Abstract
While researchers of the pre-Columbian Maya have recognized that considerable variability characterizes treatment of dead bodies, few have scrutinized the practice of body partibility. The materiality of this practice indicates the ways in which social identities become transposed and then sedimented over generations. As one particularly cogent example, I examine a royal tomb from Dos Hombres, a ceremonial center located in northwestern Belize. The burial is also compared to other royal tombs in the region. While cultural continuities are identifiable, the Dos Hombres tomb is unique given its combination of attributes, namely the residential context into which it was entombed, its associated architecture, the approximately 20,000 obsidian flakes placed atop it, and the two decedents contained within—one of whom exhibited intentional body partibility. To make sense of this complicated burial, I take my cue from scholars who attend to mortuary processes that are materially subtle and often extended. Doing so facilitates distinction between myriad meanings encoded in corporeal manipulations.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
The Three Rivers region is an arbitrarily defined study area in northwestern Belize and northeastern Guatemala (Adams 1995). From 1992 to 2002, excavators unearthed 130 individuals in association with rural house ruins, minor centers, and major centers in the region’s Belizean sector (Geller 2004). This work was conducted under the aegis of three different projects—La Milpa Archaeological Project (LaMAP) codirected by Norman Hammond and Gair Tourtellot, Programme for Belize Archaeological Project (PfBAP) directed by Fred Valdez, and Chan Chich Archaeological Project (CCAP) directed by Brett Houk. All three projects followed excavation guidelines established by Saul and Saul.
- 3.
- 4.
Duday finds archaeothanatology preferable to l’anthropologie de terrain, an expression he used in publications prior to 2005 but now find semantically inadequate (2009, p. 3).
- 5.
My inferences about Courtyard B-4 and its associated burials are based on Durst’s original documents. These materials, which have been in my custody since 2003, include burial forms, skeletal analysis reports from Saul and Saul, lot forms, maps, and drawings of burials. The PfBAP possesses copies of all materials.
- 6.
Excavators also encountered four Late Classic decedents in association with Structure B-12 (Individuals 67, 68, 69, and 70). Of note were the remains of Individuals 67, 68, and 69, clustered together and sandwiched between two floors. While excavators did not recover grave goods, their burial offered a wealth of information. Based on in situ observations, the body of Individual 67, a 30–40-year old of indeterminate sex, appeared flexed and on its right side with head west and hips east. The cranium of Individual 68, also of indeterminate sex but 20–30 years old, had been situated in the torso area of Individual 67. In contrast, Individual 68’s body had been flexed and laid on its left side with the head south and hips north. These decedents’ crossed bodies may have metaphorically replicated a quincunx, an arrangement that also appears in residential groups at Tikal (Chase and Chase 2004, p. 222). According to Foster (2002, p. 160), “The conceptualization of horizontal space as a quincunx—a quadripartite world plus its center—was a fundamental theme in Maya cosmology.” The infant’s body position was indeterminate as a consequence of preservation. Excavators did recover deciduous teeth in the area of Individual 67’s cranium. Developmental age indicates that this individual had been 2–4 years old. Decedents’ proximity and the absence of a discernible grave cut suggest generational concurrence and familial relations. The burial’s stratigraphic level also appears to line up with that of Individual 61’s grave in Structure B-16, which suggests that all decedents were contemporaries. Similar to Individual 61, the interment(s) of Individuals 67, 68, and 69 may have supplied the impetus for Structure B-12’s renovation.
- 7.
During excavation and skeletal analysis, Individual 61 had been identified as three distinct individuals. My subsequent reassessment of documentation determined that all human remains were located at the same elevation (178 cmbd). And while the burial was scattered throughout four adjacent sub-operations, all of which measured 2 m × 2 m, it was within a constrained space. The human remains were poorly preserved; a circle of darker soil indicated their location. The elements present, especially the teeth, point to a MNI of one.
- 8.
The bench measured about 15Â cm in height.
- 9.
The pit was about 55Â cm deep and measured 158Â cm N-S and 148Â cm E-W.
- 10.
According to Welsh, a tomb’s “height is sufficient for a human to stand, i.e. ca. 135 cms. or more” (1988, p. 18). Although such is not the case at Dos Hombres, the architectural complexity, unusual construction fill, and abundant grave goods of the burial in question offer strong evidence for a typological designation of tomb and not crypt.
- 11.
Individuals 65’s and 132’s human remains were exported to Toledo, Ohio where Saul and Saul conducted skeletal analysis.
- 12.
In his analysis of tombs from RĂo Azul, Guatemala, Grant Hall (1989) makes a similar argument.
- 13.
There are numerous examples of Tikal Dancer plates in Justin Kerr’s photographic Maya vase database. These include K97, K1271, K2360, K5076, K5358, K5375, K5379, K5528, K5875, K5880, K5881, K6079, and K8593. The proveniences of all vessels, however, are unknown.
- 14.
The mythological scene on this codex-style vessel depicts the resurrection of the Maize God from the cracked carapace of a turtle. The Hero Twins flank the carapace. In Kerr’s Maya Vase Database (1998), this vessel is numbered K1892.
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Acknowledgments
This chapter is based on doctoral research, which was undertaken as a member of the collaborative Programme for Belize Archaeological Project (PfBAP). My gratitude to Fred Valdez, Jr., PfBAP director, for permission to draw on project data. Thank you also to Jeffrey Durst and his team for excavating the Dos Hombres tomb in summer 1997, as well as Frank and Julie Saul for their skeletal analysis and instruction on methodological standards. Follow-up research and writing was conducted at the Library of Congress’ John W. Kluge Center as the 2006–2007 Kislak Fellow in American Studies, where then-Kislak curator Arthur Dunkelman was very helpful. Justin Kerr has also graciously provided images of Kislak vessels and made the Maya Vase Database accessible on FAMSI’s website. Thank you also to Gabriel D. Wrobel and Arlen Chase for providing thoughtful feedback during the revision process.
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Geller, P. (2014). Sedimenting Social Identity: The Practice of Pre-Columbian Maya Body Partibility. In: Wrobel, G. (eds) The Bioarchaeology of Space and Place. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0479-2_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0479-2_2
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