Archaeological Evidence for the Use of Maize in Cave Ritual

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Defining Perishables: The How, What, and Why of Perishables and Their Importance in Understanding the Past" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Variations in the deposition of maize remains have been noted in different Maya caves. These vary from the discovery of small immature cobbs, 3 to 5 cm in length, which appear to represent first fruit rituals to large deposits of mature cobbs in ritual contexts that appear to have been burned at a high enough temperature to have fused the silicates within the kernels and cobbs into a large mass. Recent radiocarbon dating provides chronological framework for the latter ritual.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Defining Perishables: The How, What, and Why of Perishables and Their Importance in Understanding the Past   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36922.0