Two Trophy Skulls from Pacbitun, Belize

Wrobel, Gabriel D.; Helmke, Christophe; Gibbs, Sherry; Micheletti, George; Stanchly, Norbert; Powis, Terry G.

doi:10.1017/laq.2019.1

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…It seems probable that research on Maya warfare will maintain a vigorous pace for years to come, as attested by the wealth of volumes and articles published on the subject just in the last three years (e.g., Alcover Firpi and Golden 2020; Chase and Chase 2020; Garrison and Houston 2019; Garrison et al 2019; Helmke 2020; Martin 2020; Morton and Peuramaki-Brown 2019; Navarro-Farr et al 2020; Recinos et al 2021; Serafin 2020; Wahl et al 2019; Woodfill 2019; Wrobel et al 2019). In many publications, however war is treated as a free-floating, reified, abstract category devoid of context or human agency (Nielsen and Walker 2009).…”

Section: The Elusiveness Of Martial Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Unleashing Maya Warfare: Inquiry Into the Practical Aspects of War-Making

Hernandez

Bracken

2023

Ancient Mesoam

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Across many decades of Maya archaeology, the study of war has typically been focused on its geopolitical, systemic, evolutionary, and structural implications. We argue these approaches stand to benefit from deeper interrogations of practice. Such a perspective shifts scholarly attention toward the ways in which Maya peoples prepared for and engaged in combat, and how they administered the outcomes of war. Deploying this approach requires the study of tactics, strategy, fortifications, materiel, landscape, embodiment, and a host of other related factors. With the issue of practice at the forefront of our analysis, we demonstrate how the study of war has been “blackboxed” in Maya archaeology, then undertake a comparative analysis to highlight how digging into the details of past martial practice enriches debates in Mesoamerican studies regarding the role of war in the rise and disintegration of states.

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Section: The Elusiveness Of Martial Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Unleashing Maya Warfare: Inquiry Into the Practical Aspects of War-Making

Hernandez

Bracken

2023

Ancient Mesoam

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“…In the Maya area, aside from mortuary contexts, human teeth are found as part of isolated skulls in cases of decapitation (Barrett and Scherer 2005;Duncan 2011; Massey and Steele 1997;Whittington 2003) or pectorals and other objects manufactured from skulls (Scherer 2015a:100-102;Wrobel et al 2019). Teeth also are found isolated from skulls, most often as a single tooth encountered in construction fill.…”

Section: Teeth In the Archaeological Record Of The Maya Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Classic Maya Dental Interventions

Schnell

Scherer

2021

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Tooth extractions are among the most common dental procedures performed globally today; however, archaeological evidence for such procedures in the past is relatively scant and largely limited to the Classical world. We present a case of therapeutic dental extractions of pathological teeth at the ancient Maya site of Piedras Negras, Guatemala, during the Late Classic period (A.D. 600–800). The evidence comes from an assemblage of fractured, pathological teeth (n = 127) recovered from the marketplace at Piedras Negras during excavations in 2016 and 2017. We compare the Piedras Negras marketplace teeth to the broader Late Classic period mortuary population at the site along three lines of analysis: (1) distribution of teeth by type (incisors, canines, premolars, and molars), (2) pathologies, including dental caries and calculus, and (3) dental wear. We also explore in detail the fracture patterns apparent in the marketplace assemblage. Our results indicate that the marketplace teeth display a significantly greater caries rate than the broader mortuary population and that posterior teeth (premolars and molars) are overrepresented in the marketplace sample. These findings point toward therapeutic extractions intended to ameliorate pain associated with oral pathologies. This article presents one of the fewcase studies of ancient health care in the Americas and situates these practices within the market, an important, urban space across much of precolonial Mesoamerica. Las extracciones dentales se encuentran entre los procedimientos dentales más comunes realizados a nivel mundial en la actualidad. Sin embargo, la evidencia arqueológica para tales procedimientos es relativamente escasa en el pasado y se limita en gran medida al mundo Clásico. En este artículo, se presenta un caso de extracciones dentales terapéuticas de dientes patológicos en el antiguo sitio maya de Piedras Negras, Guatemala, durante el periodo Clásico Tardío (600-800 d.C.). La evidencia de este caso proviene de una colección de dientes patológicos y fracturados (n = 127) recolectados en el mercado de Piedras Negras durante las excavaciones realizadas en los años de 2016 y 2017. Estos dientes fueron comparados con otros dientes recolectados alrededor del sitio en contextos mortuorios del periodo Clásico Tardío a lo largo de tres líneas de análisis: (1) la distribución de los dientes por tipo (incisivos, caninos, premolares y molares), (2) las patologías, incluyendo caries dentales y cálculo y (3) el desgaste dental. Asimismo, se exploró en detalle los patrones de fractura aparentes en la colección del mercado. Los resultados de este análisis indican que los dientes del mercado muestran una tasa de caries significativamente mayor que los dientes recolectados en contextos mortuorios y que los dientes posteriores (premolares y molares) se encuentran sobrerrepresentados en la muestra proveniente del mercado. Estos hallazgos demuestran el uso de extracciones terapéuticas designadas a aliviar el dolor asociado a las patologías bucales. Este artículo presenta uno de los pocos estudios de caso de atención médica en el pasado en las Américas y sitúa estas prácticas dentro del mercado, un importante espacio urbano que se encuentra a través de la Mesoamérica precolombina.

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Understanding “local”: Prehispanic Maya mobility and diet at Pacbitun, Belize, using strontium, oxygen, sulfur, carbon, and nitrogen isotope values

Freiwald,

Rand,

Skaggs

et al. 2024

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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Classic period Maya populations were mobile, and both burial patterns and dietary analyses suggest that many movers were incorporated into local communities. This paper presents a multi‐isotopic (Sr, O, S, C, and N) study of the diet and mobility of 18 Late (AD 550–800) and Terminal Classic (AD 800–900) individuals from the site of Pacbitun, Belize. Three distinct isotope systems identify where people lived at different stages of life, from the childhood origins of migrant and local Pacbitun populations to their final residences. The enamel strontium isotope ratios of the Court 3 individuals were higher than local ranges established by faunal and human bone values, suggesting elite migration, or even residential mobility within the polity. Sulfur isotope values reveal information about the local population, where all but one individual in the sample lived at the site for many years before they died. The exception was an isotopically nonlocal individual in a dedicatory deposit, as reported in other studies. Diet also informs on the receiving community and how migrants assimilated, as people with local and nonlocal isotope values ate isotopically similar foods. Individuals from elite site core contexts and those in Pacbitun's peripheral settlements both consumed C4‐enriched proteins, though there were more isotopically diverse protein sources in peripheral settlements during the Terminal Classic period. Sulfur, carbon, and nitrogen isotope data also reveal some differences in where food was acquired, including use of nonlocal fauna. Combining isotope systems that sample different body tissues also may blur the line between migrants and locals, terms that may describe the same person at different stages of life and show the need for a more nuanced discussion of ancient mobility.

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Two Trophy Skulls from Pacbitun, Belize

Abstract: Two modified skulls from Pacbitun, Belize, one with a glyphic text, match ancient Maya depictions of trophies fashioned from war captives and worn by elite warriors.

Cited by 3 publications

References 9 publications

Unleashing Maya Warfare: Inquiry Into the Practical Aspects of War-Making

Unleashing Maya Warfare: Inquiry Into the Practical Aspects of War-Making

Classic Maya Dental Interventions

Understanding “local”: Prehispanic Maya mobility and diet at Pacbitun, Belize, using strontium, oxygen, sulfur, carbon, and nitrogen isotope values

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