Nicholas Herrmann - GIS applied to bioarchaeology: An example from the Río Talgua Caves in northeast Honduras. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 64(1): 17-22. GIS APPLIED TO BIOARCHAEOLOGY: AN EXAMPLE FROM THE RÍO TALGUA CAVES IN NORTHEAST HONDURAS NICHOLAS HERRMANN Department of Anthropology, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996 USA The presence of human skeletal remains in caves is a common phenomenon throughout the world. In an effort to preserve these remains, researchers often document the material in situ. The application of a geographic information system (GIS) in combination with a flexible recording system provides an effi- cient means of recording the context of the burial or ossuary. Two caves, La Cueva del Río Talgua and Cueva de las Arañas, in eastern Honduras, provide a case study for the application of a GIS to human skeletal remains from cave environments. A GIS-based investigation offers the ability to visualize the relationships and context of the ossuary. It also provides a means to estimate specific population para- meters, such as the minimum number of individuals and the Lincoln Index. When confronted with osteological remains in cave envi- tion of James Brady as part of a joint archaeological field ronments, archaeologists must realize the significance of the school of George Washington and Western Kentucky skeletal material and appreciate the context of these remains. Universities, basic skeletal data were collected during a three- In Binford’s (1971) essay on mortuary practices, he assumes week period in June 1996. The ossuary in Cueva del Río that a “burial” with all its associated attributes reflects the indi- Talgua, or “The Cave of the Glowing Skulls”, was the prima- vidual’s social persona and expresses the communal “debt” ry focus of the osteological fieldwork. Hereafter, this cave is owed the deceased. Deep cave interments may result from a referred to as Talgua. Prior to the arrival of the osteological complex social context, or may simply document the fate of an research team, a second mortuary cave with human skeletal unlucky adventurer, as in the case of prehistoric miners in remains was discovered. Recent explorers had not disturbed Mammoth Cave (Meloy 1971). The deposition of bodies with- the ossuaries within this cave, and only limited prehistoric dis- in vertical shafts or sinks may be the most convenient mode of turbance had occurred. The survey team named the cave interment for a local community, or this process may be a sym- “Cueva de las Arañas” (or “Cave of the Spiders”) for the arach- bolic ritual (e.g., for returning the body of the deceased to the nids prominently present throughout it. This cave is referred to underworld). In either situation, the archaeologist must evalu- as Arañas. ate the remains from both cultural and biological frameworks Mortuary activities in both caves date to the Formative within the context of the burial environment. Cave archaeolo- Period, also referred to as the Preclassic period (Brady et al. gists and skeletal biologists should work together to devise 1995a; 1995b; 2001). Five uncalibrated radiocarbon dates logical, reliable, and efficient methods of data collection for derived from bone and charcoal samples from both caves clus- the documentation of these unique archaeological resources. ter within a 600 year period between 3110 BP and 2510 BP One useful system of recording karst mortuary facilities is (Brady et al. 2001), but the calibrated two-sigma ranges of within a geographic information system (GIS) framework these dates span a 1000-year window. The Arañas assay (Beta- enabling bioarchaeologists to reconstruct and examine the bur- 95367 2790±100 BP: Brady et al. 2001) falls nicely among ial context outside the cave. This paper reviews Honduran cave four Talgua dates, which strongly suggests that the caves are mortuary practices, describe obstacles and confounding factors contemporaneous and may represent the mortuary program of involved in cave bioarchaeology, and details the application of one population. A sixth radiocarbon date from Talgua (WG286 a GIS in the analysis of osteological remains from La Cueva 1385±75 BP: Brady et al. 2001) suggests that later populations del Río Talgua and Cueva de las Arañas in eastern Honduras. in the region may also have used the cave. Additional mortu- Finally, it summarizes the osteological data derived from ary caves have been found in this area, but the bioarchaeolog- Cueva de las Arañas. ical significance and temporal placement of these sites have not been determined. Two of the radiocarbon dates are LA CUEVA DEL RÍO TALGUA AND CUEVA DE LAS ARAÑAS Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) determinations on human bone from the cave. As a result of AMS dating, basic Human osteological remains were discovered in 1994 in a carbon ratios (13C/12C) were calculated, which provide valu- cave above the eastern bank of the Talgua River, 7 km from able evidence for dietary inferences (Buikstra 1992). The δ13C Catacamas in the Olancho Valley of northeastern Honduras indicate that the Río Talgua populations were not consuming (Brady 1994; Fig. 1). With permission of the Instituto substantial quantities of maize (corn). This determination is Hondureño de Anthropología e Historia and under the direc- important because diets of later Mayan populations in western Copyright © 2002 by the National Speleological Society Journal of Cave and Karst Studies, April 2002 • 17 18 • CAVE AND KARST GIS Figure 1. General eleva- tion model of Honduras with the locations of the Río Talgua Caves, Copan, and the Cuyamel Caves. Honduras (Copan), Guatemala, and Mexico relied heavily on either disarticulated or allowed to decompose away from the maize. Subsistence in the Talgua population may have been caves. These remains were then bundled into some type of based on a variety of non-domesticated plants, tubers, and container, into which copious amounts of red ocher/hematite fauna. Manioc is a likely candidate for a primary staple of were added. The bundles were carried into the caves to fairly these groups, similar to a pattern documented in many Central inaccessible areas and stacked in small piles in niches, within American populations (Piperno & Holst 1998). flowstone pools, and on shelves (Fig. 2). Multiple individuals and, in many cases, multiple ages are represented at all loci. MORTUARY PROGRAM Burial offerings were included with some, but not all, of the bundles. Offerings include ceramic vessels, jade pendants and Human interment within cave environments is a common beads, and shell beads. Talgua contained a number of these approach to the disposal of the dead. Throughout the world, mortuary items, but burial goods were noticeably absent from caves have been used as burial facilities. In North and Central Arañas, where only four beads were recorded. America, cave passages and vertical shaft pits have been The full mortuary program of Preclassic peoples in north- exploited (Robbins 1974; Walthall & DeJarnette 1974; Willey eastern Honduras is not well understood because few & Crothers 1986; Turpin 1988; Haskins 1990; Bement 1994). Preclassic open-air sites in this region have been investigated. For example, the Woodland Period Copena mortuary complex However, the archaeological context and ceramic evidence of northern Alabama exhibits a diverse burial tradition, includ- appears similar to those recorded by Healy (1974) from the ing extended inhumations and cremations in cave passages and Cuyamel caves in the Department of Colon in northeastern shaft pit interments (Webb & Wilder 1951; Walthall 1974; Honduras (Fig. 1). Healy’s (1974, 1984) work indicates that Walthall & DeJarnette 1974). These mortuary caves often the mortuary program of the Cuyamel caves was quite similar include numerous grave offerings and elaborately prepared to that of the Río Talgua region. No formal skeletal analysis or burial facilities. The Archaic Period cave mortuary program of basic bone inventory has ever been conducted on the remains central Texas, on the other hand, differs significantly from the in these former caves, however. Gordons Cave #3 is a well- Copena example. In central Texas, Bement (1994) documents reported ossuary cave near Copan in northern Honduras (Fig. a mortuary pattern that entailed the interment of partially or 1). Most research (Gordon 1898; Rue et al. 1989) has suggest- completely defleshed individuals into vertical pit shafts and ed that the large ossuary in the back room (Chamber #3) of the sinks, such as Seminole Sink (Turpin 1988). In the case of the cave dates to the Middle Preclassic period of the Copan valley Talgua caves, it appears that the indigenous population trans- (ca. 900-300 B.C.), but this chronology has come under ques- ported the skeletonized remains of numerous individuals into tion by Brady’s (1995) excavations in the other two chambers the back passages of these caverns. Individuals of all ages were of the cave. The skeletal analysis for this material provides evi- 18 • Journal of Cave and Karst Studies, April 2002 CAVE AND KARST GIS • 19 elements were cemented in place by calcite, especially in Arañas. Thus, encrusted remains could not be moved, exam- ined, or assessed for the presence of pathological lesions. In addition, skeletal elements above the old waterlines are typi- cally reduced to bone meal due to taphonomic factors and/or looting activities. For the Río Talgua ossuaries, a specific data collection strategy for human remains was adapted from the work of Church and Burgett (1996). Burgett (1990) initially developed this information recording and retrieval system to document in situ commingled and fragmentary faunal remains. The system offers a quick and efficient format to gather data from the Honduran ossuary caves that minimizes impacts to the in situ and disturbed material. The coding system is an alphanumeric “integrated identifi- cation hierarchy” within which element, portion, and segment Figure 2. View of Lot III-03 near the back of Arañas. of the bone are identified (Church & Burgett 1996).