Delving deep: A skeletal analysis of a Maya ritual site from the Cueva de Sangre, Dos Pilas, Guatemala

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Black as Night, Dark as Death: Bioarchaeology of the Mesoamerican Subterranean" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Deposition of human remains within subterranean spaces held a special cultural significance across Mesoamerica because of the importance of the sacred, animate Earth in Amerindian indigenous cosmology. The skeletal assemblage from Cueva de Sangre near Dos Pilas, Petén, Guatemala is one such example. Though recovered during the Petexbatun Regional Cave Survey in the early 1990s, this assemblage has not been well studied until recent years. Here we present the skeletal analysis of one deposit at this site, CS9-03-1. The site was largely utilized during the Maya Late Classic Period (A.D. 600 - 900). The site is located within a low cave that contains part of an interconnected riverine system which periodically floods. The skeletal elements discovered at the site CS9-03-1 include more than 100 adult and juvenile human bone fragments (54 identifiable, 50 unidentifiable). The identifiable fragments were largely adult and cranial, though notably the viscerocranium was nearly completely absent from the assemblage including bones more likely to survive like the mandible. Several elements show evidence of perimortem sharp force trauma, blunt force trauma, and postmortem modification. The types of skeletal elements present, trauma, arrangement of bones, and bone modifications strongly support the sacrificial nature of the deposition.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Black as Night, Dark as Death: Bioarchaeology of the Mesoamerican Subterranean

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51292