A 2,000 - class - old Maya sepulture inBelizehas revealed some wild insights into the nature of pre - Hispanic remotion . By identify the clay of two non - local individuals , a researcher suggest that these pearl may have been pack up and relocate when the land site ’s indweller first moved in , in an attempt to infuse their new house with the life of their ancestors .
date to the Late Preclassic period – which ran from 300 BCE to 250 CE – the tomb was discovered in a commoner household do it as the Dancer Group , near theancient Mayacity of Dos Hombres . To learn about the house ’s long - dead occupier , study writer Angelina J. Locker analyzed a split skeleton that was buried along with the dentition of two other individuals .
Based on the presence of a mound of mussel shells next to the primary frame , it has been suggested that this person was probably fear with a seafood banquet and may therefore act a found ancestor of the Dancer Group . Previously , the other human remains within this tomb have been interpreted assacrificial offeringsto this progenitor , yet Locker present several intellect to doubt this assumption .
foremost , the fact that the Dancer Group is a non - elect household create it unlikely that anyone living there would have been honored with ahuman sacrifice . On top of this , a want of emasculated marks that would typify butchering or flaying suggest that neither of these secondary entombment were intentionally dispatched .
attempt an alternative explanation , the study author points out that theMayasaw the consistency as divisible into multiple parts . One of these ingredient – referred to as ‘ Ik – represents “ the breath of the soul ” and was typically associated with the mouth and jaw .
“ The ancestors ’ essences were recollect to be associate with Ik ’ , and thus , the embodied conformation reside in the mouthpiece , explicitly the teeth , ” write Locker . That being so , she suggests that the teeth find in the grave may belong to the ancestor of this institute individual , and may have been brought to the residence from elsewhere in club to uphold the menage ’s connection to a deep lineage .
To investigate whether or not this was the case , Locker conducted isotopic psychoanalysis on the remains of all three individuals within the burial . Sure enough , while the primary burial showed sign of having been advance on a locally source diet , the teeth of the two other individuals turned out to be from further afield .
“ The secondary burial discourse here were identified as non - local individual and further specify as emergent ancestor , used to make place for living posterity by linking living residents and forget root with the bodies of their preceding ancestors , ” compose the study author . In other words , the first person who died at the Dancer Group was buried with the stiff of their antecedent , which had been get from elsewhere in rules of order to connect the newly - founded home with these forefather .
“ They were used to legitimize the people live at the Dancer Group , granting blood to billet for [ the main burial ] , who thus roleplay as a founding ancestor for the household , ” resolve Locker .
The sketch has been publish in theJournal of Anthropological Archaeology .
