Isotopic Proveniencing at Altar de Sacrificios

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Repositioning Altar de Sacrificios on the Ancient Maya Landscape" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Isotopic proveniencing has become an everyday practice in bioarchaeological studies. Strontium isotopes have been the most widely used in this field since the 1990s, revealing essential aspects of the ancient societies of Mesoamerica. However, some recent studies have indicated that several areas of Mesoamerica share their local ranges of the baseline data, which limits our interpretations of the migratory dynamics of pre-Hispanic habitants. In this presentation, we introduce our preliminary results of strontium isotope measurements of 22 individuals from the Altar de Sacrificios. We will discuss who may be non-local and, if non-local, from where they may have come to the site. Offering several alternatives for possible origins, we demonstrate interpretive limitations of the isolated use of strontium isotopes and explore new methodologies for isotopic measurements of other elements.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Repositioning Altar de Sacrificios on the Ancient Maya Landscape   •
• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50205