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A Case Study of Funerary Cave Use from Je’reftheel, Central Belize

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The Bioarchaeology of Space and Place

Abstract

Bioarchaeological analysis of mortuary deposits from Je’reftheel, a small cave located in the Roaring Creek Works of central Belize, focused on characterizing the nature of mortuary activities conducted in the cave to determine whether the site was used for funerary or sacrificial purposes. In contrasting caves and cenotes, ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and epigraphic accounts of cave use by the Maya fairly consistently mention mortuary events that occur in caves, as funerary. The combined osteological and isotopic analyses from Je’reftheel are also consistent with models of funerary behavior among the Maya. The skeletal deposits comprise both primary, articulated bodies, and secondary deposits. Other data suggest that most of the individuals were of local origin and may have been closely related. Together, these results provide a strong analogy to funerary behavior documented in tombs throughout the Maya region and beyond.

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Acknowledgements

Fieldschool students and staff from the 2009 and 2010 Caves Branch Archaeological Survey project; Jaime Awe, Rafael Guerra, and the Belize Institute of Archaeology; Sherry Gibbs, Julie Nehammer Knub, Marie Danforth, Holley Moyes, Shawn Morton; Drew Coleman, Paul Fullagar, and Jennifer A. Poole of the University of North Carolina Department of Geological Sciences, James H. Burton and T. Douglas Price of the University of Wisconsin—Madison Laboratory for Archaeological Chemistry; Last but not least, Springfield and Armenia villages.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, Michigan State University, 408 Giltner Hall, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Gabriel D. Wrobel

  2. Department of American Indian Languages and Cultures, Institute of Cross-cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen S, 2300, Denmark

    Christophe Helmke

  3. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, 38677-1848, USA

    Carolyn Freiwald

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  1. Gabriel D. Wrobel
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  2. Christophe Helmke
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Correspondence to Gabriel D. Wrobel .

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  1. Department of Anthropology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA

    Gabriel D. Wrobel

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Wrobel, G., Helmke, C., Freiwald, C. (2014). A Case Study of Funerary Cave Use from Je’reftheel, Central Belize. In: Wrobel, G. (eds) The Bioarchaeology of Space and Place. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0479-2_4

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