The Terminal Classic at Yaxuna has yielded a large mortuary sample (n=24) from both residential and elite contexts (Bennett 1993). Analysis of these interments has provided a glimpse of Yaxuna IVa Maya burial patterns. Individuals of all economic levels were usually buried in household crypts placed beneath the plaster floors of living areas. Only three Terminal Classic burials were not placed in crypts—these all show signs of having been sacrificial victims. Household crypts were constructed of large thin rocks placed on edge to demarcate the burial space (Bennett 1993). Arms were often hanging loose and under the body or crossed over the pelvis. All primary burials were extended and supine, but orientation was variable. After the items needed in the Underworld had been placed in the crypt, large capstones were put over the top and the floor replaced. Often these crypts were reused several times and later burials caused disturbance to the lower/earlier individuals. In these cases the orientation of the second burial was reversed from the first. Men, women, and children have been found together in the same crypt, indicating some crypts were perhaps created for domestic groups, such as lineages, as opposed to specific individuals.
Ten of the twenty-four individuals had mortuary ceramic vessels associated with their interment. Because some of the Yaxuna IVa burials were clearly disturbed by Sotuta peoples during Yaxuna IVb, it is likely that an even higher number of burials originally contained ceramic offerings. The most common placement was over the skull, but vessels were also placed over the chest and pelvis. The burial goods of women (n=15) were much more consistent than those of men (n=7); in nearly all female interments a shell pendant was found in the pelvic region, and bone from the tibia of the white-tailed deer was found along the lower half of the body. These pendants are trapezoidal with two holes at the narrow end for suspension and are made of Spondylus americanus shell. Landa describes that young girls wore these pendants below the waist and that they were removed at marriage (Tozzer 1941). Men were buried with a greater diversity of grave items that often reflected their occupation as warriors, shamans, or healers. Obsidian bladelets were common in male burials, as were unique items such as poison bottles, star-shaped jewelry, and small sastuns, or divining stones.
Like most ancient populations in Mesoamerica, females were smaller in stature and suffered more malnutrition, as evidenced in a higher percentage of gumline caries and macrohypoplasia (Bennett 1994: 105). The entire population appears to have had a diet based on carbohydrates, which caused a high percentage of adult gumline caries, although the incidence of childhood malnutrition seems fairly low (Bennett 1994: 105). This suggests that nursing children received sufficient calories but that the overall diet of the adult population was low in protein and high in com or other starches. Life expectancy was shorter for women than for men, and we have no evidence of a woman living beyond thirty-five years, although all appear to have died of natural causes. A number of men seem to have lived to be more than forty-five years of age. Both men and women practiced culturally specific cranial deformation, with no discernible differences in style, and both men and women modified their teeth with filing, although only men had hematite inlays.
World History
