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). During the 2004 field rank were first emerging across Mesoamerica. season, the area adjacent to one of several excavated houses yielded the cremated burials along with diagnostic pottery and archaeology ͉ Mixtec ͉ bioarchaeology ͉ mortuary practices ͉ Mesoamerica radiocarbon samples dating from the late Early Formative to Middle Formative transition. During these phases (20–22), he Mixtec were one of the original Mesoamerican civiliza- Tayata expanded significantly in size and initiated construc- Ttions (1, 2), but until recently little was known about the tion of nonresidential buildings and public spaces. The time- archaeological precursors of Mixtec cities and states (3–5). The frame for these developments at Tayata in calendar years was discovery of cremated human burials (Ϸ1000 B.C.) from exca- the late twelfth through tenth centuries B.C., when significant vations at Tayata, an early village in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, changes in social complexity were occurring in many parts of Mexico, suggests that status-marking funerary rites existed Mesoamerica (23–25). The Tayata cremations were associated centuries before urban states arose and millennia before histor- with a house and middens containing evidence for deer, dog, ical sources reference the cremation of Mixtec kings and Aztec and fish consumption, pottery firing, marine shell ornament emperors. Our study documents one of the key building blocks production, and access to exotic valuables such as obsidian. in the initial growth of social complexity: the time when early Dog remains were also interred with the cremations and found village societies divided into ranks and a person’s status in life in the middens in ways suggestive of ritual feasting (Fig. 4). was reflected at death, reinforcing the economic differentiation This area in and around the residential structure associated that was fundamental to early village life (6, 7). However, to with burials 1 and 2 stands apart from other contexts at Tayata understand the beginnings of those complex societies that given its higher frequencies of both dog and fish remains—a were the building blocks of later Mesoamerican civilizations, it pattern that also holds when the fauna recovered from this helps to begin with anthropological information from historical residence is compared with contemporaneous assemblages in periods. the Valley of Oaxaca. This specific residential area at Tayata One way that the proto-historic Mixtec marked social status contains twice as many dog remains and more than ten times was through burning the body of the deceased in various ways the number of fish bones as houses 16 and 17 at San Jose´ (8–11; Fig. 1). We define reduction of a corpse through Mogote, a relatively elite house complex dating to the late burning as cremation, typically to ash, although there is some Early Formative (26). latitude in the use of this term regarding how complete the Burial 1 had fragments of a dog skull, maxilla, mandible, left incineration must be (12). Postclassic Mixtec lords are shown and right humeri, left tibia, metapodial, and a phalanx included Ϸ being cremated in the codices, so we know that after A.D. with the burial and in layers above the human remains. The 1000 this practice was regarded as appropriate for nobles and distal portion of the left tibia exhibited cutmarks. Virtually all royalty. Mortuary burning for cremation could occur with surfaces of the dog remains were encrusted with the same ash ANTHROPOLOGY deceased lineage members who were deserving of veneration. concretions as the human remains and were not calcined or Likewise, the processing of ancestors’ remains to make carbonized (see supporting information (SI) Text). The ex- mummy bundles, violation of enemies’ mummy bundles, and ception was the left tibia fragment, which may account for why cannibalism of enemies all could involve burning the body of cutmarks were visible on it. The lack of redundancy among the deceased in different ways. Although well documented in skeletal elements and the consistency of age among the dog historical records (especially for Nahua peoples; 13), the time remains (all visible epiphyses were fused) indicate that only depth of differential burning and formal cremation among the one animal was represented. The associated dog and human ancient Mixtec was unknown (cf. 14, 15). In the Maya area, for example, it has long been documented that mortuary burning recorded in ethnohistorical sources (16) had roots stemming Author contributions: A.K.B. designed research; W.N.D., A.K.B., K.C., and N.J.M. performed back to the period between 300 B.C. and A.D. 300 (17). research; W.N.D., K.C., and H.A.L. analyzed data; and W.N.D., A.K.B., H.A.L., and N.J.M. The two burials from Tayata demonstrate that considerable wrote the paper. time depth for formal cremations is found in other areas of The authors declare no conflict of interest. Mesoamerica. In the best-documented example, the body was †To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail [email protected]. burned in situ, still articulated and undisturbed (Fig. 2). In the This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/ second example, the remains were also burned in situ, but were 0710696105/DCSupplemental. disturbed after burial (Fig. 3). Here, we describe the archae- © 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA www.pnas.org͞cgi͞doi͞10.1073͞pnas.0710696105 PNAS ͉ April 8, 2008 ͉ vol. 105 ͉ no. 14 ͉ 5315–5320 Downloaded by guest on September 30, 2021 A B Fig. 1. Plates 81 (A) and 82 (B) from the Codex Nuttall showing Mixtec cremation (figure created by modifying 11). remains suggest intentional burial as part of the same mortuary Valley of Oaxaca (26). Excavations of a midden north of the event. The cutmarks and skeletal elements represented from residence yielded a semicomplete skeleton of a single dog the dog might indicate feasting as part of the mortuary ritual, along with numerous isolated skeletal elements from at least but the alternative interpretation that the dog was a primary four other dogs. In addition to an unusually large number of offering included in the burial cannot be discounted or ruled dogs, the area in and around the residential structure associ- out. Burial 2 had only two dog canine teeth found in context. ated with burials 1 and 2 was also the only elite context to However, burial 2 was disturbed postmortem, which might contain fish remains in any frequency (just less than one fifth have destroyed other dog elements. of all identified taxa from the area). Analysis of the fish Food consumption patterns further mark this area of the site remains is ongoing. Several specimens appear to belong to the and its residents as being somewhat apart from others at the Perciforme order, which includes a variety of marine and site. The area in and around the residential structure associ- freshwater perch and perch-like species. Fish are extremely ated with burials 1 and 2 contained more than three times the rare (and generally absent) at other highland Mexican sites of number of animal remains compared with other elite areas at this period. Tayata. Domestic dog (Canis familiaris) and white-tailed deer We infer from these observations that the cremated indi- (Odocoileus virginianus) were the two most common mamma- viduals were members of a high-status household given their lian taxa represented, followed by cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus food consumption patterns, their participation in craft pro- spp.), jackrabbits (Lepus spp.), pocket gophers (Orthogeomys duction and exchange, the presence of the dogs and other grave spp.), and opossums (Didelphidae family). This area contained goods with the cremations (further described below), the a surprisingly large quantity of dogs. Dog remains were five formal arrangement of the burials, and their occurrence in a times more prevalent here than in other areas of the site. long-term elite residential area. This same residential zone was Butchery scars in the form of cut and hack marks were eventually covered with a public building and small plaza in identified on eight dog bones in the faunal assemblage from which various features were dedicated with dog and human the 2004 excavations at Tayata and all eight of these specimens crania.