Connecting Dead, Living, and Supernatural through Plants: Botanical Mortuary Offerings at Monte Albán

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Checking the Pulse: Current Research in Oaxaca Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper examines the plants used as mortuary offerings at the Zapotec city of Monte Albán (500 BCE–900 CE). After their passing, the deceased became Ancestors able to offer protection to their descendants. I explore the possibility that food (specifically plants) might have helped to provide and strengthen a bridge between the living and the deceased. To determine the presence of plants used as mortuary offerings, I examined starch grains and phytoliths recovered from artifacts and sediment samples collected during the PEMA project (1992–1994). In this paper, I compare the use of plants placed in formal tombs to those deposited in simple graves. People buried in tombs are understood to be leaders of households, while people interred in graves were of a lesser social status. In addition to examining if there was a differential access to resources used as offerings based on the social standing of the deceased, I also compare the use of plants in mortuary contexts throughout the occupation of the site. This way, I examine the strong connection between the use of plants as mortuary offerings and the larger social, economic, religious, and political phenomena affecting the daily lives of the inhabitants of Monte Albán.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Checking the Pulse: Current Research in Oaxaca Part I   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35651.0