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Procedures in Human Heart Extraction and Ritual Meaning: A Taphonomic Assessment of Anthropogenic Marks in Classic Maya Skeletons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Vera Tiesler  and
Andrea Cucina
Vera Tiesler
Affiliation:
Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Calle 76 no. 455, LL. 41 y 43, CP 97000, Mérida, Yucatán ([email protected])
Andrea Cucina
Affiliation:
Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida ([email protected])
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Abstract

The present study reports on the cultural marks encountered in three (possibly four) skeletons retrieved from primary deposits of the Maya Classic period at Palenque, Calakmul, and Becán, Mexico. We propose that the patterns of cut and stab lesions encountered in the trunks of these individuals stem from perimortem violence that accompanied heart removal from below the rib cage rather than from postmortem evisceration. We confirm the feasibility of this procedure by experimental replication in modern corpses. The interpretation of those procedures synthesizes information obtained from osteological, archaeological, and iconographic sources and leads to a broader discussion concerning the techniques, impact, and meanings of human heart sacrifice and associated body manipulations in Classic period Maya society. Methodologically, we conclude that direct skeletal evidence of heart sacrifice can be rare, imposing a cautionary caveat on the current discussion of mortuary remains in the Maya area.

Este trabajo informa sobre las marcas culturales encontradas en tres, probablemente cuatro, esqueletos procedentes de contextos mayas primarios de Palenque, Calakmul, y Becán, México, del período Clásico. Proponemos que el patrón de las lesiones punzo-cortantes en los huesos del torso de esos individuos, más que un proceso de evisceración póstuma, representa la violencia perimortem ejercida durante la extracción ritual del corazón por debajo de la caja torácica. Confirmamos su viabilidad mediante su reproducción experimental en cadáveres. Los procesos involucrados son interpretados empleando también la información osteoarqueológica e iconográfica de la región, lo que nos lleva a una discusión más amplia de las técnicas, el impacto, y los significados del sacrificio ritual de corazones humanos y de los tratamientos asociados en las sociedades mayas del Clásico. En un plano metodológico, concluimos que la evidencia ósea directa de la operación siempre será escasa, un aspecto que deberá considerarse en la discusión actual del registro mortuorio maya.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , December 2006 , pp. 493 - 510
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2006

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