Extra-masticatory Dental Wear: Subconscious Embodiment in a Late Classic Maya Sacrificial Assemblage from Midnight Terror Cave, Belize

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Subterranean in MesoAmerican Sacred Landscapes: A Multidisciplinary Assessment" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Marineh Mousalu, Chin-hsin Liu, Michele M. Bleuze, James E. Brady

California State University, Los Angeles conducted archaeological surveys of Midnight Terror Cave (MTC), Belize between 2008 and 2010 as part of the Western Belize Regional Cave Project directed by Dr. Jaime Awe. The extensively modified spaces within the cave signify an elite ritual context. Over 10,000 human skeletal elements and teeth were surface collected from the cave floor. Osteological evidence and disposal context are consistent with sacrifice. A central concern is the identity of the individuals selected for such a ritually significant event. The body can be viewed as the subject of culture and the embodiment of one’s identity can be reconstructed from modifications to the body. The extra-masticatory use of teeth results in unique dental wear patterns that, when contextualized within a sociocultural backdrop, can be used to cautiously reconstruct habitual activities. Extra-masticatory incisal grooves are frequently linked to the regular use of the anterior teeth for working materials. This paper presents an analysis of extra-masticatory incisal grooves identified in the MTC dental assemblage and draws upon cultural and artifactual data from across Mesoamerica to aid in its interpretation, thus ultimately broadening our understanding of the site’s sacrificial identities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• The Subterranean in MesoAmerican Sacred Landscapes: A Multidisciplinary Assessment

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50967