A Maya Burial in Cuba A study on the origins of individual CM 72B buried at El Chorro de Maita, Cuba. Michael Steenbakker http://www.sanderusmaps.com Klikspaanweg 38 K12 2324 LX Leiden
[email protected] +31615466605 A Maya Burial in Cuba A study on the origins of individual CM 72B buried at El Chorro de Maita, Cuba. Michael C. Steenbakker S1173286 Bachelor thesis Supervisor: Dr. M.L.P. Hoogland Specialisation: Archeologie van Indiaans Amerika Leiden University, Faculty of Archaeology Leiden, 04-01-2014, final version 1 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements 05 Introduction 07 Chapter 1: Individual CM 72B 09 1.1 Historical Background 09 1.2 El Chorro de Maíta 12 1.3 Individual CM 72B 14 1.4 Theoretical Framework 16 1.4.1 Identity 16 1.4.2 The body as material culture 17 Chapter 2: Osteology 19 2.1 Intentional Cranial Modification 19 2.2 Intentional Cranial Modification in the Caribbean 20 2.3 Intentional Cranial Modification in Mesoamerica 21 2.4 Intentional Cranial Modification of CM 72B 23 2.5 Intentional Dental Modification 24 2.6 Intentional Dental Modification in Mesoamerica 25 2.7 Intentional Dental Modification on CM 72B 27 2.8 Isotopic analysis on CM 72B 29 2.9 Comparison 29 3 Chapter 3: Burial position 33 3.1 Introduction 33 3.2 Burial position of CM 72B 34 3.3 Prone burials in El Chorro De Maíta 34 3.4 Prone burials in Belize 36 3.4.1 The Coastal Traders 36 3.4.2 Sites on Ambergris Caye and Lamanai 38 3.4.3 The prone burial practice 45 Chapter 4: Where does CM 72B originate from? 47 4.1 Limitations 47 4.2 Discussion and Conclusion 49 4.3 Future Research Directions 52 Summary 53 Samenvatting 55 Literature 57 List of Figures 63 4 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Alexander Geurds, Anne van Duijvenbode, Araceli Rojas Martinez Gracida, Elizabeth Graham, Francine van der Kooij, Hayley Mickleburgh, Menno Hoogland and Roberto Valcárcel Rojas for all the help they gave me when writing this thesis.