Isotopic Studies of Human Skeletal Remains from a Sixteenth to Seventeenth Century AD Churchyard in Campeche, Mexico

Abstract

In AD 2000, construction activities in the central plaza of the city of Campeche, Mexico, led to the discovery of an early colonial church and an associated burial ground dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries AD. During the subsequent rescue excavations, the remains of at least 180 individuals were unearthed from the churchyard. We have concluded a series of isotopic studies of these remains to obtain information on diet, status, place of origin, and date of burial. This work involves the application of both light and heavy isotope analyses to both tooth enamel and human bone. Carbon and oxygen isotope ratios were measured in tooth enamel and bone. Carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios were measured on bone collagen. Strontium and lead isotopes were measured in tooth enamel, and the ratios were compared to a large database for the Maya region. Radiocarbon dates were obtained for 10 of the skeletons to evaluate the date of burial and the period of use of the cemetery. The results of our study, interpreted jointly with mortuary information and conventional skeletal examination, provide detailed information on the overall burial population, a sort of collective life history of the deceased individuals. In the context of the historical background, new insights on living conditions, mobility, and diet of the founding generations in the colonial New World are obtained. A new and direct appreciation on life and death in an early multiethnic colonial Spanish town, including its historically invisible sectors-children, women, servants, and slaves-becomes possible.In the study described here, we examine the isotopic composition of bone and tooth enamel from a number of the individuals buried in an early colonial cemetery in the modern city of Campeche, on the west coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. We are interested in questions about diet, status, place of birth, and date of burial. We employ isotopes of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, lead, and strontium in this study. Carbon isotopes in bone collagen, bone mineral, and tooth mineral have been measured in some of the skeletal remains. We have also measured radiocarbon isotopes in bone collagen for age determinations. Oxygen isotopes have been measured in bone mineral and tooth enamel. Nitrogen isotopes have been measured in bone collagen. Strontium and lead isotope ratios have been assayed in tooth enamel and strontium isotopes in bone mineral. Lead isotope ratios have been measured in a few enamel samples. The isotopic results are examined in light of the contextual evidence of discovery and the biological and biocultural information provided by the analyses of the human remains.The first sections of this article provide some historical background on the early town of Campeche and the early church that was the focus of religious ceremony and sacred burial. A description of the excavations provides the archaeological and taphonomic context of the human burials in the Campeche plaza cemetery. These and conventional bioarchaeological studies provide the basic a...

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