Before Kukulkán: Bioarchaeology of Maya Life, Death, and Identity at Classic Period YaxunáThis volume illuminates human lifeways in the northern Maya lowlands prior to the rise of Chichén Itzá. This period and area have been poorly understood on their own terms, obscured by scholarly focus on the central lowland Maya kingdoms. Before Kukulkán is anchored in three decades of interdisciplinary research at the Classic Maya capital of Yaxuná, located at a contentious crossroads of the northern Maya lowlands. Using bioarchaeology, mortuary archaeology, and culturally sensitive mainstream archaeology, the authors create an in-depth regional understanding while also laying out broader ways of learning about the Maya past. Part 1 examines ancient lifeways among the Maya at Yaxuná, while part 2 explores different meanings of dying and cycling at the settlement and beyond: ancestral practices, royal entombment and desecration, and human sacrifice. The authors close with a discussion of the last years of occupation at Yaxuná and the role of Chichén Itzá in the abandonment of this urban center. Before Kukulkán provides a cohesive synthesis of the evolving roles and collective identities of locals and foreigners at the settlement and their involvement in the region’s trajectory. Theoretically informed and contextualized discussions offer unique glimpses of everyday life and death in the socially fluid Maya city. These findings, in conjunction with other documented series of skeletal remains from this region, provide a nuanced picture of the social and biocultural dynamics that operated successfully for centuries before the arrival of the Itzá. |
Contents
The Bioarchaeology of Yaxuná | 3 |
Part I Living at Yaxuná | 17 |
Part II Yaxunás Dead | 147 |
Notes | 255 |
| 259 | |
| 301 | |
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Common terms and phrases
adult Ambrosino analysis ancient Maya archaeological Ardren assemblage Bioarchaeology body bone Burial 23 Calakmul central ceramic chapter Chichén Itzá cist Classic Maya Classic period coastal Cobá complex context Copán crypt Cucina cultural Cusp deer dental wear dentition depicted deposit diadem jewel discussed Dzibanché E-Group Early Classic enamel evidence excavations female figure Freidel frequency funerary groups human remains indicate individuals inland interment king Kohunlich Late Classic Late Formative located Maize male material Maya area Maya lowlands Mérida Middle Formative morphology mortuary North Acropolis northern lowlands occupation Oxkintok patterns Petén PIPCY placed plate platform population porotic hyperostosis Postclassic Puuc Quintana Roo recovered regional represented ritual royal ruler Sacbé sample segments settlement shell skeletal remains skull social Sotuta southern Stanton Suhler teeth Teotihuacan Terminal Classic Tiesler Tikal tomb tooth traditions triadic UADY vessel Xcambó Yaxuná IIb Yaxuná IVa Yaxuná Project Yucatán Yucatán Peninsula