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Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya
From the tombs of the elite to the graves of commoners, mortuary remains offer rich insights into Classic Maya society. In Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya: Rituals of Body and Soul, the anthropological archaeologist and bioarchaeologist Andrew K. Scherer explores the broad range of burial practices among the Maya of the Classic period (AD 250–900), integrating information gleaned from his own fieldwork with insights from the fields of iconography, epigraphy, and ethnography to illuminate this society’s rich funerary traditions.Scherer’s study of burials along the Usumacinta River at the Mexican-Guatemalan border and in the Central Petén region of Guatemala—areas that include Piedras Negras, El Kinel, Tecolote, El Zotz, and Yaxha—reveals commonalities and differences among royal, elite, and commoner mortuary practices. By analyzing skeletons containing dental and cranial modifications, as well as the adornments of interred bodies, Scherer probes Classic Maya conceptions of body, wellness, and the afterlife. Scherer also moves beyond the body to look at the spatial orientation of the burials and their integration into the architecture of Maya communities. Taking a unique interdisciplinary approach, the author examines how Classic Maya deathways can expand our understanding of this society’s beliefs and traditions, making Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya an important step forward in Mesoamerican archeology.
eBook
Initial Upper Palaeolithic Homo sapiens from Bacho Kiro Cave, Bulgaria
The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in Europe witnessed the replacement and partial absorption of local Neanderthal populations by
Homo sapiens
populations of African origin
1
. However, this process probably varied across regions and its details remain largely unknown. In particular, the duration of chronological overlap between the two groups is much debated, as are the implications of this overlap for the nature of the biological and cultural interactions between Neanderthals and
H. sapiens
. Here we report the discovery and direct dating of human remains found in association with Initial Upper Palaeolithic artefacts
2
, from excavations at Bacho Kiro Cave (Bulgaria). Morphological analysis of a tooth and mitochondrial DNA from several hominin bone fragments, identified through proteomic screening, assign these finds to
H. sapiens
and link the expansion of Initial Upper Palaeolithic technologies with the spread of
H. sapiens
into the mid-latitudes of Eurasia before 45 thousand years ago
3
. The excavations yielded a wealth of bone artefacts, including pendants manufactured from cave bear teeth that are reminiscent of those later produced by the last Neanderthals of western Europe
4
–
6
. These finds are consistent with models based on the arrival of multiple waves of
H. sapiens
into Europe coming into contact with declining Neanderthal populations
7
,
8
.
Direct dates for human remains found in association with Initial Upper Palaeolithic artefacts at Bacho Kiro Cave (Bulgaria) demonstrate the presence of
Homo sapiens
in the mid-latitudes of Europe before 45 thousand years ago.
Journal Article
Social Zooarchaeology
This is the first book to provide a systematic overview of social zooarchaeology, which takes a holistic view of human-animal relations in the past. Until recently, archaeological analysis of faunal evidence has primarily focused on the role of animals in the human diet and subsistence economy. This book, however, argues that animals have always played many more roles in human societies: as wealth, companions, spirit helpers, sacrificial victims, totems, centerpieces of feasts, objects of taboos, and more. These social factors are as significant as taphonomic processes in shaping animal bone assemblages. Nerissa Russell uses evidence derived from not only zooarchaeology, but also ethnography, history and classical studies, to suggest the range of human-animal relationships and to examine their importance in human society. Through exploring the significance of animals to ancient humans, this book provides a richer picture of past societies.
eBook
Contesting Human Remains in Museum Collections
Since the late 1970s human remains in museum collections have been subject to claims and controversies, such as demands for repatriation by indigenous groups who suffered under colonization. These requests have been strongly contested by scientists who research the material and consider it unique evidence.
This book charts the influences at play on the contestation over human remains and examines the construction of this problem from a cultural perspective. It shows that claims on dead bodies are not confined to once colonized groups. A group of British Pagans, Honouring the Ancient Dead, formed to make claims on skeletons from the British Isles, and ancient human remains, bog bodies and Egyptian mummies, which have not been requested by any group, have become the focus of campaigns initiated by members of the profession, at times removed from display in the name of respect.
By drawing on empirical research including extensive interviews with the claims-making groups, ethnographic work, document, media, and policy analysis, Contesting Human Remains in Museum Collections demonstrates that strong internal influences do in fact exist. The only book to examine the construction of contestation over human remains from a sociological perspective, it advances an emerging area of academic research, setting the terms of debate, synthesizing disparate ideas, and making sense of a broader cultural focus on dead bodies in the contemporary period.
Dr Tiffany Jenkins is arts and society director of the London based think-tank, the Institute of Ideas. She is a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and a member of the Working Group on Cultural Property and Heritage Law. She writes and comments for the national media on cultural matters.
'This is an excellent and detailed introduction to an important topic in the museum field today.' – Annette Rein, ICOM News
'Fluent and well-argued' – Minerva
'describes, with thinly disguised dismay, the changes that led the British Museum and Natural History Museum to abandon their opposition to repatriating human remains.' – The Art Newspaper
Introduction 1.Transforming Concerns about Human Remains into an Issue 2. Scientists Contest Repatriation 3.The Crisis of Cultural Authority 4.The Rise and Impact of Pagan Claims-Makers 5. Explaining Why Human Remains Are the Problem 6. Covering Up the Mummies. Concluding Thoughts
eBook
Mesoamerican Osteobiographies
A rapidly growing approach within bioarchaeology that
focuses on understanding people of the past in their sociocultural
contexts
Drawing from a variety of sites throughout Mesoamerica, this
volume presents a collection of osteobiographies, which analyze
skeletons and their surroundings alongside historical,
archaeological, ethnographic, and other contextual data to better
understand the life experiences of individuals. This approach
allows for a focus on the processes by which individual social
identities are created, negotiated, and altered.
In these chapters, contributors address what individual bodies
reveal about their societies, what burials can tell us about the
ways people were remembered, and what information about disease and
health indicates about lifestyles. Each case study compiles a range
of available data to gain insights into a specific time and place.
Recreating the lives of individuals from locations in Belize,
Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, the volume includes descriptions
of everyday activities, the social roles of priests and merchants,
memorial practices, and many other spheres of human life.
Mesoamerican Osteobiographies demonstrates how the
diverse, culturally laden, and complex archaeological record of
Mesoamerica can uniquely contribute to bioarchaeology, in part due
to the region's many unusual and elaborate mortuary contexts. The
different contributions in this volume show that the osteobiography
approach can be integrated into existing research frameworks, both
in Mesoamerica and around the world, to answer meaningful
biocultural questions about the lives and deaths of ancient
people.
Contributors: Pamela Geller | Satoru Murata |
Gabriel D. Wrobel | Carolyn Freiwald | Kirsten Green Mink | David
W. Mixter | Ricardo Rodas | Dr. Della Cook | Abigail Meza Peñaloza
| Ethan C. Hill | Erik Velásquez García | Jack Biggs | Frederico
Zurtuche | Mónica Urquizú | John Robb | María Belén Méndez Bauer |
DR Vera Tiesler | Dr. Andrew K. Scherer | DR Melissa S. Murphy |
Lourdes Marquez Morfín | Ana Maria Padilla Dorantes | Dr. Andrea
Cucina | Paige Wojcik Woolfolk | Eleanor Harrison-Buck | Claire
Ebert | Aurora Marcela Pérez-Flórez | Destiny Micklin | Morgan
McKenna | Allan Ortega-Muñoz | Kara Fulton | Lexi O'Donnell | Peter
Mercier | Omar A. Alcover-Firpi | Mariah Biggs | Prof Jane Buikstra
| Katherine Miller Wolf | Keith Prufer | Jaime Awe | D. Eli Mrak |
Emily Moes | Douglas J. Kennett | Joshua T. Schnell | Amy Hair |
Takeshi Inomata | Mónica Rodriguez Pérez | Ellen Bell | Daniela
Triadan | Samantha Sharon Negrete Gutiérrez | Alex Garcia-Putnam |
Anna C. Novotny | Marie Danforth | Lisa LeCount | Loa P. Traxler |
Rosalba Yasmin Cifuentes Argüello | Shintaro Suzuki | Fernando
Gutiérrez Méndez | Samantha Blatt | Mark Robinson | Amy Michael |
Sandra Elizalde
eBook