Bones of the Maya : studies of ancient skeletons.

Reed, David M., Whittington, Stephen L.

ISBN 10: 1560986840 / ISBN 13: 9781560986843

Published by Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997

About this Item

Washington, D.C. : Smithonian Institution Press, 1997. Orig. cloth binding. Dustjacket. xi, 290 p. : ill., maps ; 26 cm. 'Collection defines current state of Mayan skeletal studies. Coverage spans the formative through colonial periods, with a geographic focus on the Maya lowlands of northern Guatemala, Belize, and western Honduras. Includes osteological, dental, bone chemistry, and DNA analyses. Diet and health status of Maya populations is a major theme, especially in relation to social status, gender, and the historical problem of the 'collapse.''--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57. Includes bibliographical references (p. 261-285) and index. Condition : very good copy. ISBN 9781560986843. Keywords : , Human remains (Archaeology) -- Mexico.

Seller Inventory # 173735

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Bones of the Maya : studies of ancient skeletons.
• Publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press
• Publication Date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1560986840
• ISBN 13: 9781560986843
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: very good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis

In the ninth century, southern lowland Maya civilization went into a mysterious decline. Despite the wealth of information that bones could potentially provide towards explaining the collapse, bioarchaeologists have been traditionally unable to study Maya bones because the tropical climate and uninformed excavations have resulted in decomposed, poorly collected samples. But during the last twenty years, new techniques in osteology have yielded finds on Maya diet and health that challenge the accepted ecological model of overpopulation and overcultivation leading to collapse. Fifteen essays on skeltons from a wide range of sites in Mexico and Central America address such subjects as cranial deforamtion, tooth filing, damage caused by sacrificial rites and evidence of nutritional and infectious diseases. What emerges is a picture of regional variation and the importance of local context in order to reconstruct ancinet Maya culture and explain its demise.

Book Description

This volume, which includes an indexed bibliography of the first 150 years of Maya osteology, pulls together for the first time a broad spectrum of bioarchaeologists that reveal remarkable data on Maya genetic relationship, demographic, and diseases.