial practices or other ritual activities, and occasionally human remains. These deposits may represent human acts of resistance to change in their social and ecological environment, reorganization of previous practices, both, or neither. While numerous studies have tried to explain the practices that created these deposits, fewer studies have used multi-isotopic methods in studying animal remains present in these deposits. The dietary results from animal remains in this study indicate no controlled feeding of animals in the B4 deposit, with the exception of one canine which likely consumed a diet similar to its human owners. Geolocation information from these animals reflects a pattern of local sourcing, suggesting expedient acquisition from around the Belize River.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33410