Human Cremation in Mexico 3,000 Years Ago
Human cremation in Mexico 3,000 years ago William N. Duncan*†, Andrew K. Balkansky‡, Kimberly Crawford‡, Heather A. Lapham‡, and Nathan J. Meissner‡ *Department of Anthropology, St. John Fisher College, Rochester, NY 14618; and ‡Department of Anthropology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901 Edited by Joyce Marcus, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, and approved February 22, 2008 (received for review November 10, 2007) Mixtec nobles are depicted in codices and other proto-historic ological contexts and osteological analyses of the burials, and documentation taking part in funerary rites involving cremation. evaluate the evidence based on known aspects of the Mixtec The time depth for this practice was unknown, but excavations at mortuary program. These early examples of cremation, along the early village site of Tayata, in the southern state of Oaxaca, with other factors, could reflect the emergence of ranked Mexico, recovered undisturbed cremation burials in contexts dat- society in the ancient Mixteca Alta and indicate that proto- ing from the eleventh century B.C. These are the earliest examples historic methods of marking social status had precursors of a burial practice that in later times was reserved for Mixtec kings extending back 3,000 years from the present. and Aztec emperors. This article describes the burial contexts and human remains, linking Formative period archaeology with eth- Archaeological Context nohistorical descriptions of Mixtec mortuary practices. The use of Survey and excavation indicate that Tayata was among the cremation to mark elevated social status among the Mixtec was largest villages of the preurban Formative period in the established by 3,000 years ago, when hereditary differences in Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico (18, 19).
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