Andrea Cucina

Isotopic Studies of Human Skeletal Remains from a Sixteenth to Seventeenth Century AD Churchyard in Campeche, Mexico: Diet, Place of Origin, and Age

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.

Carious lesions and maize consumption among the Prehispanic Maya: an analysis of a coastal community in northern Yucatan.

Patterns of carious lesions were analyzed in the Classic period coastal Maya population of Xcambó, a salt production and administration center in northern Yucatan. To this end, the study investigated caries in the permanent dentitions of 163 adult skeletons, 23 from the Early Classic (AD 250-550) and 140 from the Late Classic period (AD 550-750), equally distributed between sexes. The archaeological and bioarchaeological evidence indicates a wealthy and socially homogeneous population dedicated to salt production and administration in the Early Classic that switched to pure administrative functions in the Late Classic. The results indicate an increase in caries from 7.4% and 21.2% (males and females respectively) from the Early Classic to 14.0% in males and 27.4% in females from the Late Classic period. The rate of caries in the Early and in the Late Classic phases of continuous occupation is not consistent with a simple interpretation of a heavier reliance on maize during the latter phase, characterized by a sedentary lifestyle, particularly for the male segment of the society now dedicated completely to the administration of the salt mines. Rather, the increase in caries rates in both sexes is best explained within a broader context of overall food habits, new cariogenic foods for both sexes, and the changes in lifestyle imposed by the increased socioeconomic role of the site. Our conclusions stress the limitations imposed by interpreting carious lesions solely in terms of single dietary components, such as maize consumption, without taking into account broader aspects of cultural and socioeconomic relevance.

Procedures in Human Heart Extraction and Ritual Meaning: A Taphonomic Assessment of Anthropogenic Marks in Classic Maya Skeletons

The present study reports on the cultural marks encountered in three (possibly four) skeletons retrieved from primary deposits of the Maya Classic period at Palenque, Calakmul, and Becan, Mexico. We propose that the patterns of cut and stab lesions encountered in the trunks of these individuals stem from perimortem violence that accompanied heart removal from below the rib cage rather than from postmortem evisceration. We confirm the feasibility of this procedure by experimental replication in modern corpses. The interpretation of those procedures synthesizes information obtained from osteological, archaeological, and iconographic sources and leads to a broader discussion concerning the techniques, impact, and meanings of human heart sacrifice and associated body manipulations in Classic period Maya society. Methodologically, we conclude that direct skeletal evidence of heart sacrifice can be rare, imposing a cautionary caveat on the current discussion of mortuary remains in the Maya area.

Linear enamel hypoplasia at Xcambó, Yucatán, during the Maya Classic period: An evaluation of coastal marshland impact on ancient human populations

Non-specific stress markers such as linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) have been associated in the literature with a large number of possible conditions disrupting the individuals homeostasis, though metabolic strain originating synergistically by disease and malnutrition has been held to be the main cause behind enamel disruption. The analysis of LEH in the Maya Classic period site of Xcambó, located along the northern coast of the Yucatán peninsula, reveals high exposure to stressful conditions during infancy regardless of age and sex. Yet, the inhabitants of the site were of a medium to high social and economic status, with access to balanced and protein-rich nutritional resources, which should have functioned as a cultural buffer to the impact of stress. In the light of this apparent contradiction, this paper discusses the impact of environmental conditions on the record of metabolic stress. Our conclusions pose a cautionary caveat for inferring nutrition and status in ancient pre-antibiotic populations solely from the occurrence of linear enamel hypoplasia.

New Formulas to Estimate Age at Death in Maya Populations Using Histomorphological Changes in the Fourth Human Rib

Abstract:  This study develops new histomorphological algorithms for Maya populations’ human ribs and tests the applicability of published algorithms. Thin sections from the fourth rib of 36 individuals of known age were analyzed under polarized light microscopy. Osteon population density (OPD, the concentration of intact and fragmented osteons per mm2), cortical area (CA), and osteon size (OS) were recorded. Seven algorithms were calculated, using all combinations of variables, and compared to the performance of published formulas. The OPD‐based formulas deviate from the known age 8.7 years on average, while those from OS and CA deviate between 10.7 and 12.8 years. In comparison, our OPD‐based algorithms perform better than the one by Stout and Paine and much better than Cho et al. In conclusion, algorithms should be developed using OPD for different ethnic groups; although Stout and Paine’s can be used for Maya and maybe Mesoamerican individuals.

Italian populations during the copper age: Assessment of biological affinities through morphological dental traits

Abstract The Copper Age (3rd millennium BC) was characterized by considerable socioeconomic transformations and coincided with the discovery of metallurgy. In this study we reconstruct the peopling of Italy during this period on the basis of dental morphology traits. Dental remains from 41 sites throughout Italy were analyzed; only three of the sites (Laterza and two from Sicily) span from the late Copper Age to the early Bronze Age. To work with adequate samples, we pooled the collections into nine geographically and culturally homogeneous groups. Dental morphological traits were scored on 8,891 teeth from 1,302 individuals using the ASUDAS scale. The correlation between the mean measure of divergence and geographic distances (calculated as air distances) was computed. Multidimensional scaling with the minimum spanning tree and maximum-likelihood methods was applied to assess the relationships between groups. The results revealed a substantial genetic homogeneity among the populations throughout the Italian peninsula during the Copper Age with the exception of Sardinia, which tends to diverge from the continental samples. Phenetic and geographic distances correlate highly significantly only when the southern samples from Sicily and Laterza are removed from the analysis, which indicates that these groups may have experienced genetic admixture with external populations.

A Taphonomic Approach to Late Classic Maya Mortuary Practices at Xuenkal, Yucatán, Mexico

Abstract Following a brief introduction to mortuary practices in Prehispanic Maya society, we outline the analytical procedures followed during the excavation and laboratory investigation of five burial assemblages from the Late Classic period site of Xuenkal, Yucatán, Mexico. A detailed account of a sequence of primary and secondary interments is provided with a focus on taphonomic and biovital information, emphasizing the importance of an interdisciplinary approach, especially human taphonomy, for the reconstruction of complex Maya mortuary treatments. Our results show that bodies of the dead or their parts followed surprisingly long and complex funerary paths.

Crossing the peninsula: the role of Noh Bec, Yucatán, in ancient Maya Classic Period population dynamics from an analysis of dental morphology and Sr isotopes.

This article aims to infer population dynamics in the Noh Bec region (Yucatán Peninsula, México) during the Maya Classic period (AD 350–800), based on a combined analysis of dental morphology and 87Sr/86Sr isotopes, and on a comparison of the dental evidence together with archaeological signs of trade and relationships with other regions in the Maya world.

MAYA COASTAL PRODUCTION, EXCHANGE, LIFE STYLE, AND POPULATION MOBILITY: A VIEW FROM THE PORT OF XCAMBO, YUCATAN, MEXICO

Abstract Anchored in archaeological, bioarchaeological, and chemical research conducted at the coastal enclave of Xcambo, this paper examines Classic period Maya coastal saline economic production and exchange, along with the lifestyle, ethnicity, and mobility of the traders. Nestled in the coastal marshlands of the northern Yucatan, Mexico, Xcambo functioned as a salt production center and port during its occupation, maintaining long-reaching ties with other parts of the Maya world and Veracruz. Considered together, the different data sets document a reorientation in Xcambos exchange routes and connections, which are echoed by increasingly diverse cultural affiliations and an increasing geographic mobility of Xcambos merchants. This new information confirms the known pattern of gradually intensifying, though still relatively independent, trade dynamics along the Maya coast in the centuries leading up to the so-called “Maya collapse” and the rise of a new merchant league under the control of Chichen Itza. It was this new order that probably led to the swift end of Xcambo soon after a.d. 700.

Population Dynamics During the Classic and Postclassic Period Maya in the Northern Maya Lowlands: The Analysis of Dental Morphological Traits

This chapter uses dental morphology to reconstruct population dynamics, biodistance and populations’ inner variability in 18 human dental collections from Classic and Postclassic Maya sites in the northern and southern Maya Lowlands. Biodistance analyses show that inland sites in the Peten tend to aggregate with inland sites in the Chenes region, while coastal sites and those in the northern part of the Yucatan peninsula tend to cluster together. Interestingly, costal sites in the Classic and Postclassic gather together, suggesting population continuity in the peninsula and that a common dental morphological structure that would characterize the coastal sites had already started being shaped in the Classic and would continue in the later period. As regards inner variability, results indicate that larger cities (as for example Calakmul) or collections located in crucial trade corridors present higher levels of dental morphological variability in comparison with other sites that were less involved in extensive, long-distance trade exchanges.