Paleodemographics of Child Sacrifice at Midnight Terror Cave: Reformulating the Emphasis of Maya Sacrificial Practices
| Autor: | James E. Brady, Michael G. Prout |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
010506 paleontology
geography.geographical_feature_category 060102 archaeology Osteology Minimum number of individuals 06 humanities and the arts General Medicine 01 natural sciences Archaeology Geography Cave Midnight parasitic diseases Sacrifice Mortality curve Assemblage (archaeology) Maya 0601 history and archaeology 0105 earth and related environmental sciences |
| Zdroj: | Archaeological Discovery. :1-20 |
| ISSN: | 2331-1967 2331-1959 2008-2010 |
| Popis: | Investigations of Midnight Terror Cave, Belize between 2008-2010 recovered a human osteological assemblage of over 10,000 bones, the largest reported for a cave in the southern Maya lowlands. Analysis indicates that approximately a quarter of the bones belong to subadults, which make up 43% of the minimum number of individuals (MNI). Determination of age at death produced a mortality curve that differs significantly from a normal curve with the numbers peaking between 5 - 10 years of age, when mortality is generally low. These figures are similar to those produced from the Cenote of Sacrifice at Chichen Itza. The large percentage of subadults suggests that children were much more important in Maya human sacrificial practices than generally recognized. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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