Social identity and geographic origin of Maya burials at Actun Uayazba Kab, Roaring Creek Valley, Belize

Wrobel, Gabriel D.; Freiwald, Carolyn; Michael, Amy; Helmke, Christophe; Awe, Jaime J.; Kennett, Douglas J.; Gibbs, Sherry; Ferguson, Josalyn M.; Griffith, Cameron

doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2016.11.004

Cited by 20 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 46 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Similar values also exist in small burial samples to the west (Palenque) and distant south (Honduras; Price et al 2008; Wells et al 2014). In-migration from the east is the most likely origin for the young woman in Burial 20A, whose value ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr = 0.714864) is similar to those uniquely identified near the foothills of the Maya Mountains and Mountain Pine Ridge (Freiwald 2011, 2020b; Wrobel et al 2017). Historical connections to the region also support an eastern origin for Burial 18.…”

Section: Interpreting Isotopic Migrationsupporting

confidence: 55%

Early Colonialism and Population Movement at the Mission San Bernabé, Guatemala

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Colonialism came late to northern Guatemala. The Spanish began to establish missions in the Peten Lakes region in the early 1700s, nearly 200 years after initial contact with the Mayas. Excavations in 2011–2012 at the Mission San Bernabé revealed European goods, nonnative animal species, and burial patterns that marked a new lifestyle. Who lived at the Mission San Bernabé, and where did they come from? The Spanish resettled indigenous populations to facilitate the colonization process; however, isotopic data are inconsistent with large population movements. Instead, strontium and oxygen isotope values in the tooth enamel and bones of individuals buried at the mission suggest a mostly local population. The data suggest in-migration from Belize, a region under nominal Spanish control, but with pre-Hispanic ties to the Peten. Changes did not come from migrants crossing a border; instead, the border itself moved and brought the colonial world to the Peten Mayas.

show abstract

Section: Interpreting Isotopic Migrationsupporting

confidence: 55%

Early Colonialism and Population Movement at the Mission San Bernabé, Guatemala

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…migration, diaspora, and mobility within the region [44]. Researchers have used radiogenic strontium isotopes to reconstruct ancient migration patterns [12,17,41,[45][46][47][48][49][50], the geographic origins of sacrificial victims [13,51], and past animal trade and management networks [52,53], as well as long distance material culture trade networks [54] and historic diasporas [55,56].…”

Section: Strontium Isotopes and Paleomobility Across Mesoamericamentioning

confidence: 99%

Expanding radiogenic strontium isotope baseline data for central Mexican paleomobility studies

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Radiogenic strontium isotopes (87 Sr/ 86 Sr) have long been used in analyses of paleomobility within Mesoamerica. While considerable effort has been expended developing 87 Sr/ 86 Sr baseline values across the Maya region, work in central Mexico is primarily focused on the Classic period urban center of Teotihuacan. This study adds to this important dataset by presenting bioavailable 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values across central Mexico focusing on the Basin of Mexico. This study therefore serves to expand the utility of strontium isotopes across a wider geographic region. A total of 63 plant and water samples were collected from 13 central Mexican sites and analyzed for 87 Sr/ 86 Sr on a Thermo-Finnigan Neptune multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (MC-ICP-MS). These data were analyzed alongside 16 published 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values from two additional sites within the region of interest. A five-cluster k-means model was then generated to determine which regions of the Basin of Mexico and greater central Mexico can and cannot be distinguished isotopically using 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values. Although the two clusters falling within the Basin of Mexico overlap in their local 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ranges, many locations within the Basin are distinguishable using 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values at the site-level. This study contributes to paleomobility studies within central Mexico by expanding knowledge of strontium isotope variability within the region, ultimately allowing researchers to detect intra-regional residential mobility and gain a greater understanding of the sociopolitical interactions between the Basin of Mexico and supporting outlying regions of central Mexico.

show abstract

“…The lowest 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values in Mesoamerica, in the range of 0.703–0.704, come from the Quaternary volcanics of basaltic composition in the Tuxtla Mountains of Veracruz. The highest ratios in Mesoamerica are those of the Maya Mountains in southeastern Belize and elsewhere in the metamorphic highlands where there are small pockets of relatively ancient rocks in the range of 0.711–0.712 (Freiwald, ; Hodell et al, ; Thornton, , ; Wrobel et al, ).…”

Section: Isotopic Proveniencingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Place of origin of the sacrificial victims in the sacred Cenote, Chichén Itzá, Mexico

Price

Tiesler

Freiwald

2019

American J Phys Anthropol

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objectives: The ancient city of Chichén Itzá in the northern Yucatán of Mexico was one of the most important in the Maya area, but its origins and history are poorly understood. A major question concerns the origins of the peoples who founded and later expanded the ancient city. Hundreds of people were ritually executed and their bodies thrown into the waters of the Sacred Cenote at Chichén. Materials and methods: In this study, we use strontium and oxygen isotopes to study the place of origin of a large sample of these individuals. Isotopes are deposited in human tooth enamel. Enamel forms during the first years of life, remains largely unchanged long past death, and can provide a signature of the place of birth. If the isotope ratios in enamel are different from the place of death, the individual must have moved during his/her lifetime. Results: Comparison of our results from the cenote with information on isotope ratios across the Maya region and elsewhere suggests that the individuals in the cenote came from a number of different parts of Mexico and possibly beyond. Discussion: It is not known if all of the sacrificial victims resided in Chichén Itzá, but their suggested origins likely reflect patterns of population movement and social networks that existed between Chichén Itzá and both neighboring and distant regions.

show abstract

Social identity and geographic origin of Maya burials at Actun Uayazba Kab, Roaring Creek Valley, Belize

Cited by 20 publications

References 46 publications

Early Colonialism and Population Movement at the Mission San Bernabé, Guatemala

Early Colonialism and Population Movement at the Mission San Bernabé, Guatemala

Expanding radiogenic strontium isotope baseline data for central Mexican paleomobility studies

Place of origin of the sacrificial victims in the sacred Cenote, Chichén Itzá, Mexico

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About