Mayans Carried the ‘Dead’ Along With Them to Incorporate the Spirit of Ancestors to a New Settlement
Different cultures have different ways of honoring their dead. Knowing more about these methodologies gives experts an idea about the beliefs and priorities of that particular culture. Recently, researchers garnered some new insights on the treatment of the dead in Mayan culture, stated IFL Science. The insights came from the analysis of human remains found near the ancient Mayan city of Dos Hombres. Findings regarding this examination have been published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.
The burial where these remains were detected had been determined to be 2,000 years old. Examinations revealed that the remains were not from the region, which made researchers speculate that the dead were brought from some other place by the inhabitants. Experts think this could have been done to incorporate the spirit of ancestors in the new settlement.
The grave was built sometime in the Late Preclassic period (300 B.C.E. – 250 C.E.). The burial was in a commoner's house that belonged to the Dancer Group of Dos Hombres. The group was a part of the non-elite class in the period. The burial contained items like a fragmented skeleton and certain teeth fossils. Examinations indicated that there were remnants of three individuals in the grave. Researchers detected a mound of mussel shells close to the primary skeleton. Before the study, many experts thought that these shells indicated that the skeleton belonged to a founding ancestor of the Dancer Group. Furthermore, the other remains were believed to be sacrifices.
The team associated with the study challenged these assertions. They claimed that since the house belonged to commoners, it was hard to believe their ancestors would be venerated with sacrifices. Furthermore, there were no cut marks on the other remains, which ruled out butchering or flaying, traditional methods of human sacrifice. The study instead suggested that, since in the Mayan culture, the human body is divided into different components, in which each part represents something meaningful; the presence of teeth could also be symbolic of something in the grave. "The ancestors’ essences were thought to be associated with Ik’, and thus, the embodied form resided in the mouth, explicitly the teeth," study author Angelina J. Locker shared.
In Mayan culture, the mouth and jaw represented ‘Ik, meaning the breath of the soul. Researchers speculated that the teeth were possibly of the founding individual's ancestor and were transported from a different place into this settlement for the purpose of maintaining a connection to their history. The teeth were supposedly representative of the ancestor's soul, and the inhabitants of the Dancer Group wanted to have them in their new home.
To verify the claim, isotopic analysis was conducted on the remains, and the results supported the theory. The main skeletal remnants in the primary burials showed signs of having a locally sourced diet during their lifetime. However, the teeth that belonged to two different individuals turned out to have a diet that could not be produced in the region. "The secondary burials discussed here were identified as non-local individuals and further defined as emergent ancestors, used to create a place for living descendants by linking living residents and buried ancestors with the bodies of their preceding ancestors," the study explained.
This meant that the first person who died from the Dancer group was laid to rest with their ancestors brought from their native or preceding settlement. This might be a way to showcase their background and identity. "They were used to legitimize the people living at the Dancer Group, granting lineage to place for [the primary burial], who thus acts as a founding ancestor for the household," Locker added.