Mexican archæology : $b an introduction to the archæology of the Mexican and Mayan civilizations of pre-Spanish AmericaJoyce, Thomas Athol
History
Mexican archæology : $b an introduction to the archæology of the Mexican and Mayan civilizations of pre-Spanish America
Joyce, Thomas Athol
Mayas -- Antiquities; Mexico -- Antiquities
Stone-lined cists have been found as depositories
for the dead sporadically from Quen Santo, through Alta Vera Paz to
Copan and Benque Viejo; but beyond, in the Uloa valley, large burial
sites have been discovered in which the bodies have been simply laid
in the earth. In Sacchana both extended and contracted burials have
been found, and in the Quiché country bones have been discovered in
such a position as to imply that the body was arranged in a seated
position on a pottery dish. British Honduras shows several styles of
burial, and our information is due almost solely to the excavations
made by Dr. Gann. About eighty miles from the coast on the Old River,
he found cist-burials, as mentioned above, urn-burials, in which the
bones were partly cremated, and burials both in a recumbent and in
a seated position. From the remains associated with the bones it is
evident that the cist-burials, both here and elsewhere in British
Honduras, contained the bodies of men of higher rank. At all the sites
mentioned above burials were found marked by mounds, but the presence
of the latter is not invariable, and it may be that as excavation
proceeds many cemeteries will be found of which no indications exist
upon the surface. At a site on the Rio Hondo, Dr. Gann was able to
distinguish between three distinct types of burial. The poorest graves
were found associated in some numbers in large flat mounds, sometimes
half an acre in extent; the bodies were contracted, and the grave
objects included hammer-stones, beads of clay and shell, rude weapons
and unburnished pottery. A better class of interment occurred singly,
in separate conical mounds of limestone blocks and dust, about 18 feet
high, with finer pottery and beads of stone; in these the bodies were
also contracted, and sometimes arranged head downwards. The finest
graves were cist-burials, each in a separate mound from twenty to fifty
feet high; in these the body lay at full length, and the associated
objects included fine painted vases, beads of jadeite, pearl-shell and
obsidian, and finely flaked stone implements. In Yucatan, burials have
occasionally been found in the so-called “chultunes,” or stone-lined
cisterns used by the former inhabitants; and human remains, some
suggesting cremation, have been discovered in the caves. The evidence
respecting the latter, however, seems to suggest that these caves
were not inhabited at an early period, and that the human occupation
did not last for any length of time; it is probable that they were
used only as places of refuge. On the whole such information as we
possess concerning the methods of disposal of the dead seems to imply
that burial was practised by the early Maya, and that cremation was
introduced by certain of those peoples who are definitely known to
be immigrants into the country at a date, as I hope to show shortly,
posterior to the building of the monuments (with the exception of the
later constructions at Chichen Itza).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account